We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joe Muscarello a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Joe, thanks for joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?
The short and easy answer is that I wished I would’ve gone in business for myself sooner. However honestly, I would say that the timing was perfect only because you need to be able to process and learn from your experiences.
Initially I started my first Personal Chef / Catering Business in mid 2014, prior to that I had stepped away from Private Clubs and Restaurants to run a Non-Profit / Low Income Retirement Community. Over the years leading up to that point I noticed I was stuck in a pattern or loop if you will. I would sign on to a restaurant excitedly to learn or change the menu, work with some of the staff that I either knew or really wanted to work and learn from. However a few months down the road you start to fall into a rut, or at least I would. The routines, processes and everything just seem to feel like you are living on autopilot, and after 6 months or more I would start looking for my next bit of excitement. At this point I would question my choices and only look to correct by changing establishments.
Around 2011 I made a jump to a Non-Profit Low Income Retirement Community looking to get rest and stabilize a little from all the hopping I had done. Initially I signed on as a Sous Chef and this was the easiest Sous position ever, a perfect place to lick my wounds and plan for the next step. About 6 months in the Food and Beverage Manager / Executive Chef had quit and while helping them transition, I had talked with the Director of the Community about taking the role since I knew the routine and staff.
Over the next 3 years I really challenged the idea of what could be done in such a facility and took them from about 65% from scratch to about 90% when I left. From Salads, to Soups, to Entrees, to Desserts, I pushed my team to create and standardize. However like any other Food and Beverage role, turnover is insane. I would spend weeks working open to close 7 days per week: rehiring, training, evaluating, covering any open shift. Soon I was back in burnout mode. I would stabilize everything and then take 4 days off (after 7-8 weeks working straight) and the first 2 days would always be laundry and some sort of cold or flu. It was just unhealthy, but I accepted it believing this to be normal life.
In mid 2014 when I stepped away to build my own Chef Company I had way more free time starting out than I had had in years. During this time I started to really look at my habits, which ones worked and which ones kept me stuck. The reason I mentioned the Retirement Community was that it was a great place to see human nature and how are beliefs work in our reality. You would see people who were stuck in their mind by some sort of event years (like decades in some instances) prior, and when I was there I made a choice that I will not carry such baggage in my life, and I will not allow my past to shape my future.
That experience was a true blessing and has allowed me to continue to challenge myself in the benefit of serving others every day.
Joe, 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?
I am Chef Joe, a Personal Chef. From Weekly Meal Prep to Classes/Teambuilding’s to Caterings, and I even consult and ghost write recipes for other businesses.
My main mission when I started my business in 2014 was to connect People to their Ingredients. It is easy to focus on one or the other when in Restaurants and Private Clubs, but rarely does an establishment get both in sync where the guest honestly feel it. With this, I design everything around our conversation, no matter the occasion. Some of my favorite conversations start with “I am not sure if you can do this, but…”. Then fun and challenge begins.
For the Weekly Meals everything is designed around the person and or household. We review what you would love to get out of the service, then I take care of everything from the planning, shopping, cooking and all you have to do is make it to your fridge. I even get referred out by Doctors and Naturopaths to help people with their specific diets. To know I am taking their frustration of planning, shopping and cooking out of their day so they can focus on healing is an awesome feeling. And yes, that means I shop at the places you prefer.
Classes and Team Buildings I have done everything from teaching the basics, to helping people learn to cook specific diets to 40+ people team buildings. Even ones where the food gets donated to a charitable cause afterwards.
Caterings can be anything from a Date Night to Weddings to Themes to Celebration of Life’s. Some of the locations have been truly amazing from Alaska down to Portland, and Scottsdale up to Sedona. There is a lot of great scenery out there, and having the knowledge and flexibly to be apart of those travels is amazing! I mean who else can say they got to Dog Sled while working.
Consulting is always fun. A lot of what I do is mainly either in Operational effectiveness (training, creating procedures and putting together systems to audit and correct issues) or Personal Training in helping individuals get through hurdles in their lives. Sometimes you just need that outside perspective to help you see the next step or path. A lot of both are done online, I would say the tools to do so just keep getting better.
I’d say what sets me apart from some of the others is really the connection to my clients. I still remain close to some of my old households even though geographically I am not around, the honor of being part of their families is something I carry with me in my travels.
If I could express one thing to a potential client, I guess it would be Give the Service a try. The time you will get back to focus on other areas of your life will more than pay for itself.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think it was around 2022, Covid was going strong and I was still in Washington State. Every time it looked like the lockdown was going to lift, another Covid surge and we’d be back to square 1. At this same time my father was in Arizona and had not been doing well for a while, so the combination of everything just seemed to point towards me needing to move and come back to Az.
It was very difficult to shut down something I had spent years building with love. My company not just had my name, but was a reflection of everything I wanted to do – helping and serving people. teaching, and even all the charitable donations and events I was able to do. It was tough.
When I got here I took a desk job just to keep working, but when you go from being in or of service to another employee number, very tough transition. So after about a year when all the dust had started to settle, I embarked on starting fresh and using all the lessons I had learned over the years.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
For many years as an employee or manager for various establishments you sort of accept the pay is what your time is worth. But is that correct? NO!
I remember when I first started out years ago, I was so nervous to raise my prices, but I had a client that wanted a very specific service. And while I was trying my best to appease, I will still in the Employee mode and that fear was hindering the evolution of his service. Then one day I was explaining what would have to change to move his ideas forward and expecting surely this would be the end of his service, but then he countered with something unexpected. He said, “Joe I don’t care, I trust you and I want this to happen. Please figure out how to make this work.”.
That lesson allowed me break free of traditional charging beliefs and open the flood gate of creativity in benefit of the people I serve. It taught me that I needed to start respecting my time, not just the time of others. From that point forward I spent more time trying to work with and supporting other local businesses, and rarely will I take a discount. I am happy to pay for your time as others have with me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thechefjoe.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thechefjoe_dot_com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seattlechefjoe
- Other: Google Review:
https://g.co/kgs/fdrZnxQ
