Today we’d like to introduce you to Andreanna Schooley-Carey.
Hi Andreanna, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I suppose our story starts in early 2020 with the Covid shutdown, a friend and a dead refrigerator, and some tupperware leftovers. After about a week of me feeing him, he said “I’m buying these from you now, and you should start a business.”
My husband and I had both recently lost our jobs due to Covid, and decided to dive headlong into this opportunity. We started small with just cooking for close friends of ours that were working from home and then they told people… The next thing we knew, we rented commercial kitchen space in a church and started Ding Dong Dish. We delivered hot, ready to eat meals at dinner time to all of the St. Louis and St. Charles metro area. That afforded us enough success to survive through the shutdown.
Soon after things opened back up, my husband went back to work on commercial and documentary film sets. When he came home and told me of his cold sandwich with a single slice of meat for lunch on a snowy 14 degree day, I knew I could do better.
Now several years later, I own and run a catering company in town that specializes in niche-need catering, utilizing local other small businesses like butcher shops, local farmers, and fresh made from scratch bakeries. We strive to provide where other businesses lack. Whether it’s extremely late at night, far away, or over a holiday, we’re there with the absolute best food we can provide.
I guess going to school for culinary arts over 20 years ago worked out in the end. After 20 years I finally had the chance to try something unique and exciting. For the first time ever, I was doing my recipes and not someone else’s.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I wish I could say it was smooth sailing, however making dream into actual reality is a very stressful, long, tiring road.
I grew up in the Culinary Arts world having gone to school for it nearly 20 years ago and learning my craftsmanship throughout the years we never once had a lesson on how to handle something like a global pandemic and how to proceed safely forward.
There were many challenges to overcome like peace of mind to customers that their food was safely made without something happening from our rental kitchen to them. To making sure we were also following the rules of the Covid shutdown. So, when we started the daily dinner deliveries we used containers that would ensure food got there hot and ready to eat, bagged all food containers into large plastic bags and stickered them so the customers knew nothing was tampered with, and also with the use of payment method links like Vemno or PayPal we could also have the “no contact” or “6 feet apart rules” with everyone at that time.
That is already a lot to have handled as a new business, but then there was also the large task of making weekly menus, (5 dinners a week, ranging from classic blue plate specials like Meatloaf Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans to fun newer items like my Korean Fried Chicken and Waffles). Each menu was created with decent portion sizes, healthy and balanced meals, and the task of having to have everything done on time was a huge undertaking. Literally doing the work of a few people all in one is very demanding, physically, and mentally exhausting at times.
Trust me, it sounds fun making menus, until ypu have to full go through the process and of planning, shopping, cooking, and delivering. I think after the first 5 years I have over 200 recipes from my own head that shaped our menus and offerings today. Fun thing is, we still have customers asking for bottles of our homemade Ranch Dressing.
During our first few months I kept thinking what did I get myself into and was I doing the right thing, but then I had to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, the catering business would take time, patience, and an on-going determination if I wanted to see it grow into what it is today.
This year also proved slightly harder with a tornado hitting our rental kitchen while working on a film for 2 weeks. We did take a short break to help clean up, but thankfully the kitchen didn’t get too much damage and we opened in time for the holiday season!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Most of my catering business now is focused on films. We already have a few films we’re set up to work with next year!
We do offer other caterings to businesses for either breakfast, lunch, dinner and even happy hour!
We do everything and more for caterings especially when it comes to specific dietary restrictions and food allergies. (Gluten free, Veetarian, Vegan, Pescatarian, etc along with the safety of taking into account any and all food allergies).
If anything, I’m very proud to have working nearly nonstop on this dream becoming a reality.
What makes you happy?
Cooking for others because I suppose food is my favorite way to connect to people..
It’s like what Anthony Bourdain said once, “You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”
So, in a sense, each and every single meal is apart if who I am, where I came from and what I’ve learned.
I love creating new menus and recipes. There are still times I get into cooking so much I forget to write down some recipes. Back fires sometimes, and I have to relearn a recipe that a client liked is fun if not hard.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @ding_dong_dish_stl
- Facebook: Ding Dong Dish
