365betÌåÓýÔÚÏßÊÀ½ç±­

“With every client, I custom make their menu for them based on their needs. It’s really about supporting people with their celebrations and making someone feel really well taken care of and loved,� says Deana Tatro, owner and Executive Chef of AZ Sunshine Kitchen. “It's about having a culinary philosophy that's beyond food.�

AZ Sunshine Kitchen is an onsite chef and event coordination service for all kinds of events—from large celebrations to small private meals, menus are thoughtfully created for each client based on their event. Tatro also offers services to decorate, consult and share any resources for a memorable experience.

“I've been a part of hospitality, food and beverage, specifically intertwining that background with plant medicines, herbs and flowers,� says Tatro. “There's a little bit of every environment I lived in peppered into each event: a bit of biodynamic farming in Hawaii, growing up in the Midwest, lots of meat and potatoes, as well as fresh fruits from our mini orchard, pears, apples, cherries, concord grapes, living in both Upstate and the city of New York, and Florida, and residing here in Flagstaff community for the last 20 years-weaving these backgrounds and traditions and-well, putting them all together to create a unique culinary event experience, bringing that to the clients' table�

Tatro grew up in Flint, Michigan where she grew an appreciation for eating fruit from her backyard among the meat and dairy-heavy diets found in colder states, but still felt that her culinary adventures were just beginning. As she moved between different cities, she gravitated towards experimenting with food—she ate adventurously and continued to follow this around the country, repeatedly returning to Flagstaff for the community. A move to Maui set her on the path towards creating food that was both beautiful and holistically good for the bodies consuming food.

“That's where things really started to change for me in a culinary manner,� says Tatro. “It was an acre farm that had a CSA of thirty-one people and it was incredible. Everything you eat is everything you ingest of your environment—you’re ingesting wind and earth, sun and stars.�

When Tatro returned to Flagstaff after her internship at the farm in Maui, she continued to seek spaces where she could take what she had learned into her food. She spent time private cheffing, worked the farmer’s market consistently for thirteen years, and at one point had opened her own cafe, Cafe Raven and Rose, before pivoting into AZ Sunshine Kitchen. During this time, she cultivated relationships with locally grown food through the Flagstaff CSA and working with local farmers and forayed into her own culinary garden consisting mostly of edible flowers and fresh herbs, which she believes are the unsung culinary heroes that not only make dishes beautiful but elevate taste as well.

“You can eat from your environment,� says Tatro. “I pluck off little flowers from my garden and I put it on everything I can. It's meaningful and can also be medicinal and pretty. It's always about making it vibrant, nourishing and fresh.�

Tatro’s interest in utilizing a culinary garden is also drawn from her hope to nurture people from the inside out while providing a space to digest beauty. Interested in holistic living as she interned at the biodynamic farm, a friend of Tatro introduced her to Ayurveda and since then she has really approached all of her food with this in mind. She looks at the food she uses, the spaces it is coming from and how it can make someone feel great as well as look beautiful. Everything in the environment matters.

“When I was a kid my grandparents had this cabin up North in Michigan and we would collect strawberries and blueberries and make a bunch of jams. You begin to notice things: you see this cute little worm on the ground, tons of milkweed, tons of Monarchs. You realize that as a kid you see the cycle of life, a little lesson from nature and make it into your own life. Everything lives, everything dies, everything gets stagnant, but that may not be a bad thing. You just really start to have this kind of grace for everything,� says Tatro. "Even the gross stuff, you know, I grew up in Michigan and when there were deer on the side of the road and I started asking how are they being digested by nature? That matters.�

Tatro and her team also host the AZ Sunshine Kitchen Sunset Supper Series. They go to various locations and provide a four-course meal for guests with a little cooking class included.

“The focus is providing food from Community Markets, CSAs and backyard growers to the community,� says Tatro. “And the community really has an interest in understanding where food comes from regionally, the process of these growers and ranchers, these stewards of the earth, and love a cooking demonstration! It's a wonderful time.�

As much as the environment and food being produced from the different regions she has inhabited, the community is just as important.

“Wherever I have lived it is the community that has made life rich and meaningful,� says Tatro. “Flagstaff is the only place where I can walk down the street, recognize someone I haven’t seen for like ten years and chit-chat for a half hour like no time has passed. The community here is so amazing. Cooking for you is cooking for your personal community. It is an honor to bring my traditions and background to your tables.�

You can contact Tatro through her website at or follow her on social media to inquire about using her catering services.