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Meet Jordan Miller

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Meet Jordan Miller

February 12, 2024
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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.

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We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jordan Miller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jordan below.

Jordan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

My personal chef business, DCEatings, was a serendipitous venture. When I first started my food Instagram under the same name in college, the purpose was to hold myself accountable to cook more and improve my skills in the kitchen. At that time, I had just moved off campus and no longer had access to the school dining hall, so I was forced to learn to cook. I thought documenting my progress would help keep me inspired and excited about cooking. I had no idea where that little food Instagram would take me, but it certainly changed my career trajectory rather quickly. As I became better at cooking, I was also learning how to take better photos of my food for social media. I began connecting with individuals and food brands in the Washington, DC region (where I live), and began working with a few as a recipe developer to promote their products. DCEatings continued in this capacity for a few years until I received two catering inquiries at the same time within one week. I wasn’t advertising catering services, nor had I even thought about going that route with DCEatings. Two creatives in the DC area had reached out separately asking me if I was interested in collaborating with them on events where I catered the food. I didn’t know the first thing about catering, but I said yes to both, and committed myself to figuring it out along the way. After those events, I decided to establish my LLC, get business insurance, and take the ServSafe Food Exam to ensure I was properly trained on safe food handling. Those two events catalyzed in me a deep love of food and cooking for others, and I ran with that passion to build DCEatings into the business that it is now.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a personal chef and food blogger and run a boutique personal chef business in Washington, DC called DCEatings. At this time I operate DCEatings as a side business outside of my 9-5 job. DCEatings offers private event catering, cooking classes, and recipe development for food brands. As a personal chef, I cook inside the homes of my clients, or, if they have a destination event, I do occasionally travel and cook at Airbnbs or retreat venues. Something that is really special about being a personal chef is the intimacy of the work. Especially when I’m cooking inside the home of a client, I have the privilege of getting to know them more closely and be a part of their entire experience. It makes my work feel less transactional and more collaborative, which I really appreciate. One of the best things about being a personal chef is being able to see in real time how your food makes people feel. I usually know that people are enjoying the food when the entire party is completely silent while eating, as they’re totally focused on the food. I deeply believe in the power of food to both heal and foster community, and it’s incredibly rewarding to be a personal chef and to contribute to a positive experience around food for people. Some of my own most vivid memories involve a delicious meal with people I love, and to be able to give that experience to someone else is the best part of the job!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
DCEatings started off as a side business and remained at that capacity for about five years while I worked a 9-5 job. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, as many can relate, my life turned upside down and I began questioning my career path. At that time, I felt stagnant and uninspired at my 9-5 job, and became curious about going back to school and growing my skills as a professional. I ended up applying to business school and attending George Washington University to pursue a Masters in Interdisciplinary Business studies. I thought that business school would open up many opportunities for me, whether that be continuing to grow DCEatings or pivot my career in other ways. When I got into business school, I decided to quit my 9-5 job and see if I could scale DCEatings and work full time for myself. For over two years, I worked hard to grow my personal chef business while also taking contract personal chef gigs with some other personal chef companies in the area. The way I ran my business was rather lean. Since I cook in the homes of my clients, I have very little to almost no overhead costs aside from gas to travel to/from my client’s homes, business insurance, and various small equipment costs like gloves and aprons. Despite the low startup costs, I underestimated how hard it would be to juggle full time grad school and scaling a small business, especially in a very expensive city. Due to the nature of personal chef work, or any gig work for that matter, it can be very unpredictable, and at times you find yourself sunsetting clients because they may have only needed your services for a certain amount of time or during a specific period in their life. While I absolutely loved cooking for others, I quickly learned that the other aspects of entrepreneurship were not in alignment with how I wanted to live my life at that point in time. I came to a point where I had to weigh the pros and cons of sacrificing my mental health and financial wellbeing to continue to work full time for myself. As grad school drew to a close, I made the hard decision to scale back DCEatings to a side business again and pursue a new 9-5 job. For a while, a little voice in my head told me I was selling out and quitting when the going got tough. It was hard at first to silence the doubt, but I realized that it was a better decision for me to prioritize my overall well being to scale my business back, while still being able to do something I love. I learned so much about myself and about small business ownership in those two plus years, and I don’t regret that experience for a second. I realized that at this time in my life, I am happier cooking for people on my own schedule and without the burden of my small business needing to pay my bills and support me financially. I reframed my narrative that entrepreneurship means you have to grind so hard you burn out. In my opinion, that’s simply not true, nor is it sustainable long-term. You can still be an entrepreneur and a successful small business owner even if the venture is a side business or doesn’t “look” like a conventional business. I also have no doubt that I will pursue another entrepreneurial venture in my lifetime. I’ve always wanted to open up a small B&B with a culinary program, and would love to find a way to make that work down the road.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

There is a lot of competition in the personal chef/private chef/catering industry, but the good news is that it’s easy to carve out a niche for yourself and stand out. Food is very personal, and different clients have different needs. There are personal chefs that specialize in kosher food, or vegan food, or allergy-sensitive clients. You can be a personal chef where you have multiple clients, or a private chef where you work solely for one client. You can only teach cooking classes and cook for private events, or only offer meal preparation services. There are a lot of avenues to explore in this market. It’s important to try out different services and see which ones you like the best and what makes the most sense for you and your business. As a side business, I only offer personal chef services on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and I have carved out a niche for myself that focuses on family-style private events of 15 people and under. Think: engagement dinners, bachelorette parties, intimate birthday parties, etc. By honing in on that size and style of event, I have been able to streamline that service and execute those events smoothly on my own. One of my favorite things to do also, is to collaborate with other small businesses on events. I’ve co-hosted cooking classes, food photography classes, and art gallery openings with small businesses in DC, and that has helped build my brand and hone in my niche. I think I’ve built a reputation of professionalism and reliability that puts clients at ease when they hire me. Private event clients don’t have to stress over the food or kitchen clean up when they are hosting guests in their homes, which allows them to enjoy their event more, and colleagues in my business network can rely on my collaborative spirit to executive engaging events for their communities.

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Headshots: Chesley McCarty

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