About Chef Brendan

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking, you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”
– Julia Child

Meet Brendan

Hello all, my name is Brendan Copeland of Big Brenny's Kitchen. It’s been an interesting journey to get here, but I finally feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I grew up in Overland Park, KS in a multicultural family. Being Italian and Lebanese and French, food was the love language of my family. I remember having to stand on a stool to help my Mimi roll her famous Italian meatballs as early as 5 years old. Most of my mother’s family grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So I began with a very interesting and flavor packed holy trinity of cooking right in my very home.

While cooking was always prevalent in my life, it wasn’t something I thought would be my career. In my youth I was a standout soccer player which eventually lead me to a scholarship to play in college. While pursuing my education and the potential of playing professionally I was injured and never able to play again. After a few years of soul searching and trying to fill the void my athletic career had left behind, I found cooking again. Everything seemed to click. I had my competitive fire back. Like a sponge, I began to search out and absorb anything and everything I could about the culinary arts. I even took a few courses, but I felt like to really experience it, I had to dive right into restaurant work.

I certainly found that challenge with my first job in the kitchen. I accepted a job at the Cheesecake Factory, which if you are in the industry you know what a challenge that is. I was immediately thrown into the fire and had to keep up or I got burned (quite literally). Our restaurant would sit an incredible amount of people at a time, was always busy and kept me on my toes constantly. I stayed with the company for 3 years and learned so much. I next accepted a sous-chef position with Tribe Street Kitchen, in downtown Kansas City. This is when I was really able to thrive as a chef. With a much more concise menu and vision, I was able to develop my skills and plating even further. Being able to look out and see people take photos of your food, nodding between bites with their mouths full. This is my calling! I eventually worked my way up to a manager with Tribe but there was still more I knew I wanted to do.

That lead me to Palm Springs! It was alway my dream to live here and I finally had a plan in place on what i was going to do here. I started working as a private chef! i began with 3 parties the first 3 weeks I moved here! Its been non-stop ever since. I have done vents as large as 200 people, as well as client dinners for Edward Jones, Paul Kaplan group and an event for the New Zealand government coming in April 2022. I am also teaching classes, as well as doing meal prep for different clients throughout the week! I am living my dream, in my dream town, cooking the food closest to my heart! it took a risk leaving my old life behind, but Julia Child said, sometimes you just got to say what-the-hell and go for it, without fear of failure