Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Juliette Haegglund. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Juliette thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My business started as a result of exploring my three passions – food, traveling and teaching. Cooking and entertaining have always been a passion of mine, and how could it not be growing up in a home where dinner parties took the place of camping trips organized by a hostess who was the magna cum laud of her graduating year at Le Cordon Bleu Academy in Paris…..My mother…my inspiration – the Lady Jane Kobani.

A few years ago, I rediscovered this passion when I went to Australia on a work assignment and was inspired by the flavorful and varied ingredients and amazing restaurants in Melbourne. I even had the opportunity to spend some time working at the five star kitchen! A year later, I had the opportunity to explore one of my other passions – traveling. I took a year off to travel the world. Inspired by the fabulous food and fresh ingredients, I decided to combine this wonderful adventure with my other passion – food. I took cooking classes in all the countries I visited and ate my way around the globe. The result, my book “World Cuisine – My Culinary Journey Around the World’. Having lived in 9 countries and visited over 50, I have had the opportunity to try dishes from all over the world. I feature dishes from 20 countries enabling me to merge two of my great passions – food and traveling. Most of my recipes have been inspired by places I have been and are associated with very special memories. My recipes are a combination of many of my own creations, some of my Mom’s creations and some classic recipes with an added Juliette touch.

Then I got an idea of a way to explore my third passion – teaching. I had cooking classes as one of the promotional events for the launch my World Cuisine cookbooks. The classes filled so quickly and were a hit! I decided to start my cooking school, “The World in Juliette’s Kitchen” where I create amazing new recipes and share my passion for food with my clients.

My business is truly one of passion as it is my three passions that brought me to it.

Juliette, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a cookbook author, food photographer and personal chef. My World Cuisine cookbooks are unique in that they combine cuisine from 20 countries in 5 continents. I am a cookbook collector and I realized I had cookbooks for different cuisine and I though it would be great to just have one cookbook with food from different countries. My World Cuisine cookbooks come in 3 volumes. Volume 1 has breakfast and brunch, appetizers, main dishes and desserts. Volume 2 has sauces and volume 3 has side dishes. I decided to have these separate books so if one is making a meal with a main dish, side dish and sauce, you can have all three books open at the same time instead of flipping between pages in the same book. Another very unique characteristic of my cookbooks is that I have stories, poems, anecdotes or fun facts about the countries the dishes are from. Some of my customers don’t cook, but they buy my books to enjoy the fun stories and beautiful full-page photos.

My cooking school is unique in that I tailor the menu to whatever theme my client would like. I also make my recipes simple yet delicious and cooking is done in a homely atmosphere to make my clients feel comfortable. Some examples of themes I have done are – The Great Gatsby (roaring 20’s themed decadent dinner party), Eat, love, pray (an Italian themed dinner for girlfriends), Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate (a bachelorette party with chocolate everything including chocolate pasta and a chocolate fountain), Falling in love with fall (an autumn themed dinner party), Seafood retirement luncheon, Chez Juliette (A French themed dinner) and the list goes on and on.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I had started out initially not planning to write a cookbook, I was just enjoying living in a city with amazing produce and restaurants (Melbourne, Australia) which inspired me to create and photograph amazing dishes. I was learning about food photography, taking courses online and practicing. Naturally I got better with time. Then one day I realized I had 100’s of photos and decided to turn them into a cookbook. I knew absolutely nothing about the publishing industry. I started working with a very talented designer and when I proudly turned in my photos for the cookbook, she told me about half of them were unusable. I was devastated. Then, as I went through the photos that could not be used, I realized these were the first photos I had taken and my technique has improved significantly over time. This made me feel good as I realized I had grown as a food photographer. I decided not to let this setback stop me. I would have to re-cook and re-photograph almost a hundred dishes while taking care of a one-year-old and working my day job but I was not deterred. I took some of the most beautiful photos in my book and published a high-quality cookbook as a result.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

My business almost shut down during the pandemic. In-person cooking classes where no loner possible and I had to cancel all my book signings which are a major source of revenue for book sales. I did not let that stop me. I started a YouTube channel and started virtual cooking classes. I also, decided to write my 4th cookbook – Raising a Healthy Eater – quick and easy recipes for babies, toddlers and kids. I focused on digital marketing for this cookbook. All these efforts helped my business survive the pandemic.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dreamsoffood.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliettes_dreams_of_food/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamsoffood
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliette-h-08a895140/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1pffn8NaaRa54s5aOPQR2Q
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
Juliette Haegglund