Mary Raisanen Piepenburg is a caterer and the owner of Elbows Allowed Distinct Catering. This has always been her dream. For 29+ years she worked in the corporate world, mainly as a Financial manager. Then in 2009 the company she worked with for 22 years moved to Pennsylvania and she decided to try her dream (this was a blessing in disguise). The love of cooking came from her childhood.

Her mother was a great role model – she loved to entertain and have everything just so with excellent cooking and baking skills. In December of 2009 Elbows Allowed was officially started. Mary’s cooking is all homemade and loves trying new things to cook. She feels truly blessed and has been able to finally get her own commercial kitchen (which I wish you were at) to work out of. Elbows Allowed caters all types of events from private parties of 10 or more to large corporate events. Mary likes to say we have “ambiance to go”. And she hopes that people get a good feeling from the name Elbows Allowed, she wants people to enjoy their eating experience as a step above and also be comfortable in their setting. Classy but not snobby. Mary lives in Cokato with her husband Jay, who is her partner in the business. She has 2 grown sons, Scott and Matt.