Today we’d like to introduce you to Chanell Hale.
Chanell, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My passion for culinary arts was fueled by traveling during spring break while in college (receiving a B.A. in psychology and M.S.W.). I did not go the route of classic culinary training. Instead, I went to the school of life and learned from recipes passed down through generations of my family and new friends I’ve met traveling around the world. My Aunt JoAnn made some of the best home cooking food I ever had. One of my favorite things to do as a child would be to visit my family in Wisconsin, where a lot of my family would gather for the 4th of July in my Aunt JoAnn’s kitchen and indulge in her homemade biscuits and other delicious recipes. It took sometime for me to realize my connection with preparing home cooked meals for myself, family and friends. I would travel with my friends for spring break and try something new to eat that I haven’t had before. If my entrée was delicious, once we got back to school, I would try to recreate the dish and share it with my roommates. I didn’t realize that I was blessed with a palette that can identify flavors and recreate something that I’ve tasted before. During this time, while in school, I lost my brother to senseless gun violence in Chicago. This tragedy would be during my junior year of undergraduate studies. To avoid being in Chicago, for school breaks, I would stay at school or travel and pick up new recipes during my trips. I quickly learned the emotional, mental, and physical healing contributions cooking has to offer. From learning all these recipes and trying new dishes, I would invite friends over to share my food with. My friends would go on to ask me to make one of my newfound recipes for their birthdays or anything else worth celebrating.
Once I graduated from school, I sat in my mirror, crying, realizing, I finally have to return to Chicago, where I lost my brother, and I didn’t have a job to start when I got back home. I applied to over 200 jobs beginning at least six months before I graduated, but at the time, I hadn’t heard back from anyone. As I sat there crying, I asked myself, what do you have already that God has blessed you with. What can you make money from and be happy with using your God-given talents. I had bills that would continue whether I was working or not and needed to find out the answers quickly. I looked down at my hands and thought, Chanell, you actually know how to make good food, maybe you can start a restaurant! You love food! I started to write out a full menu with creative menu item titles and sent it to all my friends and family. The responses were nothing that would motivate me to continue the idea of pursuing a restaurant. I thought to myself, I have no money or support to start a restaurant, how about catering! I didn’t know ANYONE who was a chef or caterer. I had no idea what I was thinking or doing. But I decided it was worth the try. I did research to learn about catering services and even considered culinary school. I looked into building a business, found someone who would help me to create a logo, and I created a page on Instagram to start sharing the services I offered. For so much of my business venture, I have learned along the way. I would test out recipes with my friends and family and I started taking pictures of my food to create a portfolio. I began trying to connect with other creatives in Chicago, and beyond; no matter which city, state, or country they were located in. My very first event was in Chicago. I was hired by a friend who knew ate my food all the time in college. I catered for about 50 people that night, and that would be the beginning of my catering journey. Since 2013, I have been able to share my food with thousands of people at pop-up shops, private dinners, meal prep, private events, weddings, work with celebrities, and so much more! Using the gifts that I have been blessed with to help me build a life for myself that I never really imagined. I have been able to travel, learn so much about myself, self care, and learning each day about what it takes to be not only an entrepreneur, but a successful entrepreneur.
Has it been a smooth road?
I would love to say that I have experienced a smooth ride, but this journey has been nothing close to smooth. With me having no prior history with starting a legitimate business and limited experience food service industry; I felt lost. I can say, to a certain degree, I am still lost haha. I can laugh now because I know that I am putting in the work to continue to improve myself, my business, and the services I offer. I have put so much blood, sweat, and tears into this journey. There are days where I’ve worked 72 hours non-stop to ensure that the services I provide meets my client’s expectations. I started cooking in my 3rd floor apartment in Chicago, with the smallest kitchen. I didn’t even have a real table, I had a card table, covered by a tablecloth, no counter space, and a single refrigerator. I’ve prepared food for 200 guests in that kitchen! That’s still hard to believe. The food would be great, but there was always something that would go wrong and I couldn’t understand why! I would try to plan as much as I could for the events, but I couldn’t get it right. It took years for me to clearly see that no matter how much planning I would do, if I didn’t have the proper tools, resources, and team surrounding me, I would keep experiencing these issues. I wpi;d prepare for events with hundreds of guests attending alone, I could be found carrying groceries up and down 3 flights of stairs, while transporting huge and heavy storage bins to the events in my small Toyota Corolla. I was setting myself up for failure every time. If i was missing an ingredient, I would have to stop everything I was doing to go retrieve it. Sometimes I would be late for an event, I would ruin a dish because it was not properly stored, I have fallen asleep without setting an alarm, waking up late to finish my work because I was exhausted from preparing for an event for several days. I have even hurt myself, trying to rush and not being focused. The list goes on! It took me so long to realize, I needed to reflect on my reason for starting my catering company, develop a strategy for proper planning, along with needing helping in what it takes to run a catering business, creating a great team, and realizing I needed an actual space dedicated to cooking food for large groups of people. When I finally started to take those steps, so many things became so much better for myself and for my business.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Dreamyvents Catering story.
Whether the request is for intimate dining, a themed wedding, a wellness retreat, daily/weekly meal preparation, brunch, food stations for a special event, traveling with you for vacation or work, a vegan, dairy free, gluten-free, peanut-free birthday celebration, I curate custom menus that creates an unforgettable dining experience. Offering unique health-conscious delectable edibles, to personally serving a crowd, I aim to make each occasion a memorable one through my love of flavorful, home cooked food. Those summers in Wisconsin seeing my Aunt making her family meals from scratch and eating her delicious food, inspired me in ways I didn’t connect with until I became an adult and working my way through this catering business.
I am known for creating exclusive menus for events, where there is something for everyone. I am very passionate about the use of certain ingredients because there is a lack of quality ingredients in the food industry. I am from the south side of Chicago, where we experience food deserts. The options that we have to eat daily can create not only health issues but also create a sense of mental complacency. With my experience spending time cooking, I have discovered the effects of food on not only pertaining to physical health but mental health as well. Eating well can help you feel well You can have one of the worst days, eat something so good that for a moment, you may actually see the light at the end of the tunnel, or just feel good for those few minutes while you are eating. There are some foods that have lasting beneficial effects on your health and mental health. Because cooking has helped me to cope so much, I believe that energy has stayed with me and also is transferred into the food that I prepare for others. People have reached out to me requesting food to help someone else feel better. For example, a wife contacted me after her husband left the hospital for major surgery saying, “I want to get him something from your menu because it will make him feel better when he gets home.” I’ve had someone reach out to me and say, “my friend had a miscarriage and her spirit has really been down. I know your food will help her to feel better.” So many times, people reach out to me for a similar reason and that has really stuck with me. I love that I have been able to help people feel better, even if only for a small moment in time. I know that I have a certain responsibility with offering my food and I continue to look for the doors that open for me to continue on that path. I am passionate about cooking great food, with fresh ingredients, that makes you feel great on the inside and outside. Eating good food can help the poorest person feel rich! Imagine eating your favorite food and it is the most delicious, with the greatest flavor. That’s an unforgettable moment, and that is what I am most proud of!
I am so proud of my company for reaching people all over the world. I have cooked for people that live in the U.K., several states across America, Columbia, Mexico City. There are people all over the world who can say, I’ve eaten with Chef Chanell, and her food is amazing. There are so many people rooting for me and hoping that I can one day have a restaurant for everyone to experience.
I specialize in creating everlasting memories with the help of mesmerizing flavorful food. I’ve provided food for weddings, homegoing receptions, anniversaries, etc; each family that I have worked with will say they cannot thank me enough for the food, how good it was, and how tells me how everyone couldn’t stop talking about the food, even days later..
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see myself creating that restaurant I’ve been thinking about since that day I cried in the mirror May 2013. For me, restaurants tend to treat people like strangers. It’s my goal to create a space where everyone feels like family. I want customers to feel as though they are coming to a family member’s house to the best potluck ever, where they can try many dishes and enjoy their time comfortably. The food service industry continues to expand with food trucks, pop-ups, meal prep, private dining. I can see the industry getting more creative with how and where food services are offered. I have so many ideas for the food industry, I know that there has to be many creatives introducing revolutionary ideas with the way people experience food. I’m looking forward to being a part of the positive change in the foods we eat and how we experience eating.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dreamyventscatering.com
- Phone: 7732453118
- Email: chefchanell@dreamyventscatering.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/dreamyventscatering
- Facebook: facebook.com/dreamyventscatering
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