Photos courtesy of Cooking with CaitlinCaitlin Steininger (middle), along with her sister Kelly Trush (right) and friend Molly Sandquist (left), started Cooking with Caitlin, a catering business based in Cincinnati.
Rachel Ray might be America’s sweetheart of cooking talk shows, but 21-year-old Caitlin Steininger is looking to give Ray a run for her money.

Steininger, a native of Cincinnati, grew up in an Italian household where food was the center of all family gatherings. In such an environment, Steininger began honing her cooking skills at a young age.

“I’m a picky eater,” Steininger said. “No one would cook an extra dinner for me, so I would fix my own version of dinner.”

Immediately following high school, Steininger went to culinary school. There she learned that her guilty pleasure of watching TV food shows was unacceptable.

“At culinary school, people would beat you up if you admitted you liked any of the cooking chefs on TV,” Steininger said.

When she returned to her hometown, Steininger started performing cooking demonstrations for cooks of all levels under the mentorship of Chef Jean Paul Belmont.

Many speculators at the demonstrations would roll their eyes when they saw how young she was, but Steininger quickly wowed them with her knowledge and expertise, said Kelly Trush, Steininger’s older sister and business partner.

During these demonstrations, Trush and childhood friend Molly Sandquist, who were also Steininger’s personal assistants, got an idea to tour the show.

“Molly and I looked at each other, as if to say, ‘We need to get this show on the road’,” Trush said. “So, we asked Caitlin what she thought about putting a business together.”

And the rest, as they say, was history. Their company, Cooking with Caitlin, was born with Trush acting as the customer relations representative, handling catering requests. Sandquist took on the business side, taking care of advertising and branding, while Caitlin, of course, remained the creative food genius.

Renting out a commercial kitchen space in a Cincinnati bar, Cooking with Caitlin dishes out five to six catered meals a week with high expectations for the upcoming holidays. They’re most popular for their catered lunches that are usually ordered by the downtown corporate offices with a price tag of $10-$15 a person. In addition to cooking at the rented kitchen, Caitlin and her crew cook meals in customers’ homes, the environment Caitlin prefers because it gives her customers the freshest experience.

Business has been good for the trio, who rolled out their Web site in July, www.cookingwithcaitlin.com. After every catering job, the recipes are posted on the site, in addition to two recipes every week. The team also prides themselves on the fact that they never use the same menu twice.

“We don’t have a “choose from column B, then column C menu,” Trush said. “We tailor the menu to each event.”

The site gives Trush and Steininger more freedom to teach their recipes. Online videos of Steininger preparing a recipe make it easier for customers to duplicate the meals.

“Some of my girlfriends are very kitchen illiterate,” Steininger said. “But being able to watch the videos and read the recipes makes it easy.”

Not afraid to use generic brands, Steininger makes it simple to find and buy recipe ingredients.

“I only use about four or five ingredients,” Steininger said. “Kroger brands are OK, too. I try not to use the things you can only find in a market.”

Trush, 10 years her senior, enjoys being business partners with her younger sister.

“There’s definitely a family dynamic,” Trush said. “We have the nerve to say some things we normally wouldn’t say to someone else.”

Helping each other manage their careers and young families, the sisters swap baby-sitting duties.

“While she’s cooking all day, I’ll keep the kids. Then once she’s done, I’ll deliver the food. It’s really a team effort,” Trush said.

Steininger holds onto a dream of being the next cooking starlet on TV.

“I love the whole idea of entertaining,” Steininger said. “And showing people cooking is doable at home – helping people get that confidence.”


Jamila T. Williams can be reached at [email protected].