Sedona Chamber Honors Lisa Dahl for Lifetime Achievement

When Lisa Dahl began opening restaurants 27 years ago, she never envisioned having a family of more than 350 employees and being one of Sedona’s largest employers. “I consider it an honor and am humbled by the responsibility that affects the lives of so many in our community,” she said to more than 200 people at the Sedona Chamber of Commerce’s International Women’s Day Luncheon, Wednesday, March 8, where she received the Women’s Lifetime Achievement Leadership Award.

Dahl is the executive chef and owner of six internationally acclaimed restaurants: Dahl & Di Luca Ristorante Italiano, Cucina Rustica, two Pisa Lisa restaurants, Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill and Butterfly Burger. “You don’t get a lifetime achievement award unless a good number of people somehow know how you went through thick and thin and didn’t give up. I know I couldn’t have done much without the help of so many people and it has really affected me deeply. I don’t want anyone, whether they’re here or passed, to ever think they weren’t a huge part of my journey.”

In the beginning, she says, she was a minority. “There were absolutely no women in the kitchen until three months into our first year.”

That’s when she met Elena Jaimes at a catering event and asked her to work with her. “I began teaching her my recipes and we cooked together with love. To this day, she puts the love she has for me into every soup, sauce, meatball and so much more. Elena has raised eight children. I am proud to have helped her and her children become naturalized U.S. citizens.”

One of Jaimes’ daughters is named after Dahl. “I am her Godmother. She is now a sous chef at Butterfly Burger and is becoming an excellent chef in her own right. Everyone calls her ‘Little Lisa.’”

The Lifetime Achievement Leadership Award has caused Dahl to take a rare pause to absorb the recognition and reflect upon how a restaurant can be so much more than just a place to eat.

“As I stand here today on International Women’s Day, I am proud to see the contrast of women working in the restaurants compared to 1995, when it was only Elena and myself,” she told the group. “When women come up to me and say, ‘thank you for being a role model as a woman entrepreneur,’ or tell me they researched my restaurants and say they want to support woman-owned businesses or introduce me to their daughters, I can’t begin to tell you how much that means.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN