IAM1390 – Chef Brings Catering Services to Elevated American Cuisine

D.A.H. Cuisines®️ LLC dba: DAH-Lish Cuisines, is a catering and meal delivery service company, whose focused style of cooking, can be described as elevated American Cuisine with a French Flair. Owned and operated by Kesha Harris, Chef Kesha had a passion for cooking as a young girl, and in 2017 she opened her own catering business. In 2018, she attended the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York, where she earned her degree in the Culinary Arts. During her tenure at the CIA, she completed her 3-month externship, at a 3-Michelin Star restaurant in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia and is a Classically-Trained, ServSafe, and Allergen-Certified Chef.

D.A.H Cuisines specializes in catering weddings, small dinner parties, and private and corporate events. As well, they provide bi-weekly meal delivery and family meal planning & preparation services, to various counties across the Virginia Region.

• CEO Story: Chef Kesha spent 21 years in the IT industry. After battling cancer, it totally changed her perspective in life, and re-evaluated to really go for what she loves doing the most and that is to be in the business of catering since 2017.
• Business Service: Catering services. All types of cuisine.
• Secret Sauce: Full-service experience. Schedule discovery sessions with the clients. Customized menu.
• CEO Hack: Book mention: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. Offering full disclosure to clients builds trust. Itemizing cost. Always in writing – contract.
• CEO Nugget: Bring your authentic self to the table. Be prepared, have plans A, B, or C. Learn the business of your business.
• CEO Defined: Take responsibility for the good, bad, and the ugly. Say what you mean, mean what you say. Keep your commitment. Lead example. Exemplary customer service.

Website: www.dahcuisines.com

Instagram: d.a.h.cuisines

Facebook: kesha.harris , dahlishcuisines

Facebook D.A.H. Cuisines Weekly Dinners (Private Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/253239879120473

Alignable: https://www.alignable.com/winchester-va/d-a-h-cuisines-llc

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00:24 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:51 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Chef Kesha Harris of Delish Cuisines. Chef Kesha, it's great to have you on the show.

01:02 – Kesha Harris

Thank you. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I definitely appreciate you for all the awesome things that you're doing. Before we jump in, of course, I wanted to read about some of those awesome things Dah Cuisines LLC does business as Delish Cuisines is a catering and meal delivery service company whose focus style of cooking can be described as elevated American cuisine with a French flair. Owned and operated by Kesha Harris, Chef Kesha had a passion for cooking as a young girl and in 2017 she opened her own catering business. In 2018, she attended the prestigious Culinary Institute of America CIA in Hyde Park, New York where she earned her degree in the culinary arts.

During her tenure at the CIA, she completed her three-month externship at a three Michelin-starred restaurant in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia as a classically trained serve and allergen-certified chef. DAH Cuisine specializes in catering, weddings, small dinner parties, and private and corporate events as well. They provide biweekly meal delivery, family meal prepping, meal planning, and preparation services to various counties across the Virginia region. Chef Kesha, appreciate you again for being on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:17 – Kesha Harris

Yes, I am.

02:18 – Gresham Harkless

Well, let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock, and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:25 – Kesha Harri

Well, thank you for asking, Gresham. So my background is quite unique, I would say. You know, starting out, I spent 21 years in the IT business as an Information technologist or an engineer. But cooking was always, you know, it was always there. Something I've been doing since I was 12 years old. I started cooking with my grandma. And so that was really my passion from a very young age. And but what I think when I was younger, I really felt that I was more focused on making money than following my dreams.

I mean, full transparency. I had student loans to pay off, you know, but fast forward, you know, 10 years, about 10 years ago, almost 10 years ago, I was diagnosed. Well, I should say rewind. I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And that experience changed my life forever. You know, shortly after I went into remission, my dad suffered a stroke, which unfortunately, you know, he ended up passing away because of that. But, you know, these were. Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, you know, it's kind of, I think we all kind of have these things that we go through in life that make us reevaluate what we're doing, you know, where we are.

And so these two life-changing events, life-altering events, really made me reevaluate pretty much everything and question everything, but specifically what I was doing with my life at that point. And I just made a vow to live my life moving forward with no regrets. So that really lit the fire in me to start my catering business and to really just go after the thing that I love the most and dreamt of doing for such a long time. So that's kind of what brought me here and started the business in 2017. And I haven't looked back since.

04:31 – Gresham Harkless

So I appreciate you sharing your story and your journey. And just as you said a lot of times, Sallie Mae doesn't really care whether you're going for your dreams or not going for your dream. She still wants her. She still wants her money. So it completely makes perfect sense why you took that step in the IT profession. But I love hearing, first of all, how those seeds were planted when you were younger as I read about your story, but also hearing how you came back to that after those events.

While we're going through a huge disruption that we've all gone through collectively in some form, shape, or fashion, we can't forget that we often go through things in our lives that are just as, if not more disruptive in their own special union. And we also have to kind of, I think, pay attention and realize that you know, life is, you know, meant to be lived. And sometimes we have to adjust and change based on how those lessons get brought to us.

05:25 – Kesha Harris

Absolutely. That's what makes the world makes the world go round. So you're absolutely right. And I, you know, and I do give, you know, give all the props to, you know, my former employer that I spent 21 years at because that really did help me to be able to start my business and to go to culinary school. So I definitely, you know, definitely my hats off to them for giving me the tools and having been there for such a long time to be able to do that. So. But, you know, again, just. It just was time. You know, it was time, and I wanted to be happy doing what I love doing the most. And. Yeah. So I'm very blessed, very thankful.

06:10 – Gresham Harkless

Well, I appreciate that, Chef Kesha. What I wanted to do now was ask you a little bit more about what I like to call your secret sauce and also hear a little bit more about how you're serving your clients and making your impact. Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

06:22 – Kesha Harris

We definitely have a particular style of cooking that's more focused on elevated American cuisine with a French flair, but that's because we use a lot of French techniques, but we do cook all types of cuisines for our clients. And I would say, as far as our secret sauce, overall, we offer more of a full-service experience, even though we are caterers and we're not a full event planning catering business. But there are two types of things that I think make us really unique. One is that we schedule what's called a discovery session with our clients, and that's really to learn more details about their event.

And oftentimes, during the calls, we discover unique tidbits about our clients or whomever. The guest of honor is that we, in turn, try and incorporate into the event, which we think makes it extra special for our clients. So that's something that we do. The discovery call is something that happens right at the forefront of the initial conversation with a potential client. And you know how they say the devil's in the details, right? So we pride ourselves in paying attention to those little details. I mean, it might be a favorite color, it might be a birthday, and then in turn, we'll do the tablescape in that color or favorite flower. Just really trying to stay on theme with whatever the subject matter of our clients eventually is.

And secondly, I would say, as far as the secret sauce, we do offer the option of a customized menu to clients. And again, oftentimes, as a caterer in our business, you know, you have your set menu of items that you cook or dishes that you prepare, and we have that too, but we realize that it's more. More than just about the food, you know, but the overall experience. So we may have a client that's looking for a particular type of cuisine. Maybe they want Indian food or Mexican food or whatever the case may be. Like you would go to a restaurant, right, and there's a particular cuisine that you're looking for. Our goal is really to bring a five-star experience to you through our catering services. So, you know, both of those things really make events extra special for our clients and we believe that contributes to our uniqueness and makes us stand out in the industry.

08:56 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate you expounding upon that and really sharing each of those different details, especially how I think so many times, again, I'm gonna go back to the site where so many times we think that what we do is in this silo and it doesn't affect everything else. But I love how, you know, you go through that discovery period and you understand the nuances of the event and some of those quote-unquote small things that might be small to us, but to that to other people, they're. They're everything and they end up making their event, they end up creating that experience.

So I love that you have that, you know, step and that listening ears to be able to make sure that that's translated into somebody being able to have a really phenomenal experience at, you know, their event. And they can, you know, look to the food and all the nuances and the details that mean everything to them. That really kind of builds into that.

09:39 – Kesha Harris

That overall event Absolutely seeks to be understood before being understood.

09:44 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. We'll definitely drop the mic from there. I absolutely love that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that you more effective and efficient?

10:02 – Kesha Harris

Okay. Okay. Well, actually touching on what I just mentioned that statement. So there's. I'll just start off by saying seven habits of Highly Effective People. Get it, Read it by Stephen Covey. It is like, that's my go-to. It's been my go-to for decades. Love that book and I live by it. But I found that offering full disclosure to clients builds trust, which is really, really important to us. And it may not seem like it's a hack, and it may seem kind of obvious, but it isn't always. In building that trust and relationship, I really thrive on that and that's really important to me.

Itemizing costs, I would say as a CEO hack of ours so clients can see exactly how their money is being spent. You know, we don't just say, you know, here's the bottom line cost, but we break that down again, goes back to building trust. And, you know, I really want my clients to know what they're spending their money on. And I would say last but not least, always getting things in writing. Again, this may seem obvious, but I don't approach business without a contract. That is very critical and important. And in the end, it protects both me and the client. So it's not just about me and my business, but it's also about protecting the client.

So as I mentioned, this book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, it is, it really touches on all of those areas and I really use that as my guide and have been for many, many years. So I encourage folks to check that out if they haven't.

12:03 – Gresham Harkless

So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

12:16 – Kesha Harris

Okay, well, first and foremost, always bring your authentic, your authentic self to the table. And I emphasize authentic self to the table when it comes to just people and business. You know, and I, you know, I kind of keep going back to this, touching on it, but staying true to yourself and whatever that thing is that you do best, you know, just lean into it. You know, always have a plan A, B, C, and sometimes a plan D. And lastly, learn the business of your business.

I'll say that again. Learn the business of your business, you know, meaning learn and know how to run your business behind the scenes. I mean, we're talking bookkeeping, we're talking food costs, we're talking your P and L, your profit and loss. Study it, learn it, know what it means. I can't say that. I can say that all day long 50 million times. But that is so important, especially in our industry overall, really, I imagine.

13:31 – Gresham Harkless

And as you said, especially with food, a cautious understanding of your cost is so important. But especially when you're talking about, you know, any food-based business or even restaurants and things like that, it's just so vital. So that kind of segues me to my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be, a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Chef Kesha, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:51 – Kesha Harris

CEO means to take responsibility for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Say what you mean, mean what you say. Keep your commitments, and lead by example. Just really offering exemplary customer service, paying attention to those details and focusing on the client's needs, not taking shortcuts on quality. I mean, that's several things, but those are all kinds of areas that I live by.

But I think being in the position that I'm in as a business owner or a CEO of a business, we, whether you like it or not, I mean, we have to take on all the responsibility if something goes well. If something doesn't go well if something just goes way left. I mean, you have to be willing to take that responsibility on and do what you need to do to rectify that. And that kind of goes into commitments and leading by example with their team. So to me, all those really encompass the definition of me anyway, to be a CEO.

15:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. The totality of it. So definitely appreciate that. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people could get a hold of you on about all the awesome things.

15:17 – Kesha Harris

That working on as far as how to get in contact with us. So our website is www.dahcuisines.com. Our phone number that we can be reached is 540-252-4710. We're also on social media on Instagram. Really simple. You can look us up at Dah Cuisines as well on Facebook. Our page is Delish Cuisines. D A H Lish L I S H Cuisines. Or you can search for my profile. Kesha Harris. So there are multiple ways that you can reach us. Yeah.

16:01 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I definitely appreciate that, Chef Kesha. And to make it even easier, we're going to have those links and information in the show notes too. So thank you so much again, Chef Kesha, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:11 – Kesha Harris

Thank you. You too. I appreciate it. This has been a blast. I really appreciate it.

16:15 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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