Meet Beeta Mohajeri | Private Chef & Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Beeta Mohajeri and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Beeta, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I started BeetzEats because as Chefs, what’s taken away from you first is freedom to create your own menu, and the direct appreciation from the consumer that comes along with it. It was almost selfish, to be honest. I wanted that instant gratification of feeding my client something delicious and knowing it satisfied them. I also wanted to create something that was stable, something i had control over. Something with multiple streams of income, that wouldn’t crash during lets say “a pandemic”. Everyone who’s always told me “you can’t have 3 businesses, you have to pick one” was shocked, i think, at the success we achieved when everything else fell to pieces. Covid has been a crazy time for everyone, including us at BeetzEats. But it proved how stable building a business by word of mouth really was. I started BeetzEats as a brand 2 years ago, I was doing catering and dinner parties for a few clients here and there and i was baking cookies, but i was bartending on the side to keep me afloat. I then picked up a client doing weekly Meal Prep (to be honest, i had no idea what i was doing at that time. But i knew i wanted to cook full-time and i knew i wanted to start a brand) I took him on thinking it would just be temporary until i figured out how to network and bring in more clients. I never wanted to be in the meal prep world, but i did need clients regardless of what the service was. I created a weekly menu and dropped off meals for him every week. 15 meals that were gluten & dairy free (that’s what he asked for). I was dedicated to building something for myself. I got lucky because he let me cook whatever i wanted, as long as it was GF & DF. Within a few weeks he referred me to some of the other guys who worked out at the same Gym as him. Week after week, i would give up my bartending shifts, and bring on new clients. I started researching, learning, growing and reinvesting the money i was making back into the business. I created a logo, a website, business cards. I got insulated bags with my logo on it. I started thinking about all the basics that made it “look” on the surface, like it was a legit thing- Not just food showing up at your door in a random sac. Then i worked on actually making it legit on the back end. I’m not going to lie, it’s been a rough few years. I’ve missed out on many things. On sleep, family gatherings, building relationships.. But i just stuck with it. I went to Culinary school at the Cordon Blue in Seattle, I also have a degree in Biology from UW. Meal prep was a side hustle, but it started to grow so fast just by word of mouth. I knew i had something stable because new clients would email me asking to start on the meal plan and i had no idea how they even heard of me. I grew it on the side while working as a private Chef for a high-profile client in Malibu. I was drained, but i didn’t want to give either of them up. I was making great money with my client Monday-Thursday, and would slang meals on Saturday from my apartment for Meal Prep. What’s important is to market yourself properly. To find your niche. I got connected to a great facility in Anaheim; A group of NFL guys training for Combine. I knew that if i could satisfy their needs i could make it stick and put myself in a new category. Building a business is about being flexible. It’s about creating a solution to a problem, I never intended on building a meal prep business, but that’s what the need was around me. 2 years and hundreds of boxed meals later, we are cooking for an elite group of athletes only. We now have 4 cooks, a Driver & a great facility in Costa Mesa (no more cooking out of my apartment lol). I hired people to help take over meal prep so i could keep my clients in Malibu, keep doing events, and keep up with the cookies. It’s amazing that i’ve only been fully self-employe for 2 years. It’s also amazing to me that i have 3 successful businesses all running at the same time. I couldn’t have done it without my team tho, I was only able to grow all 3 because i learned to “give away my Lego’s”. Build a team, teach them, learn from them, trust them. Reward them. The result; a stable business all around.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It seems like we’re doing a lot, and we are. We now have BeetzEats meal prep, servicing professional athletes. I work as a “Celebrity Private Chef”. We do events & catering, tons of dinner parties, and we have BeetzSweets!! My beloved addiction to gooey-chocolatey cookies turned insta-famous. What started as just baking cookies for friends and my meal prep’ers, turned into selling them off instagram and creating our third Brand “BeetzSweets” It’s wild what you can accomplish if you want it bad enough.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’ve had incredible mentors along the way. Chef’s i worked under, and looked up to. Chef’s who i asked millions of questions, and hundreds of “can you show me how?!”. From my Advisor in culinary school who pushed me from the start. Chef Vincent Nattress on Whidbey island, Chef Tory McPhail at Commanders Palace, Chef Steven Ontiveros of Creme de la Creme Catering, and Chef Jonah Amodt in Orange county. These guys are the reason i am where i am today. Even after 10 years for some of them, I’m still able to text them and ask questions or get advice. It’s huge! And the biggest shoutout to my brother, for never telling me “no” and for always taking care of the physical logistics of all my events. He’s been by my side since day 1 encouraging me to get after it!

Website: www.Beetzeats.com
Instagram: @Chef.mbeetz @Beetzeats.mealprep

Image Credits
@Melindarothphotography