May 1, 2017

Meet Jen Mullen of JAM: Gourmet Foods and Catering in Hingham

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen Mullen.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jen. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started soon after College when I decided to go to a small cooking school in NYC to get a Chef certification in vegetarian cooking. I attended The Natural Gourmet Institute and, basically, enhanced my skills in the kitchen and developed some more confidence using new ingredients and learning new styles of cooking. From there, I spent a little time as a private chef in Boston before heading to the West Coast. I moved to Malibu, CA in my late 20’s and began working as a private chef there, which developed into a private chef and catering business. I grew slowly, as I am a terrible marketer ;)…but did learn a lot along the way about how to operate a food business as well as how to explore the beautiful ingredient offerings in CA. By the time I moved back to the East Coast about 5 years ago, I had a good number of long time clients, both for the private chef side as well as catering side of my business. At this time, I had a husband and very small child, but I was ready to begin again in this new area and it really did not take long to get a good client base here on the South Shore. I now have a prepared meal service business as well as catering services and am kept pretty busy for most of the year. We have been in Hingham almost 5 years, and my business has grown each year, mainly through word of mouth. I currently am selling a few products to a local juice bar and have been expanding my meal services. I am also gearing up for the spring catering season!

Of course there are some challenges, but overall would you say it’s been smooth?
Running a business is never smooth! I have had times when I had no business and had to take second jobs. There are always the struggles of how much help do I need or not having enough support to get jobs done most efficiently. The biggest struggle is balance I think…everyone is looking for it, and I feel that small business owners get so wound up in work that personal life takes a back seat. I constantly struggle with turning it off to take care of my family and myself!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
JAM is a gourmet food business. We have prepared meal services and offer on and off site catering services. I specialize in super fresh food made from scratch. I have a California Cuisine bent, and try to use as many organic and local ingredients as possible. I am known for providing food that makes you feel good…I only use high quality, healthy ingredients, making everything as “clean” as possible without sacrificing its appeal and taste. I do a lot of work with special diets as well and have worked with local health coaches to provide food to their clients. I am proud that my company has been able to continue to move forward while still upholding my personal beliefs about how food preparation should be approached…organic, low processing, close to the source and with love! I believe what sets us apart from the others is my belief that you can produce a tasty, high quality product without sacrificing health or the planet.

What were you like growing up?
I was a shy kid who loved to play outside. I wanted to be a vet. I think I probably seemed aloof, but was really very shy and afraid of being in the spotlight. Still don’t really like to be in the spotlight…thus my lack luster marketing skill!

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