Meet Cherie Rugeley | Wife, Mother, Entrepreneur

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

Hi Cherie, what do you attribute your success to?
Simple, My Family. I started cooking because of my family. I get so much joy from making dishes that put a smile on my families face. My husband works outside all day and comes home and builds his brand at night. My 16 year old son is just entering high school and is navigating the transition to adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it. My 13 year old daughter is constantly battling peer pressure, beauty standards of society and just being a teenage girl. There’s so much working against them outside of home, I wanted to provide as much COMFORT for them to return too as possible. Food, in my opinion, can bring love, comfort, peace, togetherness and an all around sense of fellowship when enjoyed with the ones you love. My brand isn’t about monetary gain or even opportunity. It’s a way to share what comforts us to anybody that is looking for something to bring joy inside of their homes as well. In any way possible.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started riecooks as just a way for me to post meals somewhere other than Instagram. I wanted to learn the new app that my children were ranting and raving about. We have a family YouTube channel so I was familiar with editing but it had been a while since posting. I wanted to sharpen some quick editing skills and all I was doing at the time was cooking lol. When I would throw together stories on ig my friends would ask for the recipe so it was just a way to say “here’s what I do, you can do it too” A month before Covid hit I had just graduated with my Masters and had a busy schedule of interviews in the coming months. Quarantine left me with nothing but time. Time to sharpen any skills I had and one of those was cooking. The first meal I posted that showed me people were really interested was my rendition of Timmy Chans Wing dinner with Shrimp fried rice. I loved making it, my family loved it and so did tiktok. I got so many compliments I realized that something that was just second nature to me was something that many others would love to learn. I dont think I take too many “risks.” A risk is anything that would involve taking a loss. Everything I do is because I WANT to. I’m not losing out on anything if it doesn’t pan out. If the thought of it brings me joy, then so will the act and whatever outcome is just that. I don’t have expectations to fail or succeed. I expect to do whatever brings me peace and happiness in that moment. Those things tend to change every other week lol. The way I see it, I don’t take risks, I accumulate experiences. I do get a lot of criticism sometime but honestly because I do what I love the opinions of others don’t bother me. It’s the ones who tell me that they have improved their skills so much because of me is what helps me to keep going.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Honestly I’m a homebody. I avoid going out as much as possible. My home is where my peace, love and joy is so that’s where I am. Don’t know too many places around here

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 been so blessed to have the love and support of many friends and family along my journey. For many years I’ve cooked for my sister, Kristi, just trying stuff out. She’s always been down to try anything and offer suggestions on improving. It wasn’t until I got with my boyfriend, now husband, that I started to really “throw down” if you know what I mean lol. He works so hard and is such an incredible person it made me want to feed him like a real man lol. That’s when I learned to perfect my cooking style and actually enjoy the experience in the kitchen. He’s so appreciative of every meal I make I love seeing the joy when he sits for dinner after a long day. Last but not least, 98% of my meals would never be made let alone make it to social media if it wasn’t for my 16 year old son Dj. I’ve been teaching him to cook since he was 5 and he now is the one who preps the food, films the content and washes the dishes lol.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riecooks/

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/cherie-r-6a9247171

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rieimd

Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/c/CherieRugeley/videos