launching the business unforgettable TASTE
A Story about Jakiya Taylor
Opening the catering company Unforgettable Taste was a career goal that Jakiya Taylor worked hard towards in the years since she began cooking in the Future Chefs kitchen. Using her knife skills and life skills and fueled by her determination, Jakiya celebrated her dream by launching her business this fall, right from the new kitchen at Future Chefs, where she began creating her career path.
When she was young, Jakiya took a cooking class at the Boys and Girls Club in Roxbury where she grew up, and crossed paths with some young people from Future Chefs, who were teaching. She fell in love with the class, telling her dad that she needed to find out how she could join.
At Future Chefs, Jakiya found mentors who helped her to expand her confidence, a big piece of being able to take risks and run a business. She says her shyness once prevented her from being able to speak in public, but now she’s able to network with different colleagues, chefs, and business associates and is able to speak about herself and her company to anyone. Jakiya adds that, “The Future Chefs program impacted me so much where I have grown as a woman. I have learned so much, not just with culinary aspects but life lessons as well, and I am very grateful for their mentorship.”
Jakiya developed her culinary and customer service skills at Fenway Park, Tommy Bahama, and Sportello, to give herself time to learn and gain the experience she needed. Her patience and dedication to hard work paid off. “The best way to learn is from your experiences and from your mentors. I took each experience and used it for the next step of my life, and then applied myself to do what I’ve always wanted to do to make my dreams come true,” Jakiya adds.
Jakiya’s well-planned career which started as a young girl soaking up her mother's and grandmother’s talents in the kitchen, to a chance meeting at a Boys and Girls Club, to the Future Chefs kitchen, helped her achieve her professional and personal goals. Jakiya knows that the FC environment is instrumental in helping young people find exactly what they want to do and helps them network to get there. Her advice to those coming up, “If you really want something, create a plan and do it! Don’t be afraid to start. Learn how to do it right and work at getting better at it each time. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail at it, if you love it, just celebrate the wins and learn from the losses!”And that means a lot, coming from a culinary professional under 30, who already owns her first business.
Interested in Jakiya catering your event? Contact Jakiya at Unforgettabletaste27@gmail.com, visit her website at Unforgettable-catering.com and follow her on Instagram at @Unforgettable_Taste.