Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiayan Boykin-Dennison.
Tiayan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far
Back in 2011, I was fired from my job. I am a wife and a mother of five children. All I could think about was how I could contribute to my family’s finances to avoid putting too much on my husband. I applied for jobs I know I was qualified for and even tried applying for assistance. All Denied!!!
January 2012 I started cooking from my home selling lunches and dinners. Because of our previous events such as pool parties and couples events, it was easy for me to build a clientele. Would you believe I couldn’t cook all that well when I started? I didn’t let that stop me, I just kept going. I had a few dishes I use to cook and take to work and I started with those items and took off. My good friend Jessie Woo told me about these fried Oreos while out dining. I brought the idea in my kitchen, added a few things to the batter and created a Ciroc Glaze and there were lines all down my street. At one point, people would knock on my window in the middle of the with there own Oreos in hand just for me to make them a batch.
Things just continued to grow with our pasta, and different twists I learned to put on typical menu items. People would come to my home all the way from West Palm Beach. Freezy Prince from Strong Arm introduced us to the parks with the FYFL games. I created this sweet and spicy sauce and he made sure the entire park knew how good it was. We would have long lines cooking with a little propane fryer and a tent. At this point, my clientele grew even more. I had to call my husband and tell him to take a leave of absence from his job because I was a one man show. He left his job and never went back.
My husband is my rock! He took me even higher, being my teammate after I learned I needed him. I say that because at first I still had in my head, I was home alone running things by myself from social media to cooking and filling all those orders. When I humbled myself, he started with the logo, then shirts, order pads, aprons and he ran social media and created our LLC and email. Simple things right. I was so overwhelmed with customers I couldn’t have thought of all those things. He had us running like a real business right from our house. We walked out the door with our aprons, order pads and our shirts. We even had a customer wearing our shirts.
After time I though I was ready for a restaurant. It didn’t last a year because I didn’t like schedules and I was so used to the many events we continuously were hired for which allowed me to be all over the place. We catered for Flo Rida, JuJu from love and Hip Hop and so many others. I absolutely love dressing up and catering to folks while enjoying good music and networking. After I left the restaurant, the food truck started and more catering.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My biggest struggle was learning how much I needed a team.
Please tell us about your business.
We are a full service catering company. We specialize in Soul Food with a Twist. I’m most proud of our growth ov er the years and what sets us apart is our ability to recreate basic menu items taking them to the next level like our Soul Rolls — we stuff fried chicken, collard greens and macaroni and cheese in a roll, deep fry it and serve it with a homemade bbq dipping sauce.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our ultimate goal is an event space to host events.
Contact Info:
- Website: Tytyyskitchencatering.com
- Phone: 3057255374
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Tytyyskitchen
- Facebook: Tytyyskitchen
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