Natalie Allesee’s handmade Herb Laminated Tagliatelle features a chèvre beurre blanc sauce and maitake mushrooms, and is topped with sorrel. Photos: Chris Emeott
Local families enjoy personalized food experiences.
For Woodbury’s Berit Coleman, Rowan & Dough couldn’t have entered the meal prep market at a more apropos time. “We were looking for private meal prep for some health challenges,” she says. After reading reviews and getting personal recommendations, Coleman decided to give the St. Paul company a try. “They have experience working with medical conditions—low salt, low carb, etc.,” she says. That was last January, and the Colemans haven’t looked back. “It’s so worth it for good health,” Berit says.
Natalie Allesee is the founder and owner of Rowan & Dough. Simply put, Allesee loves cooking for people—including several families in Woodbury. Whether it’s creating personalized meal prep options, cooking a private dinner or teaching culinary classes, Allesee is all about creating exceptional food experiences. “I love the creativity and flow of putting food together,” she says.
Natalie Allesee is the face behind Rowan & Dough, offering culinary classes, meal prep services and private dining.
A Chef’s Journey
Allesee has 15 years of restaurant experience under her belt, but the love of food and her entrepreneurial spirit go back much further. “I was the kid trying to sell cans of soup on my front lawn,” she says. “I was always trying something.” In college, Allesee joined the rugby team, but found more joy in cooking elaborate meals for her teammates than studying, so she traded the University of Minnesota–Duluth for Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Minneapolis/St.Paul. “I loved it,” she says.
Allesee landed her first restaurant gig at The Signature Café in Minneapolis’s Prospect Park. There, she saw “all the ins and outs,” she says, of the restaurant business. “It’s fascinating to have a job where you never stop learning,” she says. She went on to work at Trotter’s Cafe in St. Paul and then the Birchwood Café in Minneapolis. “Everything was locally sourced there,” she says. “I met so many of the farmers I still use to this day.”
From the Birchwood Café, now closed, Allesee landed a spot at Lenny Russo’s James Beard Award-nominated Heartland restaurant in St. Paul. “That’s truly where I fell in love with food,” Allesee says. With its daily-changing menu and no recipes to follow, she learned how to create dishes based on “intuition, feel, taste and pure adrenaline,” she says. “It was a high-octane environment.”
“We were always creating something from scratch,” Allesee says. “You had to be vigilant about making sure the food not only tasted good but sounded good … Talk about really putting love into something.”
Asparagus with pancetta, Gruyére fonduta, lemon and herb oil.
Allesee started at Heartland as a prep cook and had worked her way up to senior sous chef at the time of the restaurant’s closing in 2016. Not long after Heartland’s closing, Allesee took a break from restaurants but not from cooking. “I read cookbooks and played with recipes,” she says.
Planting Seeds
After stints in Duluth and coastal Maine, COVID-19 brought Allesee back to Minnesota in summer 2020, when she started working at Waldmann Brewery & Restaurant in St. Paul. There, she helped develop a Community Supported Brewing Program akin to Community Supported Agriculture programs, in which Allesee would prepare four weekly take-home meals to be paired with a crowler of beer. “We ended up breaking sales records,” she says. “That planted the seed for what a prepared take-home meal can be.”
With that notion still swimming around in the back of her head, Allesee took an executive chef position at The Lynhall in Edina. “I loved it so much—the oversight, the administration, creating menu items—but I really missed cooking,” she says. “After two years, I put my notice in.” Allesee didn’t have a plan for herself, but the universe did. “A friend asked me to come in and cook dinner for them,” she says. “And then they referred me to someone else. I kept saying, ‘Yes.’”
Rowan & Dough launched in 2023, offering culinary classes, meal prep services and private dining opportunities. The name is a combination of Allesee’s favorite things: her golden retriever, Rowan, and dough.
Palate Pleasing
In the two-plus years since starting the business, Allesee has added two employees and creates weekly meal prep kits for 45 families, many of which live in Woodbury. “The set menu changes each week,” she says. “We are as hyperlocal as we can get.”
This salad features purple carrot, watermelon radish, cucumber, goat cheese and granola.
Allesee can customize meals to suit just about anyone, including those who are autoimmune restricted or who follow a low-FODMAP diet, have celiac disease or are vegan. “We take the time to learn all about people’s palates and preferences,” she says.
After a year of dining on Allesee’s creations, Coleman and her family have their favorites. “We love the Beef and Vegetable Cabbage Wrap with Coconut Curry,” she says. “The kids love her meatballs. It’s beef, onion and carrot with a nice spice to it. And the roasted carrots; the way she uses spices and herbs really elevates them.”
Each week, Coleman selects three meals from an average of eight to nine options created for them. “We choose three proteins, three vegetables and two sauces,” she says. Coleman loves the program’s convenience, noting that it allows them to focus on family instead of stressing about grocery shopping or cooking. “It streamlines things at dinnertime,” she says. “It feels like you’re treating yourself, but it’s high value, absolutely worth the price.”
Striving for the Best
The Colemans have also hired Rowan & Dough for a combination culinary class/private dinner where Allesee taught them knife skills that they used to prep the vegetables for their meal. “She’s so passionate about food and people loving to cook,” Coleman says of Allesee. “She’s very well trained. It was a great experience.”
Salmon Crudo with strawberry consommé, pea shoots and radish.
Allesee hopes to keep growing Rowan & Dough’s presence in the Twin Cities, adding to her meal prep options and taking on more private dinners. She also dreams of someday opening a Rowan & Dough storefront with a small event space that could host dining pop-ups, taking inspiration from chef Jamie Malone’s Paris Dining Club.
But all of that is in the future. Right now, Allesee is focused on giving her all to her clients. “I don’t need to be the biggest,” she says. “I want to be the best.”
Rowan & Dough
Instagram: @rowananddough
