Meet Rachel Iverson and Jill McMillan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Iverson and Jill McMillan.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
We met 19 years ago when our oldest sons, now both freshmen in college, were babies. We became fast friends through a baby group, and then we spent years taking our kids to the park, eating dinner in each other’s homes and sharing the daily joys and struggles of parenting small children. We each have three children, oldest boys, middle girls, and youngest boys, and their ages mirror each other. They are practically siblings from having grown up together. When our youngest boys were getting ready for kindergarten, we started wondering what was going to be next for us. We had always loved cooking together, so just for fun, we found a culinary school program at The New School of Cooking in Culver City.

When our littlest boys were in school, we started culinary school. We learned to make sausage, we baked bread, we deboned fish — all while our little ones were learning to read and write. We never anticipated that we would start a business afterward, but we were excited to be learning new skills and challenging ourselves in areas outside of mothering. Right after we graduated from culinary school, one of our friends, who was a female executive heading a television studio, encouraged us to start a business. She was planning a summer party for her colleagues at work, and she asked us to cater it. We told her, “We don’t know how to do that!” But she looked at us and said, “You’re great cooks. You’ll figure it out.” And we did! While we were planning that first party, we got a business license, had a logo designed, and opened a bank account — and Mac & Ivy was born. After that party, other people started asking us to cater for them, and before we knew it, we had established relationships with vendors, we had a kitchen rented, and the business was thriving.

For the next five years, we catered everything from elegant 20 person sit down dinner parties, to weddings and corporate luncheons, to a funeral for 2000 people. Along the way, we met so many people — one of our clients introduced us to the people running CloudKitchens. After several meetings with the Cloud Kitchens team, we decided it was a time to grow and expand our business, so we leased a kitchen in their Hollywood facility and beginning in February, we opened our virtual delivery only restaurant business. Now we have five employees, and we are working every day to perfect our breakfast and late night menus on LA Breakfast Club, Fruta Fresca, and #itscheesy, and we are also still juggling Mac & Ivy’s catering events.

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?
The road has been mostly smooth, but there certainly have been setbacks and ways in which we have had to learn and grow as the business has evolved.

At one time, we tried to branch out into a gift box business, and it ended up splitting our focus instead of expanding the business. Learning which business opportunities to pass on and which to pursue has also been a learning process. In the early days, we definitely underbid for certain jobs, not realizing the time and cost associated with certain events. But we always made a point of learning from those mistakes and correcting the next time.

We have also had to be persistent because vendors are often reluctant to engage with small start-up businesses, but time and again, we will keep calling or we will keep showing up until a door is opened.

Another challenge as we have grown has been getting used to not doing all of the cooking ourselves but instead relying on a wonderful team of chefs.

Please tell us about Mac & Ivy, Fruta Fresca, #itscheesy, Egg the f* out, and LA Breakfast Club.
We are both a catering company and a virtual delivery only restaurant. We specialize in making elevated comfort food, and in our catering business, beautiful small bites. I think what sets us apart from many food companies is our personal touch and our attention to detail. We have been hands-on in the kitchen and with our clients in all of our events, and that continues today.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Rachel: One of my favorite memories from childhood stems from the time our family lived in Brussels, Belgium. We had the chance to travel all over Europe — from Greece to Norway and everywhere in between. As a result of that travel, I was exposed to so many cultures, languages and foods at a young age, and I think that experience fueled my enthusiasm for experimenting with different flavors and cuisines.

Jill: I started a cooking club called Westside Everything Super and Terrific with my friends when I was ten years old, and we made our own cookbook with original recipes. My mom would host us, and help us cook and make up our own recipes. My favorite from that era was when we made homemade potstickers and our own aprons.

Contact Info:

• Address: 615 N. Western Ave, Los Angeles 90004
• Website: www.macandivy.com
• Email: ivy@macandivy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macandivy/ and https://www.instagram.com/frutafrescala/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/macandivy/
• Other: https://postmates.com/merchant/itscheesy-los-angeles

Image Credit:
Kim Fox

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