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

Hi Jacki, 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’ve worked in the restaurant industry since I was 15, I started as a hostess and quickly moved to the kitchen where my passion was. The industry took me all over the place along with schooling. In 2010 I moved to Florida and began working for Marriott World Center and a fabulous Caterer. The catering job allowed flexibility that the restaurants did not offer, so began the thought in the back of my mind.

In 2013, my husband and I made the decision to move back to Michigan to be closer to family since we were pregnant with our first child. We both transferred with Ocean Prime and began our lives back home.

Upon moving home and realizing working two night time positions would be bad for a new baby I decided to start my catering company. My friend who always enjoyed eating my food told me that it made her happy and I should call it Eat Happy Catering, and so it began.

I stuck with working my “real” job, but moved to mornings and began catering on the side. Small stuff at first but then I started getting more and more jobs for catering and my hours at Ocean Prime began to dwindle. Along the way I met a woman who had cancer, she asked me if I could start meal prepping for her with cancer fighting foods, i agreed and began my research. Once a week i was supplying her with a few meals and eventually others found out and asked if i could send the menus to them, and all of a sudden I was running a healthy based meal prep company as well. I left Ocean Prime right before the pandemic hit but was able to sustain my meal prep business through contactless pick up. I now run my catering company, my meal prep company and do private chef dinners (mostly auctioned off) for my surrounding area. It gives me flexibility for my two children to make sure I am always around for their activities and still making money for our family. My meal prep company helps local families, mostly moms, have a nice healthy home cooked meal with out breaking the bank. I love creating new menus each week for people and exceeding expectations!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My passion for food came at a young age. My grandfather was a chef and my dad loved to cook. I learned at an early age how good food could be, my dad often made us pastas and risottos opposed to casseroles and meatloaf.

I got in to the restaurant industry at 15 years old and haven’t turned back. Ive worked every position in the kitchen and was a server and bar tender for some time (lets face it the money is better). But the kitchen is always where I have belonged, its what I know and what I do well.

Eat Happy Catering functions in many ways…

My catering company is focused on creating new menus for people based on what they want opposed to the options i have for them. I always try to be flexible to peoples needs and accommodate any price point. I love the creativeness and challenge of making different things based on different ethnicities and even dietary restrictions. It is so fun to meet different people, from different walks of life, and help throw a fantastic celebration based on what they want.

My meal prep company is a weekly based menu, I send my menu out on Thursdays and orders are due by Saturday night. I shop on Sundays and begin prep then finish cooking and packaging on Monday for Monday night pick ups. My menus are not based on any certain diet but are based more towards a healthy lifestyle. I use clean oils, lean proteins (with vegetarian options), fresh fruits and vegetables with little to no gluten or dairy. It great for people with busy lifestyles, people who don’t enjoy cooking but hate eating out all the time and people who have a hard time cooking for just themself.

I also offer a private chef experience where I go to peoples houses and cook for them based on a menu we design together. I am able to source almost any product so it is fun to create menus with people based on all the things they want. They are usually for 8 to 12 people and can even have a wine pairing with them. It is one thing I like to donate to charities to auction off as it can bring in quite the sum of money.

When working for Cameron Mitchell, they teach you “yes is the answer, what is the question?”, its one of the things I like to think about when working for people. If there is something they want and I can pull off, it is no problem. And if I can’t I will try to find someone who will.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Referrals, which is always the best. It means they actually like what you are offering.

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

I think the fact that I’m super flexible and am able to roll with the punches really helps. I know it can be hard to throw a party and make decisions for a crowd of people so I try to be as flexible as possible. I think between that and my creative freeness, people really enjoy the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.eathappycatering.com
• Instagram: @jax3983 and @eathappycatering
• Facebook: Eat Happy Catering and Eat Happy Meal Prep
• Linkedin: Jacki Gatt