We recently connected with Justin Gwyn and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Justin, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My passion for cooking came from a young age. As far back as my middle school years I vividly remember watching the array of weekend cooking shows and finding a true sense of art and expression in taking a bunch of individual ingredients, putting them together and making something both visually appealing and delicious too. I learned the craft from my mother who took the time to show me recipes and allowed me to create dishes in her kitchen.

Initially out of high school I choose to pursue my basketball dreams in college and put off culinary school for later down the line. In hindsight, I know now that my true calling was in the kitchen creating and despite my delayed start to opening J. Gwyn’s Kitchen, the growth I’ve experienced being more mature and prepared to run a startup business has benefited me tremendously. I graduated from Clark Atlanta University with a Marketing degree and I’ve learned so much how good marketing can open up paths for a startup chef. There are some really talented chef in and around the Atlanta area and for me what separates most chefs in the city are the details, your marketing, your preparation, your execution.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Chef Justin, the owner of J. Gwyn’s Kitchen. I specialize in catering and private dining and cooks. One of the biggest stressors of planning any event or gathering is “what do feed your guest?” and hoping that everyone at the event enjoyed their time there. I take that stress away! Cultivating a delicious menu for a simple dinner for two, or large gathering like birthday celebrations, surprise proposals, weddings, baby showers, going away dinner, family graduations, etc.

After working in corporate America for several years after college I was actively looking to work for myself and pursue my passion in the kitchen. I started out by selling individual dinner plates to local friends and family. Word of mouth spread fast which is a critical element of growth in the culinary business. I grew quickly from doing dinner plates to my first celebratory brunch for 20. From there my focus was on consistency and and using each event to market my business for the next event. I think for me, I am most proud in the fact that I started my business from scratch! I came into the business with the desire and passion, but without the culinary backing of a degree from a prestigious school. Everything I’ve earned in this business has come from hard work, consistency, and by earning my clients trust with their most precious events and moments in their life. Exceeding their expectations and making their visions come to life with delicious food that’s presented with careful craft and skill.

J. Gwyn’s Kitchen isn’t just about making good food, it’s about bring the art of cooking to life and delivering on the vision of each client!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being a private chef requires going into your clients home and creating a menu that exceeds their expectations, but sometimes there are challenges along the way to that goal. Year one of my business, I was hired to cook a menu for a client at an Air BnB for a surprise birthday celebration. The client had not inspected the residence prior to my arrival and we both arrived at the venue at the same time. Upon entering the residence I discovered the kitchen was lacking a stove and two of the four eyes on the stovetop were not working. This is truly a nightmare scenario for a chef with only 3 hours to pull off the menu. I quickly shifter gears to try and pull off the menu and still maintain the timing of the food which was critical to the surprise element of the dinner celebration. Switching from baking items on the menu to sautéed items instead, and working at a much faster pace was what was necessary to have a chance to meet my clients expectations. Being flexible and prepared makes all the difference and my client enjoyed a lovely dinner without never knowing the hurdles I had to overcome throughout the night service. My clients don’t pay me to make excuses, they pay me to execute on the promise of the menu I outlined for them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As I’ve mentioned before, marketing is essential to the growth of a chef’s business. Constantly promoting your menu, your creations, your events and clients happy feedback. I’m 2020 I rolled out my most popular dessert to date, my Peach Cobbler Cheesecake. I posted video footage of the new dessert and I immediately began to get a ton of requests from last clients and new clients requesting individual orders of the dessert. Despite my initial hesitation, I decided to accept orders for the cake which quickly became my full time focus, fulfilling orders for just cheesecakes. While I knew I had a hit item on my hands, I quickly realized I was getting off track with my brand doing cheesecakes only. The intention was for my cheesecakes to be a delicious menu item for clients who wanted catering or private cook services. There are some truly amazing chefs who specialize in baking as their brand but J. Gwyn’s Kitchen specializes in savory breakfasts, brunches, and dinners, so I did not want to stray away from years of successful branding. It was hard breaking away from constant requests for individual cheesecake orders, but I was able to revision my popular dessert as part of catering menu as initially planned.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://app.indiechef.io/menu/j_gwyns_kitchen
• Instagram: jgwyn_kitchen
• Other: TikTok chefjgwyn

Image Credits
J. Gwyn’s Kitchen LLC