We recently connected with Michelle Wells and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My Mother and Father both worked hard to provide for us as a family when myself and my siblings were young – My dad had a job as an engineer but also built houses on the weekend and did drafting as a side gig for people – We had a garden and my mother and grandmother pickled, canned and froze the summer vegetables – I never knew what a cellophane wrapped dessert tasted like until I was in my teens – we had fresh baked bread, desserts and something new to eat everynight – they did all of these things so that we could have the opportunity to have a great education which I appreciate but what I appreciate more is the work ethic that I learned from them both!

Michelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I always new I wanted to be a chef – but in the late 80’s it was not a trendy, popular or well paying job so I headed off to college to become a lawyer – lol – I quickly realized I really wanted to pursue the culinary path no matter how difficult it was probably going to be. I worked hard, was really lucky and continue to believe a lot of my success was being in the right place at the right time! Events with Taste is a food driven company and we put 80% of our focus on our menus and product development – The fact that ALL of our menus are custom and we go out of our way to create and craft new menu items for all of our clients really sets us apart from most other caterers. We are also a full service caterer so when you sign on with us you do not have to worry about anything regarding service from start to finish – rentals, china, bartenders, service team, linens, set up, clean up – we take all of the stress out of logisitics and execution for you! Probably the thing I am most proud of is my TEAM – we accomplish a lot of things together and they are the back bone of our success – I might have the ideas but they execute them all at 120% effort!! (and of course we are proud of surviving covid)

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

advice from friends and family – Events with Taste has a fantastic reputation in the market for having amazing food and service – unfortunately my personal reputation did not live up to the same high standards – for a long time we would hear things like “we love events with taste; but Michelle can be a bit unapproachable” I think being in the back of the house for so long gave me more of a kitchen mentality and less of a “business” owner mentatlity – but through some coaching from good friends, mentors and family I think I have come out the other side – I may not be perfect but I am learning to think through my thoughts before I spill them out as “angry word vomit” lol.

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

4 or 5 years into the business we decided to expand our brick and mortar restaurant to also give us a bigger kitchen space – it was necessary but possibly not the greatest move – the expenses grew quicker than the business and while we were trying to focus on growning the catering we were ignoring the fact that we went from 40 seats to almost 165 – utilities, rent, insurance, payroll it all grew faster than we did. We spent about a year robbing peter to pay paul and with that anxiety came frustation and tears – I also become really sick during that period and was in the hospital multiple times (possibly stress induced) but we never gave up and came out the other side – It is nice we can speak about it now in a joking manor but during that time it was really not funny or fun at all.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ewtcaters.com
• Instagram: @eventswithtaste
• Facebook: eventswithtaste