Today we’d like to introduce you to Jane Lucas.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jane. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Cooking is a second career for me. I was in graduate school until I was 28. I completed five years of a PhD program and finished two masters’ degrees before I realized that academia was not a good fit for me and I was ready for a career change.
Owning my own food business was something that I had always dreamed about, but until then never seriously pursued. I’ve always loved to cook and to experiment with food. Even as a little kid, I would make weird concoctions like a strawberry and peanut butter sandwich just to see what it would taste like, which my family usually politely declined to try. In college, I pitched in with my roommates for a giant stove for our dorm room, which we never managed to get to work. As a young adult, cooking is what I always did in my free time, especially when I wanted to procrastinate working on a paper.
I have traveled to 22 countries (so far) and love to pick up new dishes from my travels. I remember once spending 4 hours straight making manti, the tiny Turkish dumplings with yogurt and tomato sauce, which uses paper thin homemade dough. They’re amazing, but I understood why I never see them in the states- they are a lot more work than most people want to do (they’re still on my menu, though).
I had worked part time for catering companies ever since high school, but I knew nothing about running a business. There was a ton of research involved and a steep learning curve. Rent and equipment for commercially licensed kitchens is expensive, especially in Boston, so after 10 months of searching, I was insanely lucky to find the shared kitchen I did in Canton. That’s a big part of the reason I am able to keep my prices on the lower end for catering in Boston.
I began by catering the occasional party for friends, before I got my first gigs from people I didn’t know. My first wedding was for a vegan couple. I am not a vegan, but as a poor graduate student who could not afford meat on a daily basis, I ate vegetarian most of the time, so creating interesting vegan options wasn’t too daunting for me. I made black bean cakes with mango-avocado salsa and sweet potato ravioli with cilantro walnut pesto as the entrees. I only charged for the food for the first few events just to get the experience. Most of my help was friends, and everything was transported into my tiny sedan.
Over the last 5 years, I have taken on increasingly larger events (though I still have size limits due to the limits of my current space), more staff, and more equipment. I drive a van now. I have event managers. I have hired other chefs, though still do the bulk of the cooking myself, as I’m pretty particular about my recipes, and I keep expanding my menu. Catering off site is an enormous logistical undertaking as far as equipment and following a very precise schedule. For large parties, I will plan months in advance. This is easily the hardest I have worked in my entire life, though working for yourself definitely has its perks. I took off several months this winter when I gave birth to my son, in February, and am slowly going back to work at my own pace this spring.
I have debated getting a culinary degree, but after so many years in graduate school, I was burnt out from being a student. I have the self-discipline to continue to study and practice. I love any tips that I can pick up from other chefs or anywhere else, and I think that the key to being great at something is to always be trying to learn more about whatever it is you do. Once you feel like you’re great, you start to get sloppy.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There have been a thousand things to learn, and there is always a lot of last minute troubleshooting involved with catering. The best you can do is to have a backup plan and prepare in advance as much as possible. I have had rental equipment fail. I had rentals delivered to the event late or broken. I made some mistakes in hiring in the early years. I had people not show up a few times, which led to a few disastrous situations.
I learned to visit sites beforehand if I ever need to do cooking there. On one early job, the client swore that there was a basic kitchen there. When I showed up, I found that there was one tiny stove in a basement with no windows. When I tried to boil water on a humid August day, I had no ventilation, the fire alarm went off, and fire trucks showed up to the party halfway through the wedding. Luckily, the clients were pretty drunk at that point and took it in good humor. Even the second time that the fire trucks showed up.
I have also learned to be extremely specific with clients about our policies. Half of the things in my contract were added after an event went badly. People have asked me to add a bunch of things at the last minute that I did not have the time or capacity to make, so I now require all orders to be finalized at least seven days prior to large events and three days prior to small events. I did not get paid for one of my first jobs until two months late. I now ask for payment before the party begins. I require adequate lighting provided for us because of a party in someone’s backyard where the half of the yard provided to our staff for bussing dishes was pitch black, and I had servers carrying trays full of glasses on hilly grass in the dark. Things broke and got lost. It was dangerous. I had servers quit after that job.
Finally, the sheer logistics of running a business I think is a challenge for anyone who is learning as they go. I only spend a fraction of my time cooking, and the rest dealing with things like licenses, accounting, managing the kitchen, ordering supplies . . . the list goes on and on. I made the classic rookie mistake of trying to do everything myself at first, which never works, and at times was severely sleep deprived.
Terra Cuisine Catering – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We cater events throughout the greater Boston area, and cook a diverse range of cuisines. My parents lived in Israel for several years, so I grew up eating a lot of Middle Eastern foods, and love those flavors. There is definitely a strong Mediterranean influence on my menu. I am constantly experimenting with new recipes. I also shop locally as much as possible and do my best to avoid ingredients with excess pesticides. We are also extremely flexible with adjusting ingredients for those with dietary restrictions, and love to customize menus if someone has a specific visions of what they are looking for. I’ve done everything from Mexican themed to Latvian to raw vegan.
I was amazed to discover after my first vegan party that few other companies in the city specialized in vegan and vegetarian food, so there is a market for it in Boston. We specialize in vegan and vegetarian food, which makes up a substantial part of our business, though we cook meat as well. Vegan food is frankly much harder to cook well and requires more creativity, which is part of the reason I do it. I make a lot from scratch- things like puff pastry, ravioli dough, or wonton wrappers are not available vegan, so I have to make those myself. As a meat eater, I knew that the average guest at a party did not want to eat fake meat substitutes and unfamiliar ingredients like seitan or tempeh. They taste fine, but they don’t taste like meat. I also knew that many vegans wanted something more interesting than pasta, which is all the ever usually get at parties. So I focused on designing a vegan and vegetarian menu with things that people would actually want to eat, and I am quite proud of it. We make things like tarts, tagines and panisse with Romesco sauce. For more upscale events, we do vegetable centric dishes like olive oil braised artichoke hearts or wild mushroom strudel with madeira sauce.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success is being able to feel proud of the work I have done. There are so many variables beyond my control, both in life and in work, but when I can make a solid plan, execute it to the best of my ability, and come up with a creative solution to problems, that is when I feel most fulfilled by my job. I love solving problems. It must come from my background in science. Small things, like how to make passed sweet potato fry hors d’oeuvres (for a bat mitzvah) look elegant or how to make a vegan mousse just the right texture, are the kinds of problems that I always feel excited about once I find a great solution.
The hardest thing for me is to give up on something, but there are times that is the right call. I hate giving up on a new recipe because I can’t get it to come out the way the I want, and I have learned that it is sometimes necessary to turn down a job when I know that I cannot execute it well given time limits or size, but there are times I cannot make it work. So I think that success is also admitting when you can’t solve a problem, or more importantly that is not worth spending time on it, and being able to move on. It’s being smart about how you spend your time. You can only set yourself up for success when you are honest with yourself about what you can do and plan realistically.
Of course, my other favorite moments are when someone tells me they love my food. That always makes my day.
Pricing:
- Most menu items are a la carte and priced per person, There is a $30 minimum order on most menu items. We have prepared menus ranging from $10 per person to $70 per person.
- Delivery within the Boston area is $20.
Contact Info:
- Address: 35 Westgate Road, #4
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 - Website: terracuisine.com
- Phone: 8579191237
- Email: janeyael@yahoo.com
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/terra-cuisine-boston
- Other: https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/terra-cuisine-catering-chestnut-hill-ma-551253
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