------Margaret Hale Vincent

Margaret Vincent, also known as “The Chef Next Door”, is a classically trained chef originally from Birmingham, Alabama.  Being a true Southern girl, she discovered her love of cooking at a very young age and learned to cook at her mother’s apron strings. Margaret graduated from the University of Alabama in 2008 with a Bachelor’s degree in Restaurant and Hospitality Management.

 

While earning her degree, Margaret spent her summers and Christmas breaks training under Chris Dupont, one of the top chefs and restaurateurs in Birmingham. She developed a very strong background in fine-dining cuisine and catered functions, while truly deepening her love for fresh, local, delicious, and beautiful food.

 

Margaret continued her education and graduated at the top of her class from Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College in 2009 with an Advanced Culinary Arts degree. Margaret then relocated to Huntsville and accepted a position as the Catering Director for Huntsville Hospital. This is where she quickly discovered her desire to combine all of her knowledge, skills, experience, and creativity to start her own restaurant and catering business.

 

The next decade of her life was a blur of catering some of Huntsville's largest, most prestigious events and weddings, owning and operating a popular lunch restaurant, The Marketplace Cafe, teaching cooking classes, hosting private events at her restaurant venue, building a third successful business of a collaborative wedding vendor meeting studio, establishing lifelong friendships and "fans" and growing to become one of the well-known culinary queens of North Alabama.

 

A divorce and total life re-start brought her back to Birmingham, where she landed a position with Meredith Corporation, the headquarters of Southern Living and Food and Wine magazines, as an event coordinator and food styling assistant, a job she had daydreamed of her entire adult life. She thrived and enjoyed 6 brief months of this position before Covid sent everyone home. During her furlough, Chef Margaret once again got to work and rebuilt her career as a private chef and built a totally new brand with a fresh, gourmet meal delivery system.  Fast forward three more years, Chef Margaret is still cheffing and cooking and delivering for 50+ families and enjoying life with her new husband in Trussville, AL.

 

Very simply put, Margaret has loved to cook and entertain her entire life and anyone who knows her would testify to her passion and devotion to her craft.