Today we’d like to introduce you to Keilen Shigematsu.
Hi Keilen, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have been a chef for the past 14 years working in traditional French and American style fine dining restaurants. I first began as an apprentice at a large resort while I was in school. This gave me the opportunity to explore many areas of a kitchen, including the line, pastry, banquets, and bar programs. I used the restaurant opportunities to build my foundational skills and to get an insight into how to budget and operate my own operation.
I started Table Focus Catering about four years ago to give me more freedom in my expression of food and freedom to be an active participant in raising a family. The growth of my business was slow but calculated. I decided that I wanted to start slowly while working full-time, to give me the time to build my book of business. There have been many evolutions to Table Focus in these four years, but we have always stuck to our core belief that food has to power to bring people together and drive the conversation. We started small by offering private dinners, and have grown into accommodating larger events, and meal planning services. Doing the private dinners and small pop-ups gives me the opportunity to play with many ingredients unknown to the average consumer. We often include wild or foraged ingredients from the surrounding areas or “exotic” ingredients the I grew up within Hawaii.
The pandemic has been difficult for many in the hospitality industry, but for us, it allowed us to take our business one step further. We had an immediate shift from large events back to small private dinners due to the mandates at the time. We found that our clients craved the hospitality and service from a dine-in restaurant, but wanted it done safely within their own home. During the pandemic, we launched another sector to our business, Hapa Ice Cream and Confections is a nod to my son who will grow up with roots in Hawaii, Japan, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Hapa is an online creamery and bakery where clients can order custom desserts and confections or purchase limited and seasonal flavors as they come out on our social media platforms.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I would compare our journey to Rocky Road Ice Cream. Some parts are smooth, and some are bumpy; however, a blessing nonetheless. We planned for our growth to be slow, and that I would be working full time as we began this journey. And then we would be reinvested back into this business because we had a plan to expand this model into different sectors. But no one could have predicted the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic put our large catering event to a full stop. So we pivoted to small private dinners, meal planning and delivery, virtual culinary classes, and online ice cream and bakery. We knew that this would impact us in a large way, and possibly for a while, so we wanted to mitigate the impact the best we could by diversifying what Table Focus meant and would look like. This change also helped us keep many of our contracted as well because we were able to help bring them work while the restaurants were shut down or at limited capacity.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I love recipe testing with new or less common flavor combinations. We do a lot of research through travel, and networking with industry professionals all around the world to understand regional ingredients and techniques. For example, I am working with local foragers to learn about feral and ingenious ingredients in my Northern Colorado area, while working with professionals in Mexico on Tepache fermentation processes.
Or visiting The Vanillery of Kaua’i to see the entire process of growing and curing the vanilla beans that we use in our dishes. I have many jars of my mad science experiments in my kitchen, from fermentation projects to preservation canning, or flavored liquors and bitters. I believe that I am set apart from my colleagues because I will create something for the sake of knowledge and feed my creativity.
And if it works great, and if not, that’s okay. Some of our fan favorites include a Miso and Brown Butter Ice Cream, Chokecherry Frozen Yogurt, Pork, and Tomatillo Chili Verde, and Sweet and Spicy Korean Style Grilled Chicken.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
A few things that I have learned from this crisis. First, there is no amount of planning or forecasting that will prepare you for a global pandemic and how it will impact your small business. This means even on a small scale, we are all impacted by our fragile global supply chain. Even if we continue to work with local businesses, we are not an island and must rely on each other.
This brings me to my next point. Be kind to everyone, your vendors, your distributors, your employee, your contractors, and your clients. Everyone is struggling through these times, and everyone is trying to understand the “new normal.” Next, diversify. Too many small business owners feel like they represent a niche in the community and cannot deviate from that or they are giving up a core principle. If your core principles limited your business model, and you are struggling at this time, please reevaluate your core principles.
Bringing me to my last lesson, protect your people. All of the above lessons boil down to protecting your people or community. Diversify your business, so you can keep your employees working. Build more relationships with vendors and distributors to build the local supply chain back up and support the local farmers and growers. Lose the selfish ideal of self-protection when it comes to business, and figure out the best course of action that allows you to rebuild a part of your community that was lost.
Pricing:
- 3 Course Private Dinner $75.00 per Person
- 3 Course Culinary Class $100.00 per Person
- Custom Flavored Ice Cream $10.00 a pint
- Custom Confections and Pastries $60.00 a dozen
- Home Meal Delivery starting at $20.00 per person
Contact Info:
- Email: tablefocusinc@gmail.com
- Website: www.tablefocuscatering.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keilen.shigematsu/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tablefocus/
