Today we’d like to introduce you to Heidi Weisman.
Hi Heidi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I love everything about food! I simply adore farmer’s markets, cooking with new ingredients and I’m a total nerd about the science of baking. Mostly, I just love the feeling of sharing whatever I’ve made. My meal delivery and personal chef service, Heidi Cooks, grew organically from this passion. About 14 years ago, I was in between jobs and helped a dear friend throw a baking party for her daughter. We had so much fun, literally playing with our food, that it inspired me to turn my hobby into a real business.
At the same time, I was introduced to a chef who hired me as a kitchen assistant for her cooking school. Now, I’m a self-taught cook, and what I lacked in classic technique, I made up for in hustle. It wasn’t long before the cooking students asked to hire me to cook in their homes. I said yes, not knowing the first thing about being a professional chef. I made a lot of mistakes and learned a ton about food and running my own business. Along the way, I’ve cooked for A-list celebrities, families on the go and busy professionals. I’ve catered weddings and cooked intimate dinner parties; I’ve meal prepped for people on limited/restricted diets and taught Zoom cooking classes. Today, my focus at Heidi Cooks is on creating healthy, delicious and hassle-free meals for weekly drop-off, dinner parties and in-home events while delivering a customized experience for every client.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I started Heidi Cooks from scratch and honestly had zero idea what I was doing. Taking the leap of faith that I could actually turn a passion into a career was my first challenge. I googled how to be a personal chef, bought books, and talked to everyone I could. I didn’t know how much I didn’t know! I needed to learn everything – from how to structure my business as a real business (LLC, liability insurance) to how to build a brand and how to find clients. Being a small business owner isn’t a singular job, and I had to focus not only on creating delicious food but finances, administration and social media. One of the most surprising obstacles was figuring out how to charge for my services. I think women aren’t always taught how to value themselves in a business environment or how to ask for what they’re worth. I had to lean in, so I studied what other chefs were charging and found what I felt was a fair way to price my services.
While creating a business from the ground up was challenging enough, nothing posed a bigger obstacle than the pandemic. Before Covid, Heidi Cooks had become a legitimate business and I was cooking full-time in my clients’ homes. Then when the lockdown hit here in LA, I lost every one of my clients overnight. At first, I panicked, I needed to work and no one wanted me in their house. Essentially I had to change my entire business model. I created a virtual pop-up where I would announce my family-friendly, comfort food menus on social media and people would order online. I offered both pickup and delivery service (neither of which I had done before). With restaurants shut down and grocery stores being unpredictable, people quickly got tired of cooking for themselves. It was the perfect storm for Heidi Cooks meal delivery to take off. The family meal pop-up evolved into customized menus and my personal chef services grew into a meal delivery business serving greater Los Angeles.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
As a personal chef, I cook and deliver healthy, customized menus for meal prep, dinner parties and in-home events.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
It’s hard to deny that luck had a role at the beginning of my business, but I also believe that there’s more to luck than simply being at the right place at the right time. I’d say there’s a 10% luck, 90% hustle formula that helps define a successful entrepreneur. When I started Heidi Cooks, I told everyone I knew that I was going to be a personal chef, and it was very lucky that a friend asked me to help her throw a party and that another friend knew a cooking school looking for help. My joy of cooking morphed into a tangible successful business with a combination of these lucky opportunities mixed with tenacity, a positive attitude, manifesting my beliefs and a strong work ethic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://heidiweismancooks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heidiweisman/
