Have A B.L.D

According to the U.S. Labor Department, while more than half of culinary graduates are women, fewer than 20 percent of working chefs are women. The figures are even more staggering when talking leadership. Women comprise just 7 percent of head chefs and restaurateurs across the country today. We love to see women taking charge by creating their own lanes in the food industry. We had the pleasure of interviewing a woman doing just that! Shantell Jones is the owner of Have A B.L.D, a private chef company based in Maryland. Our team actually had the pleasure of tasting her food last year and were blown away. Everything was so flavorful and she was highly professional. Today it’s an honor to speak with her and learn more about her background and brand.

•Tell us a little about yourself.

Shantell: I’m from Prince George’s County, Maryland, I don’t really claim a particular area because I never really identified with being from any specific part. My family moved around a lot when I was younger, I went to 2 elementary schools,1 middle school where I was in the magnet program and 2 different high schools. Much of my childhood and young adult life is a blur because they were crazy times with an even crazier upbringing. I had my 1st son at 18, the same year that I graduated high school. I decided to go into the military a little over a year later to escape a toxic relationship, homelessness, and instability to provide a better life for my son and I in 2009. After completing basic and advanced training I was then sent to my first duty station in Ft. Stewart, Ga, where shortly after arriving (3 weeks to be exact) I was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq to join my unit. Everything happened so fast, it was one of the best and worst of times that I’ve gotten to experience in my life. During this time, I met my husband briefly as a new soldier joining our ranks to serve in the Iraq war. We were separated due to different duties/obligations we had to fulfill, but later met back as friends when we returned home in 2010. Long story short, once we were together, we never separated and married after the birth of our 1st son. That was only the beginning of what God has blessed us with. I am now an Army veteran & currently live in Glen burnie, Md, with my husband of soon to be 10 years and our 4 children. I opened my private chef in-home dining service in 2021 and have had the privilege of providing services for a variety of events from couples nights to proposal dinners and repasses. I am a full time student at the University of Phoenix majoring in Business Management and was recently invited to the National Honor Society for maintaining a 3.42 g.p.a for the past 2 ½ years.

•What inspired you to start cooking?

Shantell: I was inspired to start cooking at an early age through my family who have southern roots in Mississippi. My grandmother would come to get me 2 days before Thanksgiving to help her and my great grandmother with prepping all the foods that I’ve come to cherish. At the time all I did was snap peas, peel potatoes, wash greens you name it, so the love for food and what goes into making it has always been with me.

• What inspired you to turn your love for cooking into a business?

Shantell: Honestly, the pandemic and quarantine inspired me to turn my passion into a business. Just before the pandemic happened, I was finishing up my degree in culinary school. Thankfully I was hired by the Maryland Foodbank while completing my externship, during the height of COVID-19 and rising unemployment. During that time, I decided that I would use my skills to provide affordable meals and dinning services to people looking for that restaurant experience without having the ability to physically go into restaurants.

•Do you have a favorite dish to cook? If so, what is it?

Shantell: I really love all types of cuisines so I can’t say that I have a favorite dish to make. I love to try new recipes and challenge myself with international cuisines. I would say that my favorite thing to do is make pasta from scratch whether it’s fettucine, tortellini, or ravioli. I love the process that goes into making pasta dough and cutting or forming the dough into the desired noodle, I’ve always felt like I related with authentic Italian cuisine because it takes time, and simple but robust flavors can be built in layers of patience, work, and focus.

• Women’s history month recently passed. Give us two women who inspire you and why.

I am inspired by my Aunt Bonita Jones and my former commander in the army Captain Wanda Booth may she rest in peace. Both women are successful in their own rights, family oriented, strong black figures in their community and have taught me a great deal of lessons during pivotal times of my life. My aunt pretty much raised me, she taught me about loving myself and being comfortable with who I am. We did a lot of cooking together, my favorite meal of hers was lasagna and fried catfish fillets with salad. She started a nonprofit organization that I helped with for years, where we had a group of girls ages 6-15 one weekend a month and we would teach them about womanly things like personal hygiene, self-esteem, goal setting, community service and so much more. Captain W. Booth was a huge inspiration to me because she was the only female commander at Ft. Stewart, Ga and she was the leader of a Cavalry unit primarily of white males. I saw the issues that she dealt with daily being a strong black woman beating the odds against powerful white men in leadership positions. She led us in Iraq (this is a major achievement) during the beginning of the war on terrorism and she did it with class, dignity, intellect, and her “natural nappy head” (as she would say). I am so proud to have had the opportunity to serve under her command, she took care of us like family and stuck her neck out for our black brothers and sisters many times when we face racism and discrimination.

•What upcoming events or projects are you working on?

Shantell: An upcoming event that I am currently working on is my annual “Moms and Mimosas” Mother’s Day Brunch, to honor our beautiful and much appreciated women that are mothers and mother-figures in our lives. This event is a 4-course brunch that also promotes black-owned, women owned small business by leaving the guest with Mother’s Day appreciation bags filled with promotional products from those businesses.

• Where do you see your brand in five years?

Shantell: In 5 years, I plan to have obtained my culinary instructor’s certification, and a location to teach culinary youth classes to the age’s of 8-16 years old. I also want to my business to be well established in private dinning to be contracted with Airbnb’s in Maryland to provide private chef packages for guests during their stays.

Be sure to connect with Shantell and her company online