From serving coffee as a kid in his grandmother’s small-town Vermont restaurant to being a farmer-chef running his own catering business, Chef Karl Holl is all about connection: connecting where he is to what he’s cooking, connecting the food on the plate to where it comes from and connecting his past with his present. In 2018, Portland Monthly named Holl Chef of the Year, calling him a “bootstrapping chef” who was redefining farm-to-table cooking.

In early 2023, Holl became the executive head chef at Brasada Ranch, a 1,800-acre resort in Powell Butte, just outside Bend. Recently named a Condé Nast Readers’ Choice award winner, the modern, luxurious ranch resort offers upscale accommodations, a range of outdoor activities against a Cascade Mountain backdrop, and many dining options. Chef Holl has spent the past year bringing his sense of connection to the restaurants, bars, and poolside snack shacks throughout the property.

For example, Cascade by the Sea at the adults’ pool is now an ingenious seafood shack featuring everything from Oregon Dungeness crab to Maine lobster, shrimp burgers, and Old Bay fries. Being a new father himself, Chef Holl is proud of the family and kid-friendly menu at The Ranch House Restaurant, featuring party-style pizzas, apps, salads, sandwiches, and burgers. He’s also been spending a lot of time bringing a sense of place, seasonality, and locally grown foods to the menu at the Ranch’s fine-dining Range Restaurant.

Your restaurant roots run deep.

My hardworking German grandmother immigrated and settled in a small town in Vermont. She owned a family-friendly restaurant where they had the classic fish fry on Friday nights and served prime rib on Saturday nights. My mom worked there, and as a kid, I served coffee and cracked eggs in the mornings.

Sounds like that experience made an impression on you.

Yes, and by the time I was in high school, I started cooking in a little diner. I wasn’t the best student. I was maybe a little rebellious and found myself loving to cook more than attending classes, so I started a work program with the school. The only thing I felt good about was cooking. I ended up in the culinary program at the New England Culinary Institute.

Your culinary career was underway.

Early in culinary school, someone told me what you put in is what you get out. I was paying a lot of money for culinary school, so I put a lot into it in hopes of getting a lot out of it. After school, I worked on Hilton Head Island for a while, then decided to head west. I wanted to get as far away from home as possible!

It seems you really connected with the West Coast.

I ended up spending ten years cooking in the Bay area, working in Napa Valley at the Martini House Restaurant and at San Francisco’s Perbacco Ristorante as the Chef de Cuisine, learning and cooking Northern Italian food. I fell in love with that cuisine and its connection to German cuisine, which connected me back to my family roots.

It’s funny how things often come back around.

As you grow older as a chef, you realize how you connect with your food a little more and how that translates to a plate. That connection helps with creativity. For example, I recently created a new dish at Brasada with whipped brie that we brûlée with ricotta and speck (a cured and lightly smoked ham, like bacon), which ties in with my German heritage. I’ve always had a real connection to where food comes from, cooking in a place and telling its story.

Before coming to Brasada in early 2023, you spent a decade working with your brother in Portland. Talk about that experience.

For the ten years before COVID, my brother and I ran a business called Spatzle + Speck. We were catering Oregon wine country experiences among other things. We cooked from the farm, incorporating the produce and animals we raised and telling the story of each season. I had always dreamt of growing and raising everything I cooked. We lived how we saw supporting a local food system would be and were cooking with heart and intent to tell a story. Then, the pandemic hit, and our world was flipped upside down.

That must have been a lot to navigate.

It was. Then, in 2021, I had a baby and cooked for a pro athlete for a while. I landed a job in wine country, where they raised animals and grew veggies on a 600-acre farm. My brother and his wife moved back to Vermont. He’s now farming there and raising pigs.

Having a child can be life-altering!

Yes, it made a lot of things different! I also recently got married and realized I wanted to raise my daughter in a smaller town and take a different approach to cooking. So, when the Brasada opportunity came up after the holidays in 2023, I saw it as an opportunity. I was up for the challenge and ready to return to creating every day.

Working for a resort seems quite different from running your own farm-to-table business.

Resorts don’t always have that “local” sense, but for me, it’s second nature to be thinking like that. I felt like coming here was an opportunity to really shine. I’ve spent the last year asking the questions, “What is Central Oregon? Who are my farmers here?” And I’m working on building those relationships and immersing myself in the community. There’s the connection I love out here. And I want to spend even more time foraging, picking mushrooms, etc. Everyone thinks it’s easy, but it takes time.

It sounds like you’ve been making changes.

I can confidently say we have a full, new culinary program here at Brasada Ranch with new food and beverage experiences throughout the property. People can expect a completely different Brasada: elevated menus, local products, fireside s’mores, and beautiful views.

So, you’re feeling good about things?

I’m proud of the things we’ve changed. It’s a lot to ask … to come in and say, “This is how we’re doing it now.” It took time to build a culture and a team. It means showing up every day and supporting the staff. Seeing the team come around and be here for each other has been amazing. I think the most important thing about being successful is having the team supported and then everything else comes. It takes a lot to make change, and I feel like we’ve made it and are ready to share it.

It's been a big year of change for you as well. How does it feel?

There are so many avenues here and different experiences that I get to be creative with, from corporate events to weddings and holiday parties to the daily experiences across the property. This is a big culinary playground, and it’s fun. From creating the Central-Oregon-inspired menu at the Range and telling that story and supporting the local farms to developing The Ranch House menu, which is more casual and family-friendly. It’s really rewarding. You can have lunch at one place, a snack at the pool or dinner at another one of our restaurants. I’m super excited about all of it and am looking forward to all the 2024 holidays and events: Mother’s Day, Easter, the 4^th of July, a Harvest series we have planned in September, etc. We’re working hard on all those menus.

Brasada Ranch is a modern, high-desert luxury retreat at 16986 SW Brasada Ranch Road in Powell Butte, OR. It offers stunning mountain views, upscale accommodations, golf and other outdoor activities, and seasonally inspired fine and casual dining.