This spring the students in Anne Merkel's 7th and 8th grade writing class at Edgecomb's Center for Teaching and Learning went out into their communities to meet local working women and learn about their lives. They learned reportage, data-gathering, and interviewing techniques, and they experienced the process of making sense of data and crafting it as literature. Their goals were to learn how to conduct original, first-hand research and to make women's work and experiences more visible in their communities.

“Cooking is an science first and an art second,” explains Margaret Salt McLellan, a private food contractor who lives in Wiscasset. She starts this work day by making sure a client’s dream wedding is going to come true — that means she prepares the food, goes over wedding floor plans, and sets up the whole room to the client’s desire. “My day can change at any time,” she adds.

Margaret Salt McLellan holds the title of Maine Lobster Chef of 2008. She has has extensive education in cooking both abroad and at home. Although her schooling began at Le Cordon Bleu in London, a very prestigious cooking school, she grew up with her family in an old motel in Boothbay and often went out on her father’s boat. That’s when she knew that being a lobster chef was her calling.

One of the many reasons McLellan became a chef is because her mom and both of her grandmothers did not cook much at all. In addition, when McLellan was 10 years old, she and her father would go out on his fishing boat and catch lobster and multiple other sea creatures such as cod, salmon, bass, and more. She was inspired by the sheer variety of seafood.

“Some favorite parts of my job are getting to be creative, working for myself, helping brides, and seeing their dreams come true at their weddings,” McLellan states. She has two sons, Sam and Mac. Mac is the executive chef for the Buffalo Bills football team, which involves making sure that the players are following their diets eating as much as they can, depending on their needs. Sam is a carpenter who works with his dad.

“Some challenges in my line of work are long hours on my feet. And when I started my line of work it was especially hard, because in the 1970s it was unheard of for a women to become a commercial chef,” McLellan explains. She goes on to describe her background: “I am a certified hypnotherapist, also a pharmacy tech and a renal dialysis tech.”

McLellan lived in Virginia for 12 years and was a director of food service at Ferrum College; she moved back to Maine in 1996. She also works with many online seafood companies, such as Get Maine Lobster, Cousins Lobster, and Q.V.C. She make seafood products for each of them.

Margaret Salt McLellan is bringing both science and art to her work as a chef and caterer here in Midcoast Maine.