Austin Doll. Let's put it this way: If you've got a daughter, Austin is the guy you hope she'll bring home one day. Or maybe this way: If you're an employer—any employer—Austin is your guy. Or maybe just: Vote for Doll! For what? Doesn't matter. He'll be good at anything—that's the thing about Austin. He came to us from Indiana, where he'd just wrapped up his degree in Hospitality and Food Management & Marketing at Ball State University. His studies put him on the line in many a kitchen, and on the floor in big executive dining rooms not entirely like Meadow Lark—including, for instance, those at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Hershey Entertainment & Resorts. But apparently the race cars and even Hershey's 'Circular Dining Room' did not provide enough excitement: Austin spent his school breaks milking cows on family farms, and otherwise kept busy as his Slow Food chapter's student liason, and coordinating donations and collections for local food banks. At Meadow Lark, Austin became Bella's best friend, squeezing her unscathed through narrow passageways and always positioning her just right so that her work surface was exactly level. More importantly, his enthusiasm for everything we do was infectious—he even got Mackenzie to plunge across a river on a rope swing!

Dakota Soifer. In 2009, Dakota came on board our kitchen bus, and our Meadow Lark troupe was eager to follow his lead. Before joining Meadow Lark, Dakota cooked and learned at Zuni Café, in San Francisco; at Julia’s Kitchen, the restaurant of Copia, the Napa Institute of Food and Culture; and at The Kitchen, here in Boulder. He was also this close to landing a plum job as back-up dancer for Mariah Carey. Now, Dakota is serving up small plates of Mediterranean-inspired fare, prepared from ingredients sourced as locally as possible, at his own restaurant: Café Aion.

Jamyra Brown. Jamyra came to Meadow Lark from the middle of the Midwest, Iowa City, Iowa, where she helped open a falafel restaurant—yes, a falafel restaurant. Anyone who can proselytize so successfully for truly great hummus is a hero of ours. And, when she wasn’t assessing the chickpeas or tahini, she was completing culinary school and selling beautiful artisanally produced cheeses, or, as she puts it, “killer barnyard stuff.”

Katrina Mohr. If you happen to subscribe to Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine, Alpinist magazine, or the Boulder Daily Camera, you might already know Katrina’s work. What you didn’t know, though, is that she wields her chef’s knife just as deftly as her pen. She’s been working in the restaurant business since she was wee little—she’s done just about every job in just about every sort of dining establishment. We were thrilled to steal her away from her position as a mountain-top pastry chef in Jackson Hole.

Henry Raphael Hirsh. Henry is a highly perceptive, if not particularly knowledgeable, sommelier; what he lacks in education and communication skills, he compensates for with a wonderful freshness of perspective, a sensitive nose, and terrifically chubby toes. He also enjoys his role as Katrina’s straightman.