Not the retiring types
AT KENDALL | At 75, Lake Forest couple graduates and starts catering biz
Bobbie and Roland Vogel weren't unlike other long-married couples looking to leave stale careers and embark together on a new entrepreneurial adventure.
Bobbie had a passion for cooking and Roland had a bent toward baking, so they decided to enroll at Kendall College's School of Culinary Arts last year to build toward starting a catering business.
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At 75 years old, the two graduated from Kendall with "personal chef and catering" certificates last month and already have launched Apron Strings from their Lake Forest home, serving up entrees in the northern suburbs that include mustard roasted pork loin with fresh plum compote and baby lamb chops with Madeira sauce.
"It's kind of a strange retirement," said Bobbie, acknowledging that she and her husband have "retired" in the past only to wind up doing something interesting again. They've each had five or six different careers, from selling medical books to jointly owning a River Forest art gallery to working for a dental association.
They're easily bored, though not with each other. They've been married for 54 years, tying the knot just after graduating from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., where they first met. Three kids and five grandchildren later, they decided last year, to the amazement of friends, that it was a good time to enroll at Kendall.
"We've always entertained," Bobbie said in explaining the decision.
Roland added, "We seemed to be able to pick good menus that our clients and friends always enjoyed."
Bobbie said in summary, "What he means is we'd like to make a living at it."
Roland, who applied to several cooking schools and felt most of them shut the couple out because of their age, was eager to attend Kendall after an interview and tour. They're likely the oldest students ever to graduate from the cooking program, said Chris Koetke, who has worked at Kendall for 11 years and has been dean of the culinary school for the past four.
"The world of food service is so huge," said Koetke, who appreciated the maturity and positive attitude that the Vogels brought to classes. "There's always an opportunity for everyone to find their niche."
The couple would leave home at 3:30 p.m. three nights a week to be at Kendall's downtown Chicago campus for an early dinner at the school's student-run dining room and to class by 6 p.m., not returning home until about midnight. Mornings were no time for sleeping in because Roland was working from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in a high school cafeteria to get serving experience while Bobbie had volunteer duties.
Even before wrapping up courses at Kendall in March, they were touting their Apron Strings slogan: "We wear aprons so you don't have to." With six jobs behind them now, they expect to handle three or four a month in the future, serving "elegant dinner parties," brunches or even hor d'oeuvres for book club gatherings. Prices range from $50 to $75 a person for a five-course meal, excluding alcohol.
The hardest part is waiting for new catering assignments to come in, Bobbie said.
"It's like 'bring it on,' " she said. "I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up."
Recently, Bobbie whipped up a sandwich loaf made with egg, tuna and ham salads, frosted with cream cheese and decorated with real, edible pansies for a ladies luncheon and served it alongside a fruit salad with honey lemon dressing before a dessert of all-white angel food cake, sherried strawberries and whipped cream.
In the past, the Vogels wanted to own a restaurant, but something always went wrong with the plan. Now, they like the idea of being able to cherry-pick their catering assignments. Still, they're not ruling out the restaurant idea.
"We certainly are not about to say it will never happen," Bobbie said.
Lynne Marek is a local free-lance writer.