We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Renee Cash a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Renee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
If I am being honest, I didn’t come with the idea, the idea has been who I am for as long as I can remember. I was the youngest child of a chef, my mother. Raied in Texas she choice me to go with her when she did parties or events. I would chop, dice, stir, and help her create the meals or dishes and because I was too young to actually serve, I would peer around the corners just to watch people eat the items and that became my greatest joy – the look on their faces when they took the first bite. As a young woman I was the person that friends would call on to host house parties either at my home or theirs’s. Renee’s Catering actually became the name when my sister was in a tight spot with her boss – when she needed to hire someone to cater a lunch meeting for twenty-five of his clients at the last minute. She called me and asked if I could do it. I did and at the end of the day she was asked who the caterer was, and her response was Renee’s. That was the beginning and twenty years later after much prayer and many conversations with family I decided to leave a position as a Human Resources Director at a hospital and launch out to pursue this passion and trust God for where it was destined to take. The rooms and places that I have entered in by Grace have thus far been amazing. I am still that little girl who gets so excited to see someone take that first bite of something that I have prepared. My brother tells me that you can taste the love in my food, just like with Mom and that is the greatest compliment. When that is confirmed to me by people whom I have never met, it is the confirmation that I am doing exactly what I was meant to do. The joy that it brings me I cannot explain.
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?
As I mentioned before, I was raised in Texas – San Antonio to be exact. I see myself as a talented self-taught cook with over 20 years of experience hailing from my mother’s kitchen, I decided to bring my passion for comfort food to the Midwest. After retiring from my role as a hospital HR Director at the age of 65, I pursued my own catering business full time, offering the same delicious and comforting dishes that I had perfected over the years. But that’s not all-I also have plans to open Chef’s Kitchen, a commercial kitchen that will provide access for aspiring food enthusiast in Trotwood, Ohio. I have a deep dedication to my craft and to my community I truly want to inspire other cooks to step into their dream and I can’t wait to see what God cooks up next for me. I am so proud of the fact that my adult children are proud of me for pressing past my fears, and not allowing my age to dictate what I could aspire to be.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Cooking, entertaining guest in my home, and helping with party events as always been a passion for me. I would do it for the joy of if. It was my husband who told me that I needed to get paid for what I did and not just be happy about folks wanting me prepare meal and stage parties for them. I had not really even considered that what I did could be a job, only a hobby. But then I read somewhere that if you are doing something that you love you will never feel like you are working. I have found that to be so true. Don’t get me wrong – catering is work, it is at times hard work, but you are meeting people most times at happy events and bringing that element of taste to their event. Stepping into this gift as a full-time job took the permission of the God who gave me the gift and the talent. I would not advise anyone to step out without knowing for certain that it is what you truly were meant to do. There are times when the fatigue of the work can cause you to think “okay I’m done” but the hope of the joy that awaits that first bite sighting is what pushes me. It still is not the money that motivates, it’s the passion, it’s the next event, it’s – who will meet in the serving line. It’s the joy of the unknown and the turning of the page to the next chapter of the book of Renee’s which is being written with every booking that I make. That is what keeps me moving.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I am truly not the best at this talent, so I surround myself with people who are. I am not afraid to say, “I don’t know” and when it comes to social media, I say that a lot. I am learning. This is a journey that ever evolving. I have had to hire folks who know this area I have hired photographers and video experts to make sure that I put out in social media reflects the best quality imaging of my dishes, my presentations, and my events. I am the cook; the chef and I stay in that lane and allow the gifts of those who can help me look my best in media showcase their gifts on my behalf.
