We were lucky to catch up with Mona and Neda Derakhshan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Neda and Mona, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
As daughters of immigrants, we were always pushed to go the extra mile in life. Cooking, hosting and creating beautiful cuisine is part of our culture, heritage, and one of the key elements of our upbringing. We both grew up in different parts of the word (Neda in Canada, Mona in Dubai), with similar passions, so when we met, we clicked on so many levels, mainly because we shared a passion of cooking, creating in the kitchen and watching our friends and family enjoy our edible creations, whether it was a graze board, traditional meals, appetizers or a simple spread. In 2020, we quarantined together and shared several meals and experiences together which led us to come up with the idea of implementing our passion of creating beautiful food, into a business. Fast forward to the summer of 2021, we bit the bullet, came up with a name, idea, concept and went into it headfirst, truly believing that when you do something you love, you will never work a day in your life.
We chose to create Charmezz in December 2021, and we have not looked back since. We have continued to create, grow, learn, and stay fluid with our ideas. It has been a fruitful and exciting few months, and we cannot wait for what continues to be in store for us moving forward.
We both thrive on feeding our loved ones and watching them enjoy our creations is so satisfying, we wish the same experience for our customers, and hope for them to also share our growth and enjoy our creations. Our goal is to show not only other immigrant women that anything is possible if you have a vision and drive.
Neda and Mona, 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?
We are female owned and operated, a team of two proud hard working moms, not only are we immigrants, but the first females in our families to own our own business. We curate stunning and luxurious charcuterie boxes, boards, platters and spreads. Both of us (Mona & Neda) are dedicated to our craft, and our work ethics are second to none. We literally take no days off and we try to accommodate all of our clients and their needs, even when we have received last minute orders. Despite our busy schedules, we take pride in our work and always provide our clients with our best.
We are most proud of the fact that we are mothers, business owners, and our customers love and trust our products and keep coming back.
Our company name is CharMezz, and our brand emphasizes on Charcuterie and Mezze ( which means small bites or appetizers)
That is what we provide to our customers.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
We met in 2017. We attended the same events, we instantly clicked, and eventually grew closer as friends. Our husbands are good friends, and that made our friendship more fluid and easier to maintain. In 2020, we grew even closer because not only were we already friends, but neighbors as well, with only a 3 minute drive separating us. Both our families in different countries, we found refuge in one another. With covid upon us, we decided to only see each other during those crazy times and our families grew closer as we shared many days , meals, and times together.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Social media is a great tool for new businesses, we love using instagram to promote our small business. We always try to follow trends on social media, when it comes to posting photos and videos or even music! Consistently adding new content and showcasing our work product, and showing our audience what we can provide to our customers via Instagram has been a crucial part of our business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.charmezz.com/
- Instagram: charmezAZ
- Other: EMAIL: [email protected]