For Ellen Marie Bennett, her childhood in L.A. was a fascinating cultural collision bursting with the scents and flavors that honored both sides of her heritage. English and Swedish traditions were baked into Shephard’s pie and served with afternoon tea in her grandmother's home; tortillas and tamales were made from scratch in her Abuela's kitchen where spices abound.

As the eclectic mix of food poured from both kitchens, Ellen came to love the Mexican effervescence of food. “It was so colorful and lively. I thought this is my jam.” She soon found that the kitchen was her favorite place to be, curiously peeking around doors in friend’s houses to see what other families liked to eat.

Like most teenagers, she wondered what she should pursue after graduation. “The kids I went to school with all wanted to be actors and models and things like that, and I just didn't quite fit that mold.” It was her mom who suggested that she go live in Mexico for a month or two; neither of them could have anticipated that the short trip would turn into Ellen calling Mexico home for the next four years.

“While I was there, I thought it was amazing. I was living this entirely different, crazy life. It was just a little bit of an alternate path, but I was really happy to do that,” said Ellen, who spent those years attending Culinary School in Mexico City. At the age of 22, she realized there were a lot of things she still wished to do, and if she stayed in Mexico, she wasn’t going to do them.

“It was just one of those forks in the road, staying in Mexico was going to be an easier path, I was in a comfortable spot. But I decided that if I could build a career in Mexico, I could go back to the U.S and do it again there too.”

So she sold what she’d accumulated in Mexico and headed back to the states where she took up residence in her Mom’s house again to make something out of her culinary degree. “It was a bit startling to go from being by yourself in a foreign country and doing well to living with my mother again,” she said with a laugh. “It was totally fine, just part of the journey. Sometimes, you gotta make adjustments to make things happen.”

Ellen got into a new rhythm quickly, working as a line cook in two restaurants, simultaneously. “One was high-speed, lots of covers every night as they call it in restaurant land. And then the other one was very fine dining. The combination of the two led to a really good experience because you were learning speed and precision, at the same time.”

When her Chef told her he was ordering new aprons and asked if she’d like one, she set her life on a new trajectory with a bold question. “ Can I make the aprons, Chef? I have an apron company,” - which she did not. Not yet, anyway.  “I convinced him to give me the order for 40 aprons. I clocked out, and immediately wondered, how do I do this? That's how it all began.

With virtually no experience except for the confidence that she’d be able to figure it out, Hedley & Bennet was born. Now, it’s one of the most well-known apron brands in restaurants and homes across the country.

‘I was just taking these leaps of faith in life, adding notches on my confidence belt. And I thought, okay, this is another one I can do.”

According to Ellen, those first 40 aprons turned out terribly. When her Head Chef informed her that the straps “sucked” she was determined to make things right for her first client. She took half of them back and made the repairs needed — in doing so she developed the design that is used to this day.

“The theory of it was right, but the execution was not. Which are things I've learned in business time and time over again. You can have a really clear idea of how something's going to turn out, but until you get on the journey, you don't know exactly how it's all going to land.”

It was saying yes when the opportunity presented itself that made all the difference, according to Ellen. “I think that's where a lot of entrepreneurs sometimes get stuck. They think: I still have more stuff I have to figure out. Whereas I just began and started learning on the journey.”

After that first order, she began working at farmer's markets and food events outside of her restaurant hours to meet people; those connections led to her first custom apron orders made for local chefs.  “There was just something very exciting and thrilling about that first order that I got in. It filled me up with this light surge of energy and enthusiasm that I was hooked on this feeling of helping someone. There was something I could give them that they needed and it's going to be better because I was doing it. To this day we produce gear that makes people feel a certain way. Right? Every chef and every cook out there now is part of this team that encourages them to show up, and to try to get better.”

Week after week, Ellen would spend her days meeting and talking with chefs, taking custom orders, and then working the line at night.

During the first year of business, Hedley & Bennett was focused solely on pursuing relationships with restaurants, her little website was the least of her priorities. “While I was focused on restaurants, people just started buying aprons on the website and then people were talking about us. Being featured in an LA Times article felt wild, and then the mention in the New York Times followed soon after.” It wasn't long before Martha Stewart called to say she wanted to wear their aprons and outfit her cafes with them as well. Overnight, it seemed if you were in the know, you were wearing Ellen’s aprons.

“It was so exciting and emotional that this was happening, and I knew that we just have to keep going. There was never a moment where I thought we made it, I'm going to go home and celebrate. It got bigger but the desire didn't really slow down.”

Ellen continued to work as a line cook for the next two years while Hedley & Bennet grew, she held onto her “safety net” for as long as possible. With an office, and a small staff she peeled days off of her restaurant schedule until she had to pull the ripcord and go all in. “It was the right decision,” she adds confidently.

Hedley & Bennett's focus throughout the years has slowly shifted from restaurants to the direct-to-consumer model that they operate under now. “We’re very much outfitting the home cook, not just the professional chef. Which was an interesting switch that happened over the years. That was a really exciting adventure for us because there are just so many home cooks out there that could use all the knowledge that we gained from the restaurant industry and bringing that sort of like craft and skill and professional lens to the home kitchen so that they can have gear that looks as good and feels as good as everything else they have in their kitchen. Like their all-clad pans, and the Vitamix which are used by chefs as well as home cooks.”

The faces of customers have shifted over the years, but the design is still very much the same. While they’ve tinkered and chiseled away at the aprons to make them better, they’ve added a lot more color along the way. Their original designs, which were neutral, are pale compared to the colorful, vibrant aprons they offer today, a detail which matches Ellen’s bold, vivacious personality to a ‘t.’

Ellen’s passion for empowering people to feel confident and creative as they tackle something new, whether that be in the kitchen or business, has accumulated into a book entitled: Dream First, Details Later: How to Quit Overthinking & Make It Happen!

“I’ve been working on my book for three years - it’s been a wild journey of running a business while writing, and learning more about what I was writing while running the business,” Ellen said. For her, it was important to break the mold of men writing business books for men, and women for women, she wrote it for people in general. She broke the mold in more ways than one, as this is one of the first Penguin Random House books to be published, full of color. Each chapter is chock-full of graphics and designs.

“Most business books are about startups that raised a lot of money in the beginning to get started but that's not the only way. I wrote it to kind of kick people off the iceberg, show them the path does not require an MBA, just a willingness to get uncomfortable. It's going to be tricky, challenging, and there will be a lot of no’s along the way, but the path less traveled can still be the right track.”

Ellen is still putting notches in her confidence belt, by pushing herself to try something new. While she’s no longer working the line, she is honing her cooking skills at home. “I got really into making brisket, it seemed hard but I wanted to try; I ended up staying up all night to cook it on my Traeger, and it turned out great, I was hooked!”

Ellen had known about Traeger for years, and the relationship seemed to be a perfect fit right from the start. “I was introduced to them a couple of years ago when they came by HQ to cook for us. Their team was very kind and I love their genuine community-building approach right from the beginning. Traeger, much like Hedley & Bennett, gives people that confidence boost to help them over the edge of the iceberg, try new things, so there’s a real congruence in our company missions,” said Ellen in closing, who has set a wonderful example of where allowing yourself to be uncomfortable can lead.

With a clear idea, and a ready and willing ‘yes’ to what the future holds, Ellen has stitched together a life and career that encourages those around her to pursue their dreams, with a kick in the butt and an apron guaranteed to withstand the heat.