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

Kristi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I am a major foodie – everything from shopping for it, cooking and experimenting with recipes, photographing and creating beautiful displays, learning how it can impact overall health and of course…eating it. My passion for food goes back to my early childhood days when I would play “cooking show” and put together my very own experiments for my parents to “enjoy” [lol]. After graduating from college I moved to Chicago and ultimately took a plunge into a cooking career. I went to culinary school in the evening while working full time during the day. After graduating, I took a job in a high end restaurant that I was part of the team that earned their original Michelin star. I loved everything about creating delicious tasting and beautifully plated foods. I however developed a gluten intolerance and needed to change the way I was cooking for myself, and at the time gluten free products were not nearly as prevalent as they are now (back in 2009). I began developing gluten free recipes, moved back home to Michigan and started making and selling gluten free baking mixes at local farmers markets. I took on personal chef clients, and eventually my business and product offering developed into a health focused product that allows individual to not only enjoy what they were eating but also to feel their best in doing so. Today, Grace Savory & Sweet provides high quality, health conscious meals to a variety of clientele from busy individuals to elite athletes on over a dozen MLB teams!

Kristi, 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?

My name is Kristi, and I am a mother to 2 young daughters, a wife and a dog Mom of 2 weenie dogs (even my dogs are food related lol!!). I am a graduate from EMU, and also Le Cordon Bleu Chicago. I started up my business back in 2009, when I began working as a personal chef in Chicago. From there, after going through my own food sensitivity journey, I started developing gluten free baking mixes and selling them at farmers markets when I moved back home to the Detroit area and began establishing my personal chef clientele in my hometown. After a few years, business evolved, and I took the leap from a home based business to a brick and mortar operation – and we’ve been continuing to evolve and grow our base and offerings year over year!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

share their secrets (and trusted brands) with friends, and we aim to give our clients the same attention and care we would want to receive. We also know our limits, and do not overextend ourselves in scenarios where we do not believe we can sustain long term; not every client is a good client for a company, and sometimes it is best to not take on a client that we do not believe we would have the ability to provide that exact service they are looking for both us and them!

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

five years of getting off the ground. Be willing to put in 110% effort every day, do all of the things, learn every in and out of your business. BUT – know when it is time to get out of the “working IN your business” mode and shifting gears into “working ON your business”. In the beginning, you likely will HAVE to do it all in order to make ends meet, and to learn and grow. It’s very important however to hire, train and inspire a team to help you continue to operate, because you cannot sustain “doing all of the things” all of the time without burning out or holding your business’s potential growth back. Things that you can teach someone else on your team to do at least 75% as well as you do it, need to be delegated and handed over so that you can focus on your zone of genius and things that ONLY YOU can do. That can be extremely difficult to get used to doing at first – much like letting a caregiver watch your newborn child for the first time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gracesavorysweet.com
• Instagram: Gracesavorysweet
• Facebook: Gracesavorysweet
• Other: [email protected]