Amelia Telc began her meandering culinary career at trendy restaurants in two big cities famous for their food: San Francisco and New York. Now she has settled in the tiny town of Tomales, where she’s forging a new path as a pop-up chef.

Ms. Telc—pronounced Telch—rolled into town last fall without a detailed blueprint for what would happen next. She knew she wanted to cook, but she had no idea whose kitchen she would land in. Turns out, she’s landed in a bunch, cobbling together pop-ups and catering gigs that have been a welcome addition to a town that lost its only full-service restaurant a year and a half ago, when the William Tell House closed.

She calls her new business Half Hitch, after a particular type of barbed wire, of which there are countless varieties. 

“Given the ranching history of Tomales, it just seemed like a natural fit,” said Ms. Telc, who so far has done gigs with varied menus at the Route One Bakery and Kitchen, the Tomales Town Hall and the Casino in Bodega Bay, among others. 

Ms. Telc began her career as a pastry chef in San Francisco, doing stints at Tartine Bakery and Magnolia’s. Before coming to Tomales, she had been running a pop-up restaurant in her hometown of Santa Cruz with her partner, Max Laurance, who’s a wine guy. He wanted to move closer to the heart of wine country. They spent about six months looking for a place and finally landed an affordable—and large—house in Tomales.

Shortly after they moved in, Max turned on Google Earth and searched for nearby places where Amelia might be able to do some cooking. That’s how they came across the Route One Bakery and Kitchen, a short stroll from their new home. He sent an email to the co-owner, Jan Lee, who put them in touch with her partner, Shannon Gregory, who also owns the Marshall Store.

“Max is very scrappy and has no shame, which is a great quality,” Ms. Telc said.

One thing led to another, and soon Ms. Telc was cooking dinner on Fridays and Saturdays at the bakery, which serves breakfast and lunch but typically closes at 3 p.m. 

She cooked Asian food on Fridays and a variety of other cuisines on Saturdays but stopped when the rainy season arrived. (Seating at the bakery is outdoors only.) She plans to cook there once a month when the weather improves.

“Amelia made food a rancher would like and food that a vegetarian would like,” said Denise Brown, a member of the Tomales Town Hall board. “All of us locals were like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a pop-up in town! We don’t have to drive!’”

Ms. Brown, who calls herself  a “meat and taters gal,” ordered the ribs on her first visit but also ventured into vegetarian territory, a place she rarely visits. “Amelia made this tofu dish with spicy sauce on top. It’s making my mouth water right now, to tell you the truth.”

Ms. Telc’s family brings together disparate culinary influences. Her mother is from China and her father’s parents came to the United States from Estonia. Her European grandmother lived for a time in Vienna, where she learned to cook sachertortes and other European desserts, a skill she passed on to Ms. Telc. 

Her biggest dinner yet since moving to West Marin was a Lunar New Year feast last month to usher in the Year of the Dragon at the Tomales Town Hall. On the menu: hot shrimp chips with black vinegar, chili oil and garlic; pork and ginger dumplings; spicy dan dan noodles with sesame sauce and gai lan; stir-fried Dungeness crab in ginger scallion sauce; Napa cabbage and cucumber salad; and lychee rose and raspberry pavlova. 

“I was incredibly nervous that nobody was going to come,” Ms. Telc said. “But we sold all 100 tickets.”

Many of those were purchased on the last day, causing a bit of a scramble to make sure she had enough food. Cooking in a new kitchen also posed some challenges, said Natalie Rubin, the head baker and manager of Route One Bakery and Kitchen, who helped that night.

“Every kitchen has quirks and idiosyncrasies and things you can’t account for,” Ms. Rubin said. “You have to figure out workarounds as you go.”

Ms. Telc displayed grace under pressure. “If someone’s trying to talk to her while she’s in the middle of 12 million things, she remains lovely and pleasant and congenial, regardless of what else is going on,” Ms. Rubin said.

As far as Ms. Telc is concerned, pressure is simply a part of the job that any chef must become accustomed to. “It’s not stressful in an unpleasant way,” she said. “It’s more of an exciting way.”

Before moving back to California, Ms. Telc worked in high-pressure, high-end kitchens in New York, including Isa. She later worked for Danny Bowein, the renowned chef who started Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco. He hired her to help start a new branch of the restaurant in Manhattan.

In addition to more events at the Tomales bakery and town hall, Ms. Telc plans to host dinner events at her home twice a month.

Her neighbor across the street, Conner McElroy, is building a table big enough to sit 22 guests. “We have one finished leg for the table so far and some tabletops,” Ms. Telc said. “I found some old doors in a free pile outside a woman’s home in Inverness when I was driving over there for a swim at Shell Beach, and we’re building a table out of that.”

She’s planning to set an established summer schedule soon, including a mix of events at the bakery, her home and the town hall, where the Lunar New Year event featured a deejay and post-dinner dancing.

“The town hall events let people settle in and mingle with their neighbors,” Ms. Telc said. “I hope we can keep doing them and make them a community focal point.”

To learn more about upcoming events, follow @halfhitch_tomales on Instagram.

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