Today we’d like to introduce you to Hakeem (ChefKeem) Hooker.
Hi ChefKeem, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I got started in my career by accident in high school. I went to a trade school for high school, so along with the academic curriculum, you study a trade for all four years. On the last day to turn in my trade application, my Good Friend Kippie took my sheet and wrote culinary arts on the form as a prank. As I matriculated through my high school career, I ended up liking the class. Overall, I was able to graduate first of my class with multiple food and safety certificates. While there, I was fortunate enough to start a nonprofit organization with a few friends. This nonprofit “Strong Men Overcoming Obstacles Through Hard-work” (S.M.O.O.T.H.) was created as an all male mentoring and community service organization.
At this point, my dream was to become a chef of my own restaurant, so I attended Morgan State University to study Hospitality Management and minor in marketing. After graduating I got my career job of Executive Chef of a multimillion-dollar account. After 3 years there I, along with the rest of the management team was fired. This leads me to start my own catering company. Over the next 3 years, I’d work to build my company to a 6 figure business. I was able to cook for a variety of celebrities such as Meek Mill, Nipsey Hussle, 2 Chainz, Shy Glizzy, Kevin Blackistone, and more.
THEN COVID CAME !!!
Even though I was fortunate enough to remain in business throughout the pandemic, it didn’t come without some stress and pivoting. Now my company is a meal prep company that focuses on delivering healthy but still flavorful food to our clients.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This road has not always been easy. I started a journey of building an empire from nothing, I would’ve been foolish to expect an easy path. BUT at some point, I almost hit my breaking points. I downsized my living expense and moved in with my best friend in order to cut expenses. I had my car repossessed. Those are some of the bigger struggles that I had to go through.
There are other struggles that I believe every entrepreneur goes through such as the negative energy from others, having a lack of support, lack of funding for small African American owned business, the lack of business knowledge and going through the learning curve WHILE operating the business.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So “DinnerClub Meal Plans” is a meal prep company that focuses on healthy meal options which are also flavorful. As an athlete growing up and someone who subscribes to a relatively healthy lifestyle, I have seen the opportunity to incorporate my lifestyle into my business. What makes this special to me is that it doesn’t feel like work, it feels like I’m educating or at least assisting in the education of my clients.
Each person comes in with a need, most of the time we offer our suggestions with food items that will help them achieve their goal as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Along with my degree and continued education, my cousin is a Registered Dietician with her Master’s. So I’ve outsourced to her some of the areas that may be compelling for her to show guidance.
After all the educational factors, and the willingness to work with each Individual even if their dietary restrictions maybe a little more complicated to complete logistically; I think the main factor that sets us apart from other meal prep companies is the fact that I still use my culinary talent to make sure that all of the food items are flavorful and well presented. We eat with our eyes first, so all the food needs to look presentable, colorful, seasoned, and garnished.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Man, I think everyone has learned lessons throughout COVID. Most of them have been life lessons. For example, I think we as Americans took for granted general cleanliness. If you see pictures of mass crowds, or go months without cleaning a simple doorknob or back of the cell phone, etc. I can say that we also learned not to take life for granted. I take the time to reach out to my family and friends more often just to check in.
As an adult, I think it’s important to have financial security, no matter what that looks like to you. For me, it’s multiple streams of income, life insurance, health insurance, passive money-making opportunities.
For my business, I’ve also learned a massive amount. It’s important in business to be fluid. Billion-dollar companies like Kodak and Wing Stop for example changed their entire business model in order to adapt to the times. Also, it’s important to have great customer service. Customers feel good knowing that an establishment is clean to the Covid standard. But when you think about it, this level of cleanliness you see when you walk into a restaurant should have always been the standard.
Pricing:
- $227 for 15 meals
- $157 For 10 meals
- 107 for 5 meals
- A la Carte meals
Contact Info:
- Email: contact@dinnerclublifestyle.com
- Website: www.dinnerclublifestyle.com
- Instagram: @chefkeem @_dinnerclub
Image Credits
Hakeem Hooker
