We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brittianna Robinson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brittianna below.
Brittianna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
The process of going from idea to execution for me was an eventful, expanding thrill. Like the late rapper, Nipsey Hustle said in a song, “I went through every emotion while trying to pursue what I’m doing.” Following my idea to create Nana’s Secret, I began execution by educating myself in various areas. Obtaining my Associates in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management was my first step. Second, I enrolled in an entrepreneurial development program. Although it was tough balancing a tight schedule, I knew that in order to reach my goals in the time frame I envisioned, it was mandatory that I maximized the use of my time. My days were long and my sleep was short for the next two years following my initial idea. At times I found myself feeling discouraged to continue seeking what seemed to be unreachable from my current state. Nonetheless, through intentional prayer, alone time with God, exceedingly hard work and faith, my path gradually became more and more clear as the months went on. I began receiving more opportunities to cater events, more opportunities to provide cooking classes to foster youth and even receiving grants to help me purchase equipment for Nana’s Secret. We’d be here all 2025 if I started naming all of the lessons I learned along the way so I’ll leave y’all with the most important lesson. Trust God’s timing! God will give you a vision for your next level while you’re in present time. He will not give you a vision without making it known the tangible steps for you to take to bring that vision to prevision. It’s important to act on the vision given or the great idea you’ve been sitting on in a timely manner, be careful not to procrastinate too long because you could miss your window of opportunity.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Very truly I tell you, I am living a 1 Corinthians 2:9 lifestyle. One of the true definitions of “started from the bottom now I’m here,”but I still have so much further to go. I was a poorly behaved kid due to me mismanaging the pain I felt from loosing my father at the hands of the Pasadena Police at the age of 4, and the shame of not being enough for my mother to kick her crack addiction to be in my life. However, I was blessed with two grandmother’s that loved me and constantly showed up for me in the best way they knew how. My Nana was the most amazing cook in the town where I was raised, Hanford, CA. That gift surely rubbed off on me, I developed my love for cooking and catering to people from her. Nana’s Secret was created in her name and honor for the purpose of bringing familial comfort to our customers just like she did in our family for years. Nana’s Secret currently provides life skill cooking classes to systemically impacted youth across Los Angeles County. We believe that youth are the most important individuals living because they are blessed to have so much of the future ahead of them. I personally believe that empowering our youth is the key to a successful future in our Los Angeles community and beyond.
A problem that needs to be solved today is the lack of complete family settings, especially in minority families. In 2018 alone, 9,279 children were removed from their homes in LA County. Which results in an increase of detained youth and an exceeding amount of foster youth placed under suitable housing orders. Nana’s Secret aims to solve this issue by providing home made meals made with love to feed souls through stomaches. With so many youth being separated/abandoned by their families, this is one of the small ways to provide them with a sense of home and love.
What sets my business and I apart from others is that all of my actions and engagements are purposefully considered through my creator, The Lord Jesus Christ. At the age of 13, following the death of my Nana, my behavior continued to worsen and I landed myself on juvenile probation. From age 13-17, I was in and out of juvenile detention centers, camps and placements. By the age 19, I was considered a survivor youth advocate for victims of sexual exploitation. From that point forward, I dreamed of combining my culinary endeavors with my advocacy work and ever since then, God has truly been blessing my efforts. My obedience to the Lord is what I’m most proud of because only through a few actions of small faith and obedience, so many blessings and great things began and continue to flow in and through my life. All the glory to God… I want anyone reading this to know that I am not perfect! I fall short and struggle everyday but everyday I remember where I came from and remind myself of the times I wanted what I actually have today. Sometimes I aim so high that I forget I’m already living my dream! Be patient with yourself and buckle up for the ride. Having a mindset of gratitude is the attitude that keeps my engine running.
You got this! Proverbs 3:5-6
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A hard lesson I had to unlearn is that “hustle hard sleep when I’m dead” mentality. Overall, learning to trust and understand that money is not the key to succeeding in life. I’m actually in the process of unlearning this now because when you grow up like me, having no financial or emotional support from family, and no one to depend on when you’re having a dry season. Culture will trick you into working yourself to sickness and almost death. I struggled with feeling like if I didn’t do something, it wont get done or it wont get done right or it wont get done fast enough. It took for me to fail with a great fall for me to realize I was my own downfall by trying to perform everything by myself. Trying to help everyone around me instead of minding my own business and locking in for myself. Pouring from an empty cup and then depending on my bank account and frivolous spending to pour back into myself. The backstory of me developing this mindset came from my childhood upbringing. On my mother’s side we were poor. At the end of the month, I remember the food stamps running out and me having to make myself a mayonnaise sandwich for dinner. I would also steal out of other kids lunches at my elementary school. Nonetheless, on my father’s side of my family they had money. When I would visit them in Pasadena, CA I recall going out to eat, attending amusement parks and experiencing what it was like to be financially stable. Going to middle school in Pasadena, I was teased for the non name brand clothes my grandma bought for me. This is where my lifelong insecurities began to brew. Fast forwarding into my young adult life I had a fire inside of me to be able to afford all the nice name brand clothes I never had before. That’s where an idolization for money in my life came from. With this being said, through therapy and seeking God’s face I received the revelation that money doesn’t buy happiness and it is not the key to success. Success begins where your comfort zone ends!
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
When COVID-19 hit America that’s when my creative juices begin to flow as it relates to culinary arts. Although my Nana passed down a passion for cooking to me, I never had dreams of owning a food establishment until 2021. Growing up in the system, I gained years of experience working in the kitchen. This experience gave me the confidence I needed to make an IG post and sell Enchiladas from my transitional housing apartment. This side hustle began as a spare of the moment money mission but the positive feedback I received about the taste of my food sparked my business mindset. Regardless of the fact that what I was doing was completely unorganized. I wasn’t giving people forks or napkins with their food and I didn’t even have change… lol looking back I’m surprised that people even supported my efforts. In 2022, I enrolled myself in Culinary Arts & Restaurant Management courses at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. This was the ultimate experience I didn’t know I needed, I met so many amazing chefs that later helped me cater my first big catering events, built relationships with phenomenal chef instructors that have consistently given me game and tools for my success and most importantly, I was able to learn the ins and outs of owning a food business. Following my graduation in 2024, I being seeing business picking up for Nana’s Secret. For the 2024 holiday season, we had the honor of catering 9 holiday parties and filling over 30 orders of sides and desserts for community members and organizations in LA County. With God I know that all this was made possible and I’m so excited to see whats in store for Nana’s Secret in the future.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Nanas.secretla
- Facebook: Brittianna Raquel Robinson
- Linkedin: Brittianna Raquel Robinson
Image Credits
Kim Alexis Photography – Green Blazer & Red/White Chef Hat Professional Pictures