Daniella Abraham, Chef and Entrepreneur
Daniella Abraham (known as Chef Danie) has never been interested in playing it safe. The International Chef and Entrepreneur knew from childhood that her path to success would be in monetizing her talents even when the odds were stacked against her.
The Miami-based, Le Cordon Bleu trained Chef realized from an early age that committing to her goals had to outweigh others’ doubts. Starting first with her decision to attend the prestigious school of culinary arts instead of accepting a full scholarship to the University of Miami for law. “A lot of people told me not to,” she recalls. “They said I was just gonna be the help.” However, she was not deterred. “I wanted to take on the challenge and make the best of it. I didn’t want excuses standing in my way.”
Even when the hardships of life would provide every reason to give up on her culinary career, Abraham remained resilient. While followers now see her success and travel around the world, what most don’t know is her backstory of adversity. “I honestly can say I had all the odds stacked against me - from being kidnapped, molested, caught in a house fire and temporarily displaced, my car being stolen, a bad contract with a celebrity who refused to pay, surviving suicide attempts and dealing with depression to now being able to truly say that I know my purpose,” she shares. “It has paid off and will continue to pay off because I’m not done yet. We as women have to have the audacity to persevere.”
Through it all, Abraham has made a name for herself. Running a full-scale experiential catering business, she has been linked to an A-list clientele: Pharrell Williams, Oprah Winfrey, Drake, Diddy as well as numerous pro athletes. Proving that there is a world full of opportunities available, Abraham also lends her talent to an international clientele through consulting- including once relocating to Dubai to open three restaurants for her Emirati clients.
Her fighting spirit and commitment to greatness is the foundation of the lucrative career she has built. Here she shares some of her best advice for entrepreneurs trying to find their own path to success.
Explore All Of Your God-Given Talents
Abraham recognized early that she had a gift for bringing people together and making them feel good through her cooking abilities. Her first culinary job was baking treats in middle school and selling her creations to friends - 50 cents for a cupcake and a dollar for a pack of cookies. “No one planted that seed,” she explains. “That was something for me, honestly, it was just something that made me really, really happy. And it was an outlet to escape, therapeutic wise. If it wasn't music, it was always food. And I realized how that made other people feel. So it just made sense to make money from it.”
Bet On Yourself, Despite It All
One of Abraham’s first big breaks came at an unexpected and tough time. After her mother’s house had caught fire and after a series of unfortunate events, she needed a reason to smile. Abraham leaned into her talents and created a unique twist on alcohol-based cakes with one that she called a “Ciroc Cake”. Initially posting her creation on Facebook, she feared that using the brand’s name would lead to being sued by Diddy or Ciroc so she soon deleted it. By then the cake had become viral and its buzz caught the attention of the Ciroc team, who posted the dessert and reached out to work with Abraham for events they would be hosting in Miami. Taking that creative chance led to multiple gigs and another big break, this time the opportunity to work with Pharrel Williams. When she received the call for a meeting (not knowing at the time it would be with Williams) she refused to allow her current circumstances to prevent her from going after any opportunity. Without a car of her own, she borrowed her aunt’s car, “I didn't even have gas money, I had 63 cents in my account,” Abraham remembers. Her determination paid off. She met Williams who revealed that he saw her Ciroc cakes, thought they were innovative and that he wanted her to consult and create desserts for a new high-end cream liqueur called Qream.
Daniella Abraham, Chef and Entrepreneur
Build Your Own Buzz
At the time when she was still building her brand, Abraham had a little over a thousand followers. Yet that did not stop her from curating beautiful imagery to share with her followers. With just an iphone and the natural lighting of the Miami sun, she would consistently find compelling new ways to shoot her dishes to build up her following. When a buzz began to build for her Ciroc cakes and the work she created for Qream, she would leverage the press to drive traffic back to her brand. For her strategy, “I would Google keywords like Pharell and cakes to see which media platforms were talking about it. Then I would go into their comments or write the editor of whoever was talking about it, letting them know that I'm the one that made it,” Abraham shares. “I would go into everyone's comments that were posting Ciroc cakes at the time and talk back to them, letting them know that I was the one that created it. Making sure that my website and email was in the comments as well. Just to bring people back to me, because you know, a lot of these celebrities don't tag you. So I just made sure that I did that.”
Have Multiple Streams Of Income
For those emerging talents in the culinary industry, they may think their only path is to be a personal chef but Abraham’s career proves otherwise. Her Ciroc cakes alone brought in a quarter of a million dollars in profit. Add to that, her catering business to some of the most elite, revenue as a consultant to brands and restaurants, nutritional work with athletes and a recent stream of income in yachting. Recognizing the potential to miss out on a lucrative income opportunity for her yacht clientele, she obtained the required licensing to ensure she would not be passed up for another chef with the right credentials. Abrahams advice to those in the culinary industry as well as other entrepreneurs is to explore all options, “See what else in the field that you like; whether it's food photography, whether it's menu planning, training, other chefs, restaurant development products development. You need to stretch out your talents as far as it can go to make sure that you are in full fulfillment of what God gave you.”
Lift As You Climb
Abraham’s plan in the near future is to step away from the kitchen so that the young women of colour she mentors can step into her place. This focus on mentorship is important to Abraham as she lacked this guidance when trying to break into the industry. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have any culinary mentors. I wish I did,” she shares. “A lot of the male chefs thought I was too girly and wanted to emasculate me in order to be a chef in their eyes.” Due to this experience, Abraham works to foster the confidence of her mentees who also don’t fit the mold of the industry. With plans to launch an official mentorship program in 2021, her vision is clear, “I have such a special place in my heart for women of color getting into the culinary industry and owning exactly who they are without having to change anything because of what society thinks,” she describes. “When I’m talking to them whether it’s in my DM’s or email I love giving advice and consulting with them on whatever they need because I was once a self-starter. I feel like the reason why I am in this position is so that I can be a vessel to feed all that I’ve learned to help these emerging chefs. I know my experiences are not for me to just keep to myself.”
