Today we’d like to introduce you to William Raheem.
Hi William, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It’s interesting because I have always loved cooking, and being creative in the kitchen but never thought of it as my life’s work. When I was young my mother would always let me experiment in the kitchen by creating my own season blends and marinades. She loves preparing meals and seeing her family enjoy them. If she wasn’t cooking at home she would be whipping up a church repass at tabernacle Baptist where we all grew up and later at Mohammed Mosque #4 making meals for after the Sunday meetings. Making sure others have a good meal has always been one of her ways to give back and serve others. I totally inherited that from her. Being a chef was never something that was even on my radar. I went to bowie state and studied Sociology and worked in the optical industry for almost 20 years. A few years ago I completed EMT training, which was something I had always wanted to do. My father is a retired DC paramedic and I always loved what he did. It was something that actually came naturally to me. I was in the process of looking for a Job as an EMT when I met my now wife and our two boys. One of our sons is on the spectrum and when I realized that I wanted to marry her I also realized that he would need a father that has time to devote to his special needs so I decided to no longer pursue being an EMT. My wife asked me if I would be ok making that decision. I told her that I am naturally good at a lot of things and I’m sure I will find something else I love to do.
Being a Chef still had not come to mind for me.
Fast forward to the pandemic shutting everything down and now I am home as a full-time dad and teaching assistant since the boys now have online school. While home I started cooking more and my homie Dwight (who has become a chef also) and I decided to make Instagram pages to post our food since we are both very competitive when it comes to cooking. The more I posted the more followers I got and the more comments I received saying “I would love to try that”. It finally hit me, “why don’t I take my life into my own hands and become a chef”. So I started making meal preps for a few friends and that turned into people asking me to make them dinner to now catering to large dinner parties. I was even blessed to do some live cooking demonstrations that were broadcasted in Japan. To improve on my skills I started attending culinary school online with Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary arts which I will be graduating from this November. Currently, I also work as a chef at Brightview Senior Living community in Columbia MD and I love it. I am gaining tons of experience in how a commercial kitchen is run which will come in handy when I open my own restaurant. Speaking of Restaurants be on the lookout in the summer of 2023 for my food truck “Nina’s Birria Tacos”. Named after our pup that passed. That old girl no matter what life threw at her kept fighting and that is the attitude I have with my cooking. I could not have done any of this without the support of my wife and oldest son. In the end, I want my boys to see that is never too late to do something you love. Some things will succeed and some will fail but in the end, Good Will Cooking is going to be remembered.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have definitely been some struggles. There are a lot of cheap people out there that want caviar for bumblebee tuna prices. sometimes I may have a month where I booked every day of every weekend and then I have a month of nothing. I learned to use that downtime to develop new recipes and improve on current ones.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
A lot of my clients request my Lamb chops but surprisingly it’s my sauces that end up stealing the show. I have my Good Will Aioli that I serve with my smoked shrimp coattail which I always have to leave a bottle of it behind for my clients.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Me actually being able to cook is a no-brainer lol. My personality, all of my clients comment on how personable I am and what it was like having a good friend come to cook for them.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodwillcooking/
