Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maddie Dunhoff. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Maddie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I came up with the idea for Taeko-san Takeout at a very rough time in my life. I had some major life changes happen after 2020 as most of us did and found myself working 3-4 jobs 7 days a week just to keep my head above water with bills/life. I was so exhausted and unhappy putting in 20 hour days sometimes and never taking a day off in between. I was working random jobs and doing gig work like door dash to pay my bills but one of the jobs was helping my mom with her mushroom grow. I started to work farmer’s Markets with her selling mushrooms for Fox Fungi. I loved every market I got to work and even more the people I got to work next to at these events. I was so inspired by all the different stories behind the other businesses and owners running them. I wanted to find my own way to be a part of this community. When i was at the markets I felt like I was a part of a community that kind of created its own family. It made me feel like was home when I was there working. So I took a weekend off and went back home to San Diego to do some soul searching and “research”. I mostly just went to all the restaurants, food stalls, and grocery stores I grew up with eating my heart out everyday. I went to see my grandmother last to get some of her classic Japanese recipes I grew up with. I ended up bringing a whole suitcase home of food. I sat and thought about what really spoke to me, my family and life, and what made me happy. That’s when I decided I wanted to use my grandmother’s recipes to bring people the Japanese food I knew and loved so much. I ended up making a small menu of Mochi, Onigiri, and Curry and just doing some orders for friends here and there. Eventually doing a few pop-ups and markets here and there. Before I knew it I was selling out every weekend. That’s when I knew Denver was ready for a new and better kind of Japanese food, my food.

Maddie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always loved cooking food and baking. My first job was as a dishwasher at the local Café and continued to working restaurants for several years. If I wasn’t in a restaurant working then I was home reading cookbooks and watching every cooking show to teach myself how to cook and bake. Food was my life and I loved everything about it. Eventually I started to work in the cannabis industry running some edible kitchens. I got to work and train with some amazing chefs like Hope Frahm of Love’s Oven. Hope has worked for chefs like Thomas Keller and Wolfgang Puck. She trained me on a lot of my pastry experience and Kitchen experience. After working Edible Kitchens for so long I wanted to take what I learned and apply that to my grandmother’s traditional Japanese dishes to bring people something they have never experienced before. So I started making Gourment Japanese Mochi and unique Onigiri flavors. I always offer my menu as vegan so I can provided to as many people possible offering dishes you wont be able to find vegan or gluten free. I’m so happy to offer a product that preserves Japanese Culture and Tradition through food but also walks that fine line of innovation too. Getting to share my grandmother’s story and my food journey in the same product is truly past meets present in the best way.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started this as a side hustle to pay bills. It was very small in the beginning, sometimes having little to no orders at times. I started a small page on instagram just posting some photos here and there letting people know I even existed. I would post that I was at an event or pop up so people could come and support. Eventually I started to pickup traction and get more customers. I had to balance working full time and this side hustle growing. I would work non-stop as soon as I got off I would run home and take care of my pups run to get ingredients, go cook all night long, come home and eat some ramen and sleep for 2-3 hours before I had to get up and go to work and do it all again. It was a lot of long days to keep up with this side hustle now becoming its own business but I knew what I had going was something good and I just had to keep with it no matter how hard it got. I slowly cut my schedule back a few days so I could cook more mochi to keep up with orders and be at more events each week. I was sleeping in my car on my 15 min breaks to just try and balance the heavy work load I was taking on. I grew this business to pay bills and did this with zero capital just working my butt off to put every extra penny I had to grow this little dream of mine. I’m fortunate enough that it grew past that and as of November 2022 Taeko-san Takeout is now my full time. It wasn’t easy and still isn’t easy but I couldn’t be happier to have this side hustle become so much more then I dreamed it would. Last week I just had my record week of sales and some excited new expansion on the horizon for me and my business.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Good Customer Service first and getting out into the community. I firmly believe that providing the highest customer service will result in those customers continued support but also it helps build word of mouth too. If I can give someone an outstanding experience and they tell others that will result in growth through people following you and wanting to order too. I also try to do as many events as possible so I can meet new people and new vendors and be apart of my local community. It hard to grow if the community doesn’t know you exist so I try to get out and connect with others through my food at these events.

Contact Info:

• Website: taekosantakeout.com
• Instagram: [email protected]