May 15, 2017

Meet Ivana Smith, MPH of Dainty Delights by Ivana in South Bay

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ivana Smith, MPH.

Ivana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been passionate about food & hospitality for as long as I can remember! My mother & grandmother executed every planned family gathering or surprise visit from a family friend with extraordinary grace and finesse. It was considered a badge of honor to be able to make others feel loved, welcomed, and comfortable when they’ve taken the time to come visit you, and these principles helped me cultivate interests in hospitality & event planning early in life. Growing up in my Panamanian household filled with love, laughter, & amazing food, food had always fostered connection, fellowship, & happiness in my life. As a child playing waitress to family members & taking orders with crayons & paper, I’ve always enjoyed spreading and witnessing the joy and happiness that food creates for people every day, whether it be a small family dinner at home with a modest spread, or a large family gathering with multiple buffet lines. Although food & hospitality have always been part of my life, it wasn’t until after completing graduate school and working for several years that I realized how my prior experiences prepared me to become a business owner, culinary artist, and event specialist, allowing me to serve others in a genuinely authentic and familiar way.

Before Dainty Delights by Ivana, I gained invaluable event planning and food service experience through various jobs & volunteer opportunities. I began planning & facilitating school events at seventeen years old as Student Body president at St. Bernard High School in Playa Del Rey, CA. As a student at UC Berkeley, I became a Recruitment Coordinator at the Black Recruitment and Retention Center (BRRC), and independently coordinated admissions & recruitment events representing the Office of Admissions involving hundreds of students & faculties across California. Becoming a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. during college gave me invaluable professional skills in planning small and large campus and community events, and years worked at Jamba Juice during college were quite memorable, allowing me a chance to once again make others smile with my passion for food.

One day in early January 2014, I sat at home thinking about ways I could make a little extra cash. At the time, I was a graduate student pursuing my Masters of Public Health degree at UCLA, so I scanned my brain, thinking of skills I already possessed that I could use to bring in a little extra money. I remembered how much fun I had putting together unique food & dessert combinations, especially in miniature form. After trying a few new recipes for family & friends to try, and after receiving positive feedback, I created Dainty Delights by Ivana, initially as a creative outlet and side gig while pursuing my degree. After graduating, I worked in HIV/AIDS research for several years, in addition to co-authoring several academic publications, all the while still maintaining Dainty Delights, mainly booking catered events on weekends. After starting to experience more happiness & a greater sense of life fulfillment from genuinely connecting with clients & creating high-quality miniature foods than at my formal job, I quit my 9-5 & took Dainty Delights by Ivana on full-time! At Dainty Delights by Ivana, we pride ourselves on using food to spread love & positivity through the avenues of catering, hospitality, and event planning, with emphasis on unmatched client experience and meticulous attention to detail. I’m thrilled to be living out my life’s purpose using food to spread happiness in a unique way, taking my expertise in health and hospitality to create one-of-a-kind dishes and event experiences that nourish your stomach and your spirit.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Creating Dainty Delights by Ivana has led me down an interesting road of twists, turns, highs, lows, and everything in between! On a personal note, the decision to become a full-time entrepreneur requires a certain level of confidence and comfort in uncertainty that I’m not sure I fully possessed when I first began Dainty Delights by Ivana. Having a somewhat Type-A personality with regards to organization and structure in my life, the new “blowing in the wind” feeling I experienced as I sought out new opportunities to network, grow, and build my business were unfamiliar and downright unwelcome at times. There are moments when you question if you’ve made the right decision leaving the comfort of a stable paycheck to pursue a greater purpose you feel in your heart, aware that sometimes people won’t always be able to or be willing to understand. I honestly was experiencing a lot of self-doubt.

I was also struggling to find my niche, trying to create products that appealed to every demographic under the sun, but losing my initial enthusiasm and the excitement about degree of detail I enjoy putting into each unique culinary dish and event experience. I was everywhere, trying to be everyone to everybody, wasting a lot of money, and burning myself out very quickly. I had to tune back into why I started this business and the divine conviction I felt when I decided to take that leap of faith and quit my full-time job. I had to remember the excitement I gained every time I walked into a new store to pick up a new supply to help me improve my craft. I needed to remember the review of a lifetime I received from a bride who booked me for my first wedding gig. I had to recount the blessings I had received along the way in forms of connections and opportunities, and I had to remind myself that because my passion encouraged me to create Dainty Delights by Ivana, only genuine passion would be able to sustain it.

I went back into the lab, so to speak, critically evaluating each piece of my business and revising strategies until it felt genuinely authentic and true to the legacy of passion and love I wished to create in the hospitality industry for myself and for my family. I became comfortable knowing that everyone wouldn’t choose to use my services, but that for those who did, I’d be able to dedicate the level of detail and attention to service that many people appreciate. I’d be able to create unique experiences with food and hospitality that celebrate some of life’s most momentous occasions for people that not only value delicious food, but elegance, aesthetics and personalized service as well. Once I reflected and reconnected the business with the values and goals most important to me, I became much clearer in my approach, my work reflected this new confidence, and I started to overcome my early entrepreneurial slump. To be an entrepreneur is to fully embrace uncertainty with open arms, always being mindful of why you started this journey, and keeping in mind that every day, you have the opportunity to bless someone in this world with your unique gifts and talents.

Dainty Delights by Ivana – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I’m the Owner/Founder and Executive Chef of Dainty Delights by Ivana! Dainty Delights by Ivana is the premiere catering choice for aesthetically-pleasing & delicious top-notch miniature sweet & savory delicacies in Los Angeles, CA. We were established in 2014 and provide full-service catering and event consultation services for events of any and every size, ranging from small private dinners and parties, to weddings and university graduation receptions.

“Miniature delicacies. Meticulous detail. Maximum deliciousness” encompasses our commitment to excellence in client satisfaction and every aspect of the catering and event experience. Our food & dessert selections are distinctive, combining the familiarity and popularity of comfort food with innovative, yet elegant presentation, most often in miniature form. To date, our top-selling dessert is our Vanilla Cognac Hennessy Cupcake, a decadent combination of vanilla cake infused with premium cognac and topped with rich cream cheese buttercream frosting. Our most popular hors d’oeuvres are our Macaroni & Cheese Bites, a simply heavenly combination of baked cheeses & pasta rolled into bite-sized balls about the size of sushi rolls.

At Dainty Delights by Ivana, we’re most proud of our client-focused approach and personal commitment to spreading love through creating unique culinary experiences. We know planning an event can become stressful, and we’re here to help you relax, make you smile, and put some humanity back in business. We don’t use any cookie-cutter formulas in planning events & menus, as each client has different needs & priorities, and we celebrate that! As a catering & event company established by a health professional, we take a unique & holistic approach to food & hospitality, balancing nutrition with mental health, reflected in our attentiveness to details, special diets, and allergies in each aspect of the planning process, in addition to our charismatic communication and delivery from beginning to end.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career so far has been managing a group of college interns for a week that I connected with through my alma mater UC Berkeley Alumni Externship Program. I had the opportunity to work with a group of three young ladies, each from different backgrounds, walks of life, majors, and age groups. None of these ladies had any experience in catering, the hospitality industry, or entrepreneurship, but working with these ladies taught me more about business and brought more value to my work than any other experience to date.

Throughout the week, I taught them the ins and outs of daily operations at Dainty Delights by Ivana, spanning everything from inventory management, to social media engagement, to menu crafting. As a new business owner, I often second guessed how credible I sounded teaching others about entrepreneurship, since it was a vocation still fairly new to me. However, every morning, these young ladies came to work with so many fresh ideas and so much energy and eagerness to learn that they helped me regain my passion in my work after going through an early entrepreneurial slump. They helped me think about seemingly age-old problems in different ways and streamline systems that always felt overwhelming. One of the ladies assisted in re-structuring the website home page, giving it a new fresh and elegant appearance I could only dream of! I really felt like I was the one that lucked out during that week with their help.

During our pizza lunch on their last Friday with Dainty Delights by Ivana, I was sure to let them know how much I appreciated their help and invaluable contributions. However, the heart-warming text messages and emails I would receive from them the following week about how much of an enjoyable and inspirational time they had, and how much they learned about entrepreneurship and the catering industry, made me aware that I had positively impacted their lives as well. The requests for letter of recommendations that followed assured me that I wasn’t just someone posing like a business owner, pretending to know what I’m talking about, but that I had actually grown a lot as an entrepreneur and hospitality specialist, and also had something meaningful to share with younger folks who would soon be stepping out on their own and figuring out their purpose in life. Nothing makes me more proud than knowing that I’ve positively contributed to an individual’s development as a person and a professional.

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