Meet Marjorie Furio Madrid

We recently connected with Marjorie Furio Madrid and have shared our conversation below.

Marjorie , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

I’ve always been a very creative person, from a young age I was always trying to take large pieces of colorful fabric and design myself outfits to parade around the house in. My parents were both musicians and as such I lived in a very artistically inclined household. The environment always had lots of music, color, and what felt like a never ending access to crafting supplies. I grew up in Arizona in a little trailer park that rested up against a large lake and miles of granite dells. I spent a large amount of my time outside as a kid, I was fortunate enough to live in the Grand canyon national Park for 3 years of my life, and then moved test as Park Colorado when I was a teenager. A significant amount of my high school years were spent outside hiking, camping, and going on survival trips with my school. The beauty and wildness of nature is something that I have always been inspired by. The connections we have as humans to each other and to the natural world around us continues to inspire me to learn and grow everyday. As a pastry chef I am in a unique position when it comes to creativity in the kitchen. It’s almost expected that desserts are a little more whimsical than the savory dishes. This is what drew me to the pastry station in our restaurant, I saw such a fantastic opportunity to express my creative side in a new way. Some key ways I go about keeping creativity alive in my life are number one always be curious, curiosity will lead you to knowledge knowledge will inspire you and inspiration will allow you to create. Number two surround yourself with creative minds, by surrounding yourself with books from your favorite authors, paintings from your favorite artists, and music from your favorite musicians, movies from your favorite directors, you can make sure that there is always something to spark your imagination. Number three don’t let creative blocks stop you, they’re not there to stand in your way, merely their reason for existence is to force you to change direction and see things in a new way. Whenever I find myself struggling with my creativity I try to flip the script and change my perspective.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

After being encouraged to attend culinary school by my loving husband, I found myself landing and internship at Four by Brother Luck, q small fine dining restaurant in the heart of Colorado springs. After my internship had come to an end, it was clear that I needed to stay at Four, I had found something very special in that restaurant. The December of 2023 and opening became available in pastry, I saw this is the perfect opportunity not only to challenge my creativity, but to challenge my work ethic and abilities. During the last year I have worked incredibly hard developing my skills and knowledge of pastry as well as working with and mentoring others. I’m very pleased to say that I was able to start 2025 with my title as the lead pastry chef at Four by brother luck! When it comes to my focus and my goals, I am always thinking about ways that I could elevate my preparation and presentation of desserts. It is critically important to me that I’m always learning new things that can widen my view of the world and inspire me. This upcoming year I look forward to being involved in a few collaborations with other chefs and artists. Although I cannot say much about any plans just yet, I can say to keep your eyes out for some very interesting October events!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Curiosity, self-reflection and tenacity. Of all the qualities I’ve seen successful artists and body, these are the three that I believe have served me most in the last few years. Curiosity is number one, I say this because I have always been an extremely creative minded person, however I struggle with self-discipline and routine. This lifelong struggle has led to issues having consistency when it comes to working. Something that I have found created a turning point for me was when I started working in fields that I had a lot of interest and curiosity in. When it came to learning pastry I found a lot more success being disciplined and teaching myself, because I was extremely curious and every new answer I found created more questions for me. On days what I find it difficult to motivate myself, I allow my curiosity and intrigue to do it for me. Now that’s not saying it’s easy, I have to surround myself with creative sources at all times. For example my home is full of sketchbooks, recipe books, music, movies, posters, decorative nick backs and games. For me, lately it’s actually been a question of how to get my brain to stop being so creative all the time so that I can get some rest. Another crucial component to this is self-reflection, as an individual I have often found myself struggling to feel like I fit in and belong in a larger community of people. Finding the industry that I belonged in and felt most like myself in helped with that a lot, that being said I believe that we should always take time for self-reflection no matter how we think we are being perceived by our community. Self-reflection allows us to step outside of our regular way of thinking for a few moments in order to perceive ourselves from a different angle, this can be very helpful when it comes to ensuring personal and professional growth. It can be significantly easier not to take things personally, especially at work, when you are able to take a step back and try to see things from a larger perspective. Maybe it’s not that they didn’t like your ideas or input and that’s why it wasn’t used, rather there might be more going on that you’re not aware of such as budgeting issues, scheduling conflicts, staffing needs, profitably and things of this nature . That brings us to tenacity, it’s hard to ignore someone who is very passionate! A lot of the times you will find that everyone is caught up in their own world and has a lot going on both personally and professionally, if you want something you need to be able to take the initiative to make it happen. There will be very few times in life when you can rely on others to meet your goals for you or with you, that’s all up to you. If you want to head up a project at work, or have an idea that you really like for an event, don’t just go to upper level management and say what do you think of this idea could it work? Take the initiative to draw up some plans, create a mock time line, steps and goals ,itinerary and details like budget and staffing. I’ve found you’re much more likely to get others on board with your plan if you actually have a plan. Other times it’s about putting yourself out there as many times as it takes to be heard, it’s a big world and there are so many people trying to get their shot! If there is an individual or group of people that you are trying to get the attention of for a collaboration, event project or whatever it may be. My advice is be tenacious, be respectful and be mindful, reach out make yourself known and make it clear who you are what you are about and why you are contacting these individuals or businesses. Keep in mind that these people do not owe you a response, and that they also have an entire world of things relying on their attention. If you do not hear back right away take a different approach, but do not become a pest. Do not harass and do not overreach out, sending a professional email, a polite DM or leaving a message at a front desk/with an associate are appropriate. Just know that if you stay on track with what you want, you will find the right people and the right people WILL find you. Always be tenacious when it comes to what you love.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

As a chef, I care a lot about using high quality ingredients paired with skillful culinary techniques and creative passionate minds to make not just good food, but to make memorable culinary experiences! I’m a very theatrical person and have always been very artsy, I like finding a theme and diving deep into it, how can I bring this theme to life in our restaurant for our guests to truly experience something memorable. I have always loved scary things, horror movies, haunted houses and the whole creepy spectrum. I was born in October and Halloween was always my favorite holiday, so naturally I’ve always been a spooky little weird kid! I crave creating culinary experiences that are a just little outside of the box. One such project I worked on at Four in December of 2023 was a Disney Villains themed event for which I made a”poison apple” entremet coated in a beautiful red mirror glaze sitting upon a bed of edible white snow. This event was bold, fun and colorful with a six course menu, drink pairings, staff in full costume, music and festivity! Those are the moments I LIVE for! I have always wanted to collaborate on horror theme events, think dinner theater, murder mystery meets fine dining.Its a goal of mine to collaborate with other creative minds to create just such events. I’ve always dreamed of collaborating with Chef and food stylist Janice Poon, who’s work can be admired in the television show Hannibal! I believe that food can be used to invoke feelings and creative captivating experiences, I’m looking for others who believe the same and have the creativity and motivation to bring their dreams to life! Some examples of my work can be viewed on Instagram @chefmarj22 and anyone can feel free to shoot me an email at marj@fourbybrotherluck.com with any inquiries!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: chefmarj22
• Other: Email marj@fourbybrotherluck.com