We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dena Qaddura a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dena , thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? We’d love to hear the backstory the illustrates how you grew your brand.

I grew up in the Middle Eastern Food business. My family has grocery stores as well as restaurants and I ran one of the restaurants with my mom. Cooking was second nature to me, but as any Palestinian mom, recipes written out were an issue. So as my friends and family started growing up and asking me to translate traditional recipes, I saw that there was a demand for this exact subject! Simplified Palestinian recipes and they had measurements! If you’ve ever had a teta give you a recipe you’d get a tea cup of this and a water cup of that hahaha! Also, my personal Instagram page had so many food pics that I was being told I might as well turn it into a food blog! That’s when I started Cookwithdena! I started writing down my recipes, as well as my hacks and tricks to simplify home cooking. And I had an amazing support circle. As soon as I started my page I realized Instagram was a whole other beast! There’s hashtags and @‘s companies as well as hackers. And my biggest downfall when I started was my picture quality. I’m very lucky that some big accounts saw what I had locked up in me, and they saw that I didn’t know how to execute my talent online. So I started taking pictures of everything I even bought my first camera and some backgrounds for my pictures. I didn’t know how to format recipes so that’s actually still kinda a work in progress. (I want to be the best I can be!) I’m my own worst critic so I take my work very seriously. To get seen online I started joining a three foodies groups to support our posts, reaching out to companies by simply tagging them on my stories as I was using them. Sharing my love of coffee has also been a part of Cookwithdena. It’s not easy, it’s very hard to always be on my toes and try to keep up with the new changes online. Especially the tiktok trend I can’t seem to get that one video that gets my page poppin there. Long story short it isn’t easy, three years later and I’m still learning and adapting to the changes. But Alhamdulilah, (thank Allah) I’m naturally an adaptable person. So I’m always willing to change up the way I record to kinda keep up with everyone. I’m always researching how to use my camera, looking for props and ways to simplify or explain our traditional meals as well as meals my family and I enjoy. I get a lot of followers that are either in love with our Palestinian cuisine, or are married to someone that misses their home cooking. I have a huge diverse reason for why my page grew the way it did and I couldn’t be more thankful!

Dena , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Dena Qaddura, I’m a Palestinian American. Born and raised in Texas, yes I’m a hijabi Texan! Proud of it too. Growing up in America, there wasn’t many restaurants or places that served and sold our Palestinian staples for our homes. I’m very very blessed that my father and his brothers sold their businesses to start what was and is still some of the largest Imported Middle Eastern Stores in USA. I’ve always been a foodie, my mom has always catered since I was little. And I’ve always been her sous chef, she used to call me her right hand. I’m honored for this title. When I got married, I then realized how poorly written our favorite recipes are. Also I realized how time consuming they were. So hacks and cutting corners is my middle name, I’m proud of it too. If you follow my account Cookwithdena you will see how easy I explain dishes and write out the recipes. I try to record video form so it’s visually teaching my followers as well. I think this definitely sets me apart.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I only work with companies that I actually like and use their products. If it’s a new company that reaches out to me, I have to try their product out or if it’s a food item I have to sample it and use it a couple times before working with them. So I’m very loyal to my partnerships because it’s not only a part of my job but it’s actually something I use in My daily life. I always tag them and keep great relationships with them.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I’ve been invited to purchase some, I’ve gotten lots of people reaching out to me to hop on the new money trend. But maybe I’m getting old…. I still don’t understand it. And I don’t feel like I want to…. 🙈

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.cookwithdena.com
• Instagram: Www.Instagram.com/Cookwithdena
• Linkedin: Cookwithdena
• Youtube: Cookwithdena
• Other: Tiktok: Cookwithdena Snapchat: Cookwithdena

Image Credits
All photos were taken by myself and edited by myself!