Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Evans
Hi Tracy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up, my family owned a mid-size grocery store for 65 years in Palo Alto, California so food was always in my blood.
I’ve been cooking since I was a young teen at 12 years old and started babysitting and cooking for the kids and their families started to enjoy the leftovers and asked me to cook more. I really enjoy all aspects of food so I also worked at Whole Foods Market in Marketing in the early 2000’s for their flagship store at the time at 3rd & Fairfax. I owned a cafe for a couple of years in 2009 as well as worked in Corporate Dining at Google in Venice Beach before launching into Personal Cheffing. That career began under Mike Jones and Science Inc. at a start up called Tastery which was the first on-demand Chef company in 2011-2012 out of Santa Monica. After that venture came to end, I began in-home Personal Cheffing for several families during the week. After 6 years, we expanded into doing events and in-home cooking lessons in addition to “Everyday Meals” that are custom prepped and hand delivered. Set The Table Personal Chef Services is now in it’s 11th year of business.
I really believe that food brings people together so our next venture will be a permanent pop-up with a private membership focusing on analog type community events centered around all kinds of different cuisine. Example is “Acoustic Music Night with Spanish Tapas”. We will also be focused on teaching anyone and everyone how to cook thus learning how to take the best care of themselves.
Gather Social Club will be coming in 2025.
Alright, 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?
Owning and operating a small, single woman owned business in Los Angeles has had its challenges for sure. We were very fortunate to have had a prominent client move away in 2018 and it pushed us to do more marketing via Yelp and in that 9 month spand in 2019, we gained 43 new clients going into 2020 with a newly established “Meal Prep” delivery service. It just happened naturally at the right time so we were ready to go for once the Pandemic struck. The ups and downs of the economy definitely has effected us but we just keep pivoting and trying new things with the community to meet and gain new clients. We recently joined the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce and are really focusing on our potential new clients right in our own backyard.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We are very passionate about food customization for individuals, families and corporations. Everyone’s health and dietary needs are different so we strongly feel that it’s important to meet everyone where they’re at and give them the best meals we can. We are proud to have had some weekly clients for up to 6 years running. We get to know our clients and make sure we grow with their needs as they change. We also offer a wide variety of menu choices that don’t repeat within a 90 day season.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.setthetablela.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/setthetablela/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/setthetabela/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/set-the-table-personal-chef-services-manhattan-beach?uid=1lHVGYQkQq66MMnd7Z9K7Q&utm_source=ishare
