STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Paul Brown could have been forgiven for thinking fate was dead set against him relocating to Sun Valley.

After all, he was on a plane for nine hours trying to get to Sun Valley in a blizzard in a route that took him to Salt Lake City and finally to Boise where he was told to figure out how to get to Sun Valley on his own.

“From there we drove through a whiteout conditions, sliding…I couldn’t see a thing,” he said. “But I was not missing this opportunity.”

Brown is the new Chef Instructor at the Sun Valley Culinary Institute where he will handle catering and events.

“The movers arrived with my stuff 16 days later after I got here,” he added. “I had to sleep on the floor the entire time. But I persevered, and I love it here.”

Brown grew up in Pennsylvania where he got an early start in the restaurant business, pouring water at tables at age 12. He got a degree in biology but then retreated to the restaurant scene.

He worked in fine dining and French cuisine for 11 years before realizing he had a passion for baking. He realized he was tired of working 60 to 70 hours every week at top notch restaurants--“I missed every significant event—weddings, everything and I was sick at it.”

And he started his own bagel bakery—Paulie’s Bagels at Winston’s Café and Bakery—in Napa, Calif., baking them at first on an electric stove.

“Bagels were important to me and I couldn’t get good bagels where I was,” he recounted. “We didn’t have a lot growing up, but we were fed extremely well. And we started every day with bagels, eggs and sausage. So, bagels represent to me a comfort food from my childhood. And, when I have one, It’s got to be good.”

Bagels were soon joined by other baking goods—Brown jokes that his tested his blueberry muffin, which contains vanilla pudding mix, buttermilk and sour cream, by asking: Is it as good as a Costco muffin?

And, in time, he opened a café.

But he realized he had found his calling in teaching classes for the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. And, so, when a recruiter contacted him about the Sun Valley Culinary Institute position, he was all in.

“The Napa and Bay area is developing a lot, and I love more natural areas.  Everybody here is really nice. And I love that it’s dark at night. If you’ve lived here awhile, you can forget that you can’t see the stars in other places. And the people in this place are civil to each other. In the Bay area the level of political discourse has gotten so bad that people have become hostile to one another.”

Brown can’t wait until the snow melts so he can backpack in the Sawtooth Mountains and bike on Sun Valley’s mountain bike trails. And, yes, he’s already thinking of launching a bagel business within the school.

And what might be one of the bagels we might see if he does? Perhaps the flax and sunflower seed bagel.

“It was a way to get people who didn’t think they liked whole wheat to try it. And it’s one of my favorites.”

SVCI Executive Director Karl Uri said Brown’s fine dining experience, baking science background and entrepreneurship will be a welcome addition to the Institute.

“I am excited about the opportunities at SVCI, especially teaching and educating students about the many possibilities that come from learning the culinary arts,” said Brown. “I intend to pass along decades of kitchen wisdom. For me, cooking with passion and simplicity is important to me.”