Author Heather Turner has had twenty years of experience in the food service industry as cook and chef, followed by (to date) 20 years of working as a consultant to the industry. She has also been a volunteer SCORE mentor since 2018, assisting and advising new and existing businesses from all types of industries, including several dozen restaurants.
Heather started her cooking career at 14, getting her work permit and escaping from High School a few years early, then taking her final Regents Exams and going to work full time. She started working as a prep/line cook at City Fare/Cafe Biondo in Kingston, NY, an upscale gourmet market, cafe and catering company. She worked for a summer at Rudi’s Big Indian in Big Indian, NY before moving to Connecticut to work as a line cook at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury before being accepted to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
During her time at the CIA, she did a short externship at Red Feather Lakes Country Club in Red Feather Lakes, CO followed by an extended externship at Trapp Family Lodging in Stowe, VT (and returned to work there after graduation). During her student years at the Culinary, Heather worked for several catering operations in CT and NY, including Garrison Conference Center on Long Island and Lime Rock Race Track in Lime Rock, CT. She also continued to work as needed at City Fare’s catering operation for events. Like many culinary students, she also worked at any restaurants where fellow students had jobs that needed temporary workers for a few nights or as extra staff for catering events.
Following her work at Trapp Family Lodge, Heather was the sous chef at Ten Acres Lodge in Stowe, leaving there to become the chef de cuisine at Le Cheval D’Or in Jeffersonville, VT. There she worked under Chef Yves Labbé, one of the Great Chefs of America. Heather was lured away from Le Cheval D’Or by the opening of a new gourmet market and catering operation in Stowe, VT called Harvest Market, where she worked as the chef for several years before being offered the Executive Chef’s position at The Cliff House at Stowe Mountain Resort. Heather stayed there for one season before being offered the position as head chef at Bellini’s Restaurant in Montpelier, VT, run by a fellow CIA alumni. After Bellini’s Heather worked as the chef at The Net Result in South Burlington, VT.
Heather and her family moved to Cape Cod in the early 2000s where Heather was the chef at the Old Inn at West Dennis until, after 3 months without a day off and working over 90 hours a week, she developed high blood pressure and an ulcer. At that point, Heather got out of the restaurant business and started her own business, doing so with the mentorship and help of a SCORE mentor.
Since 2003, Heather has owned Forfeng Designs, a marketing and hospitality consulting company. She is a content speaker at a variety of conferences across the United States and teaches an average of two workshops per week, some as a SCORE presenter and others for private businesses, business associations, and chambers of commerce.
She has provided consulting services to many restaurants nationwide, assisting with various aspects such as business plans, employee training, customer service, and menu development. Heather is currently the Co-Chair of SCORE Granite Region and the Chapter Workshop Chair, Social Media Chair and a member of the SCORE AI National Development Workgroup and is on the Food Truck National Workgroup. She has earned three Distinguished Toastmaster Awards from Toastmasters International, and the New Hampshire U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) awarded her the New Hampshire Small Business Champion Award in 2022. She is also a certified TIPS® (Training for Intervention ProcedureS) trainer.
In her spare time, Heather loves mentoring for SCORE, volunteering for several other non-profits, kayaking, messing around in her art studio/office, carousing with her dogs and anything Sci-fi.