Dublin graduate Danielle Lemke has had some unconventional experiences — from working as a pastry chef in Idaho, to being a private chef on a wildlife ranch, to helping survivors of sex trafficking. Career-wise, “I’ll just say yes to just about anything,” she said.
That willingness to follow her passions and try new things has led Lemke to a life full of rich and fulfilling experiences.
Lemke graduated from Dublin High School in 2010 and moved to Austin to attend cooking school at Le Cordon Bleu.
“I’ve been in the kitchen since I was old enough to hold a spatula, and I grew up making pancakes every Sunday morning with my dad,” she said. “It’s just it’s always been a love of mine, a passion of mine.”
She’d always loved baking, and specialized in pastries. Once she graduated, Lemke began working as a pastry chef, moving around the country and working in different bakeries. “I loved decorating cakes,” she said. “I worked at a couple different cake shops, and I started off being very timid, and then just kind of grew into loving to decorate. I just enjoyed expanding that part of my repertoire.”
Her first job was in a small town in Idaho. “It was really fun,” she said. “I got to experience mountains and stuff you don’t get in Dublin.”
After living in Idaho for a while, she moved back to Texas. First she lived in Temple, then Granbury. Lemke worked as a pastry chef for a decade before taking a job as a personal chef for a family in Granbury who operated a wildlife ranch.
“The couple that I worked for, the husband was friends with my dad, and they had met at some animal event (my dad a wildlife guy) and got to talking, and at the time that that man was looking for a personal chef for him and his wife, but also looking for some help on the ranch that they owned,”Lemke said. “I worked part time as their personal chef, and then part time on a game ranch with deer and goats and all sorts of different animals.”
The job provided some nice variety. During the summer, Lemke would get to help out raising baby fawns.
She worked there for five years before making a huge change in her career.
“I felt the Lord was calling me to the anti-human trafficking movement,” she said. “I wasn’t quite sure how a pastry chef could get involved in that. I just knew that it was what I was supposed to do. And so I started looking into it, and I found this really awesome foundation that I’ve been with for five years now, and it’s called Pure Hope Foundation.”
Pure Hope has two homes that can house survivors of sex trafficking, and Lemke works directly with survivors. The organization also has a retreat center, where Lemke is head chef and kitchen manager. “We do small group retreats, usually over the weekends, so I stay busy with all that,” she said.
The organization provides a safe place for survivors of sex trafficking to learn or re-learn how to live a normal life, and provides therapy and community for them.
“I’ve been here for five years, and for about two and a half of those years, I lived in the home where the survivors live,” she said. “I was a full time staff in the home, and so it was just doing life with them and helping them. A lot of times, people come to us and they don’t have any documentation, like their driver’s license or birth certificate. So it’s about helping them just with the things that everyday people don’t even think about, and getting them back up on their feet, letting them really focus on deep inner healing.”
Lemke enjoys helping survivors learn job skills. “The survivors that come to our program also have the option to work at the retreat center where I’m the head chef,” she said. “I get to teach them kitchen skills and help them grow their love for food if they have that, or they get to learn service or groundskeeping. I get to work alongside them through that stuff, and then just kind of be a friend and a mentor.”
Lemke has found the job extremely fulfilling. “It’s getting to do what I love, and know that it’s impacting people in a positive way, but also getting to see the growth and the healing and the transformation that our women go through,” she said. “Just being a witness to that is something you can’t really even explain.”
Lemke plans to stay with Pure Hope for the foreseeable future. “As soon as I drove through the gates for the first time, I really felt like it was home,” she said. “And so unless God calls me somewhere else, this is where I plan to stay and just help continue to grow the retreats, and help any way that there’s a need.”
When Lemke has free time, she enjoys spending time with loved ones and has several hobbies. “I love to read, I love to be out in nature and I cook even when I’m not working,” she said “I love making sourdough. In the summertime, I love to swim and just be around my people.”
Her parents Tinker and Theresa Lemke still live in Dublin. They’ve been one of Lemke’s greatest sources of inspiration in her life.
“They’ve taught me everything, and they’ve been there when I was in the lowest of the lows,” said Lemke. “They never gave up on me, and never stopped loving me, and never stopped pushing me to do better. And then they were there to celebrate the wins. And so just knowing I had that love and support from them always helped me to keep going. And, like I said, cooking in the kitchen with my dad, and my mom’s a great cook as well — they brought me up in that love for food.”
Lemke’s advice to Dublin graduates is to follow their passions, not just what society thinks they should do. “Don’t be afraid to do things that are unconventional,” she said. “I didn’t go to a four-year college, and everybody talks about their college life, and dorm life, and going to football games and all those things. Culinary school didn’t have that. It’s very unconventional, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. So I would say, just don’t be afraid to think outside the box.”
— Where Are They Now chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.