We recently connected with Kisha Washington and have shared our conversation below.

Kisha, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

My legacy is one that looks very different then when I started my journey. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do, but after starting a business through covid, I quickly realized what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to go.

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 was in Healthcare for over ten years and had decided one day, I want to do something different. I decided to go to culinary school, but quickly realized restaurant life was not for me. In 2014 I opened my own personal/ private chef business called TheKeyIngredient LLC providing upscale private dinners in clients homes. At the same time while working full-time in a doctors office. In 2019, i became a full-time entrepreneur.

Besides my business, I had also become a competition chef, competing in large cooking competitions around the US. My biggest accolades have been placing top 10 at the world food championships 5 of the 7 times being there with 3rd place in 2019 being my highest place. I have also won 2nd place best of the Fest, 1st place reunite chili challenge, 1st place and grand prize at the ncacs, numerous awards for dishes and concepts.

I have also been on food network with a show called bakers vs. Fakers, News reports for events, etc…

In 2020 my fiance and I had planned on starting a new business venture to help chefs and hospitality individuals. But he never got a chance to see it. He passed away by suicide January 20th 2020… this put my in a really dark place and needed to find away to not only help myself, but help others. I started an organization called Cookzcreed Foundation where we help chefs and hospitality individuals get scholarships, mental health and substance abuse resources and mentorship.

In the organization we provide a group where chefs can compete in cooking challenges, chef round table discussions, etc… we also have a Mindful chef platform for Tips into mental help, as well as partner with other organizations on mental health and hospitality policy.

The legacy I’m want to build is that you take care of yourself no matter the job or industry. Anyway we can help you achieve your goals is the key.

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

Resilience for me looks like being about to cope with hard times. When my fiance passed, it was totally unexpected. I had no idea what was happening. Plus, covid was just starting and that was a thing in itself. But the grief, disappointment, anger, sadness, ever single emotion had found a home in my body and I had no idea what to do with.

I quickly decided that therapy was my option. I started regular therapy and suicide lost/trauma therapy before I started the foundation. That way I could really work on my emotions and be useful with them in the founder. I was determined that I was not going to let my depression and hopelessness take over me. I spent 2 years in therapy, working on emotions, putting that Resilience into the organization and help others. It’s tough, but the reward is amazing. Every once in a while the grief sneaks up me, but I try and hold it, and let it pass when ready.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

For my personal chef business I would post every change I got with dinners, video, Meal Prep. Just by posting, help build my social media. With the foundation, I find that engaging or prompts help build my social media. Engagement I feel is a bit more authentic. Your telling your story, or sharing something personal with your audience. With the other, it’s video and pictures. Not much interaction, but visually appealing to the audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.cookzcreedfoundation.org, Www.thekeyingredientllc.com
• Instagram: @chefkish_dyan, @cookzcreedfoundation
• Facebook: Kisha Washington, Cookzcreed Foundation
• Linkedin: Kisha Washington