About firedupatgrilledinaction.com

A Grey Bruce girl through and through, I was born in Owen Sound and moved to Hepworth when I was 5 years old with my parents and older sister.  I attended Hepworth Public School, then Wiarton District High School.

My first job was at age 13, as a dishwasher at a local golf course restaurant.  I found myself drawn to the kitchen every chance I had.  I was always asking questions and offering to help.  My first boss noticed how eager I was to learn and took a chance on me.  Moving me up to a cook and the rest is history.  Each summer my passion for cooking grew.

At 16, I moved out from home and found myself dealt a new challenge.  I had become a teenage mom at the age of 17. Then by the time I was 22, I was a single mother of 3 boys.  You never know what challenges life will throw your way, just remember to be strong and fight through it. Over the next few years, I worked at a few different restaurants under some amazing Chefs taking in all that I could learn from them.  I moved from cook to line cook, then my dream came true.  I was offered a head cooks position and in 2005 I took on the title of Restaurant Manager. 

In 2011 I found myself once again pulled away from my career when my youngest son was diagnosed with Mental Health challenges and had to seek him treatment in a London Hospital.

When I returned to work in 2012, I started as a waitress in Chesley at a local bistro making contacts that would change my life.  In 2014 I was given the opportunity to be apart of a great new adventure, the Grilled in Action Food Truck was taking to the road, and I would be running it.  For a year I worked hard making a name for the company and myself.

Having set a goal for myself early in my career to be my own boss and business owner before the age of 35, on May 10th, 2015, I leaped in and took over ownership of the food truck.  I had accomplished my goal a full 2 years ahead of schedule.  The first step was to brand the food truck as my own and changed our name to Fired Up at Grilled in Action. 

The food truck has been recognized through the Owen Sound Sun Times Readers Choice Awards.  In 2017 I was awarded 1st place as the Best Food Truck in Grey -Bruce County.  In 2018, the awards were revamped but that did not affect my success, in fact, it allowed me to better showcase my quality of food and service.  The readers voted me as the PLATINUM (#1) award winner for Best Food Truck, Best Poutine, and Best Caterer and as a Gold (#2) award winner for Best Hot Dog.

July 2019, I had the opportunity to open Fired Up at Grilled in Action's Hungry Hangar Restaurant at the Wiarton International Airport, over the next 3 years we had became and still are the place to fly to in Southwestern Ontario, along with the restaurant to go to in the community.  In September 2021, I expanded again opening Fired Up at Grilled in Action's Landing Gear Diner at the Saugeen Municipal Airport in Walkerton.

In June 2025 I was Spotlighted by WOWSA as their June Women entrepreneur of the month.  Looking to my near future, I have started to study, have completed some classes with 2 classes left  to complete at George Brown Culinary School, setting myself up to challenge the exam for my Red Seal Chef Papers which I am hoping to have completed by the end of 2027. 

Remember work hard and you can achieve your dreams  

Chef Crystal