We were lucky to catch up with Brittaney Bunjong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brittaney, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

I’m confident in saying I have the best support system in the world. But even having that, I still shy away from telling them what my struggles are or what I need help with. From the beginning when I started out as a podcast, it was getting people to listen to the pod or creating content that was appropriate knowing that people of all ages in my circle or people who didn’t even know me. Then it went to my events that took place in a nightclub or bar, getting people out of the house to socialize or even driving into the city for that matter. I never wanted to put pressure on people to buy a ticket, or show up and put themselves in uncomfortable positions if they were an introvert, had social anxiety or didn’t drink. I always wanted to create a space where people could feel safe and comfortable. I started my party series when I was 23 and fresh out of college, I’m almost 31 now and I don’t want to say “we’re getting old” but I will say my capacity to throw a 8 hour party once a month is at a minimum. That’s when I decided to bring my love for food and events together. I started Britt’s Kitchen as a new way to build community. My friends could bring their kids, people could meet new people in an intimate setting and still have fun. I am thrilled to be sharing the food side of my life. My food collab that I had in Seattle back in March, my mom was able to attend, I’d never ask her to come to the club – ha , it was the first time she saw me in the kitchen serving my poke to a crowd and we sold out. She was amazed to see the community come out for me. She told me she was so proud and “couldn’t believe her daughter was a chef”. I want to continue to find ways to cultivate community through food. It’s the best pivot I’ve made and I’ve made so many new friends because of it. I have people that come to every single one of my events and buy a ticket and it means the world.

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’ve always been into cooking. From watching 30 minute meals on the food network, to cooking with my mother who made sure my brothers and I had a home cooked meal every night. I would be the friend that people would come to, to eat and hang out. This being a part of my every day life allowed me to enjoy cooking as a hobby. In college, I started a food blog called Plenty of Pineapples that landed me a two page spread in Allrecipes Magazine and featured in more years to come. I didn’t really take it seriously as I was focused on having a stable job and moving to Los Angeles. Cooking wasn’t something I considered for a career until the pandemic when I started making cooking videos and more people expressed their interest in my cooking. It landed me on a TV show with Chef Stephanie Izard called The Curious Chef produced by Tastemade and now on Hulu. That’s still so crazy to me. A whole episode on my life where I show one of the greatest chefs how to cook Thai and Peruvian food. From there I ended up working for Chef Steph during the summer of 2022. I mainly helped on the community outreach and events side but every now and then I had an itch to cook in the kitchen with her. One day she had an event where I met a bunch of entrepreneurs, I ended up having a conversation with a woman who offered her cafe to me to start my pop-up dinner series. I told her I wanted to do one but didn’t have a venue. So on December 8th, 2023 I had my first Britt’s Kitchen. A 4 course menu that highlighted my background of being Thai and Peruvian along with other regions as inspiration to create comfort food. It’s been so hard yet so rewarding. My staple dishes are my mom’s egg roll recipe and my chicken wings that come with a pepper sauce that I am working on bottling to sell in stores. I’m forever evolving this dream and I hope that it can pay off and be what can take care of my family and future family.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Comparison is the thief of joy and trust in the timing of your life.
There was vine, the blog era, there was Instagram and TikTok and I never took advantage of becoming a social media chef or influencer. I would beat myself up over starting too late or being lazy for not wanting to create content. I watched people take off and make a career out of it and kept thinking why not me? I had to remember what was unique to me and what I’m doing that others are not doing. Also NOT EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON SOCIAL MEDIA IS REAL. So many people put up a front like they’re ok, and really they could be so unhappy. I don’t know their life, so why am I comparing my life to theirs? I had to remember that my journey is mine and mine only. I started my business over 7 years ago and I don’t think I would be prepared to do what I’m doing now if it was any earlier.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

ABSOLUTELY. In the last 7 years I have gone through job layoffs, break ups, mental health issues, family issues, you name it. There was a period in my life where I couldn’t get out of bed for a good month and a half. That’s when I binge watched all 18 seasons of Top Chef. It was the only thing that didn’t trigger me. No one can take away my cooking skills away for me. It became my form of therapy. And sometimes when I have nothing to look forward to, I have my dinner series that I push through and feed 40 people a 4 course meal and prove to myself that I can do the hard things.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @brittaney.bunjong and @citrus_room
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittaneybunjong
• Other: tiktok – brittaney.bunjong

Image Credits

Mau Trejo, Amir Zahed, Audrey Wiltz