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

Marie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My husband and I moved back to Michigan from Chicago and found our home in charming, historic Milford. Adjusting to small town life was a bit of an adventure for us, but the town was so welcoming and we soon became acquainted with local shop owners and townspeople. I started Milford Kitchen, a free recipe website and, at the time, small-batch catering business. I was getting jobs from local businesses, catering grand openings and business luncheons, and I noticed that so many of the local businesses were owned and operated by women and thought how fantastic! I thought it’d be nice to get them together to share their knowledge and experiences, and so I started Women In Milford, a group dedicated to empowering local female entrepreneurs.

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 grew up in a suburb of Detroit; the youngest of five children and now the proud aunt of nine adorable nieces and nephews.

I surround myself with amazing, creative, friends who constantly blow me away with their talent and kindness. I was a ballerina most of my young adult life and danced at Disney World for two years. I love reading, writing, movies and music, and ran an independent record label out of Detroit for a few years.

In 1999, my college english professor introduced me to another kid in my class, telling him “Nick Campbell, meet Marie Kelly, she’s all you’re going to need.” I made him a mix tape and gave it to him the next week. On may 2, 2015, Nick gave me back that mix tape in front of the college where we met, only this time, there was a ring inside. I married the love of my life on September 5, 2015. The reception was at a rollerskating rink.

I make him breakfast almost every morning.

He calls me his Punk Rock House Wife.

While my work background is IT management, my passion has always been cooking. I love to serve; from dinner parties to backyard barbecues. I use cookbooks as a basis for meals, but I love to tweak the recipes and make them my own. I’ve explored cooking different kinds of meals from vegan dinners for marathon trainers to steak tartare on a special occasion.

I love french cooking, but can’t always indulge. I love hispanic food in the summer, comfort food in the winter, and make the best stromboli (aside from my sister) you can enjoy all year.

I also love collaborating with other local companies, like Milford Spice, as a Marketing Chef; creating recipes and taking photos for their social media outlets.

In addition to Milford Kitchen, I started Women In Milford, a group for female entrepreneurs in Milford and its surrounding areas. The focus of the group is to help each other grow in any/every way possible, whether it’s partnering with or simply supporting each others’ businesses (through social media, in person, etc).

After more than 10 years in Chicago, Nick and I decided to move back home to be near our families. We looked everywhere in Metro Detroit. Nick actually found our home based on the pictures of the kitchen, knowing it was exactly what I’d want. Once I saw it, I fell in love. We moved into our beautiful home in Milford, Michigan, where we live with our two dogs, Murphy and Artie.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Milford Kitchen is first and foremost a free recipe website, but before the pandemic hit, I was doing a lot of catering and teaching small classes in town. But the surge of Covid-19 created so many challenges in that area, so I had to make a big change and remove that aspect from the business.

What could have been the end of Milford Kitchen ended up being the best thing for me. Instead of catering, I rebranded as a Marketing Chef, creating recipes for and taking photos of ingredients that companies produce. For example, Milford Spice has been a fantastic client; I take their spices and create recipes with those spices and take photos of the food, which they use to market their spice packs in stores.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Milford Kitchen’s audience isn’t huge, but my followers are very engaged. Every day, I ask a question about cooking (preferences of kitchen tools, favorite dishes to make with certain ingredients, what cooking style is best for you, etc.) and the response is fantastic! I feel like I’m getting to know my audience in a really personal way, and they in turn get to know me. I get a ton of DMs asking for cooking tips on a daily basis, I have them sharing recipes of mine they’ve made, and some even come up to the shop in town I work at to say hi and chat. It’s a really close-knit community, and I absolutely love the personal relationships I’ve made with them through social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.milfordkitchen.com and www.womeninmilford.com
• Instagram: @milfordkitchen and @womeninmilford

Image Credits
Marie Kelly and Jessica Riley