ANNOUNCING THE WOMAN OF THE MONTH

Meet July’s Fort Worth Woman! Callie Salls grew up in Hyde Park in Austin and later grew her love for Fort Worth after attending Texas Christian University. To say Callie knows food is an understatement. She is a local Chef, a foodie advocate mommy, and the owner of meyer & sage, a multi-level brand, here in town.

As a self-described “Austinite”, Callie describes her childhood as very “hippie”. She further states, “Sprouted bread, organic vegetables, cantaloupe, and crème fraiche were on standby but we also rocked the local brick oven pizza and street tacos on the weekends when my father was working.” Growing up, Callie describes that her parents worked seven days a week. She introspectively shares, “My mother was always the last parent to pick me up from after-school care. I never understood it until I was working for myself. She was working. Trying to make a life for me. My father worked out of town five days a week, every week. Most parents thought my parents were divorced or I was adopted. Nope. They were hustling. Amidst the hustle, I remember a lot of imagination: playing alone, creating scenarios, helping my mom unload groceries, putting dinner together, and helping my father grill on Sundays.”

As she graduated from high school, Callie chose to continue her education at TCU here in Fort Worth. She was one of the first in her extended family to go to a different college and graduated in 2007 with a degree in Journalism – specializing in Advertising/PR. For anyone who graduated college in that timeframe, you know that despite the rich internships available or even a 3.9 GPA, finding a full-time job was unlikely. Callie started her initial employment season working as a type-setter for a local stationary shop while continuing the search for her “career” job. This is when her passionate journey with food began as she stumbled across a local culinary school and as she describes, “fell in love”.

Callie describes her time in culinary school in further detail, “Within 3 years, I graduated from culinary school, began assistant instructing, started a food and recipes blog, was working on the line cooking at Lili’s Bistro on Magnolia and began my own personal chef business: Linguine & Dirty Martinis. I started the business with $1000  that was gifted by my father to start a website domain, buy some equipment and get help with photos and press releases.” That is how the magic began. She took what she had, began building, and hasn’t stopped since.

Growth happened naturally as Fort Worth families fell in love with Callie’s fresh ingredients and delicious cooking. Callie states, “My first couple years, I was cooking alone as the personal chef for ten local families along with helping with special events. I then slowly began to hire other chefs under the brand. At one point, we had six personal chefs cooking for about seventy local families a week in their homes. The personal chef service is still in operation, now under the meyer & sage brand, and is headed up by seasoned chef and great friend- Carrie Dearden.”

Where Callie has truly blossomed is in her gift to continually add extensions to her brand that fit the needs of Fort Worth families. Also, having her husband Allan next to her as her most trusted confidant and business partner adds to her success in such growth. Callie describes, “After we felt like the personal chef service had reached it’s capacity, my husband had the idea to begin a meal delivery service out of a commercial kitchen with a team of chefs. We found a commercial kitchen, signed a lease, and began seven years ago this July. Our current chef team is led by Chef Eric Hernandez. He’s such an amazing chef with incredible integrity.”

The magic of everything that happens under the meyer & sage brand is in the details. High-quality ingredients and making everything from scratch is what sets Callie’s business apart from the rest. Callie proudly states, “we don’t take shortcuts on food ingredient integrity or our cooking process. For example, all of our vinaigrettes are made with high quality avocado and olive oils, we make our aioli from scratch, we use organic & pastured eggs and chicken, wild-caught seafood, and organic produce whenever possible. We also deliver our meals in glass pyrex dishes or sustainable and earth-friendly compostable containers.”

When you get Callie started on food, her heart and intentions shine through. She passionately states, “What GOES in our food is becoming increasingly more important than eating “healthy” food, in my opinion. If we visit a restaurant and order a kale salad with chicken, is it really, “healthy?”

Is the chicken organic, local or pastured?

Or is it conventional, inexpensive and shot with antibiotics and steroids?

Is the kale organic?

Or is it ridden with sprays and pesticides?

Is the vinaigrette made with low-quality and inflammatory seed oils? Conventional sugar?

Or is it store-bought with 50 ingredients?

Meyer & Sage keeps it simple. We use organic & pastured chicken, organic kale, and we make our own vinaigrette with avocado oil, fresh citrus, whole grain mustard and spices. Your body will know the difference.”

A few years in to the meal delivery service, about four years ago, it became time for meyer & sage to expand once again. Callie and her team opened their first brick & mortar Organic Grab & Go Shop. The intent was to allow meyer & sage to be accessible to the general public while also providing a taste of the delivery service by offering personal-sized portions of all of the meal delivery service offerings – including ready-to-eat salads, dips, snacks, frozen scratch-made soups, local MELT Ice Creams and ready-to-heat entrees and sides. All things local matter to meyer & sage. Callie describes further, “We also offer an array of retail from local vendors including artwork, decor as well as a semi-private dining room for private events. We are located in The Foundry District and have three wonderful retail associates- Kelly, Kearstin & Yahaira.”

When you meet Callie, you experience her passion, heart, and trials all at once. She is transparent, vulnerable, brave, and a true delight. As she openly describes her journey she states, “They say the food industry ages you. I’m thirteen years in and the last ten years have been the most risk-taking, tiresome, joyful, fearful, empty, inspiring, productive and fulfilling years of my life. We’ve been through dead slow summers while clients are traveling, staffing shortages, cooking sixteen hours on our feet alone, fear, betrayal, loneliness and depression. We also have so much to be thankful for.  This past year, my husband and I have also expanded our own family when we welcomed our son last March. I’ve been making his meals since five months old and continue to do so.” Her passion for food is growing (literally) her family in the healthiest way as well as teaching Fort Worth the conscientiousness that what we put in our bodies, matters.

What Callie loves about Fort Worth is that it is common denominator to all of her favorite things and biggest moments. She describes further saying, “Fort Worth is where my personal life, business life, an family life all came together. I thank Fort Worth for those opportunities and the diverse individuals I have met along the way.” 

Truth is the striking word Callie uses to describe her impact as a businesswoman in Fort Worth. Her business, cooking, and education are all intended to share the truth about the importance of ingredients for both your health and the future of our children. Callie boldly states, “If all else fails – I know I have served our city with the best ingredients and cooking practices we should strive for.”

Callie, from me to you and in the words of my own mother, “who you are makes a difference”. Your passion, truth, and desire for awareness is changing our city one meal at a time. Thankfully for all of us there are so many ways to experience the quality of meyer & sage. You can stop by the grab & go shop (located in The Foundry District), you can sign up for the meal delivery service, or you can follow @calliesalls on Instagram for a sneak peak of personal recipes, including wellness tips. Keep an eye on this one, she is currently also working on a personal branded project- coming soon! www.calliesalls.com – will be a daily lifestyle blog focusing on wellness, life with a toddler, baby-led weaning and personal recipes for all occasions.