Nadege Fleurimond- Celebrity Chef, Creative Entrepreneur & Author

Nadege Fleurimond is a creative entrepreneur, speaker, author and business strategist living and working in New York City. A graduate from Columbia University with a degree in Political Science, Fleurimond ditched her 9 to 5 job to launch a catering company 18 years ago and hasn’t looked back. She was a contestant on Food Network’s “Chopped”, and her work as a chef and entrepreneur has been featured in Food and Wine, Epicurious, NY Daily News, BET, and many more. Her catering company, Fleurimond Catering, has catered at the White House and for organizations such as Ann-Hauser Busch, Columbia University, New York City Hall, BET News, The Colbert Report, Dr. Mehmet Oz’s organization Healthcorps as well as notable individuals such as Al Jareau and Vivica A. Fox.

She is the author of three books : Taste of Life, Haiti Uncovered and her most recent book, Taste of Solitude, a culinary journal inspired by her love for New York City’s eclectic dining scene, Haiti’s authentic and spicy flavors and world travels. Written during the COVID-19 quarantine period, Taste of Solitude is not your typical cooking book - it’s also an inspirational and therapeutic guide to dare to live your best life. The book features creative images of Ms. Fleurimond’s love for color, fashion, and ingredients as she shares the stories, lessons and themes that emerged from this time: Gratitude, friendship, hope, and so much more.

Fleurimond believes that her book can serve as a bridge, connecting and bringing people from different cultures together especially during a time of division and hatred. Food is often a connector, helping us to celebrate our differences as well as our similarities - it’s all in the pot! This is a book that you give to yourself, a friend, or use for your next family or friend gathering.

Fleurimond is a recipient of a US Embassy grant to provide Culinary Diplomacy work utilizing the culinary arts as a tool for empowerment, entrepreneurship, and self esteem. Below is an exchange with Ms. Fleurimond on her latest book and how her many businesses as an entrepreneur were impacted by the pandemic.

Tell us about “taste of solitude” and what inspired you to write it?

Taste of Solitude rose out of a very challenging moment for me as an entrepreneur. COVID-19 threw us all for a loop, and as a caterer and event planner, I felt the brunt of it hard. Many of my clients have cancelled events, charging back credit cards and we couldn’t even go outside for fear of our health. I felt stifled. And cooking became my therapy. Though I enjoyed cooking, I also missed the component of cooking for others and bringing smiles to their faces. Thus, I decided to turn on my phone, and via my social media platforms, connect and cook.

Initially the goal was simple, ease my worries, and help others ease their worries. The weeks that followed of cooking, and interactions, led to the idea of documentation. Documentation of the thoughts, feelings and ideas that rose out of the moment, but also of some of those dishes that served as the soundtrack to this time.

The book is part journal and part culinary- which is not very common- explain the reason behind this combo?

In my world food is ever present. Food is the tool I utilize to do pretty much everything. It’s how I process, connect, educate as well as my bread and butter. Marrying recipes with my thoughts, emotions, lessons and experiences made perfect sense.

As an entrepreneur, how was your business affected by the pandemic and the current social-political climate?

These have been a trying few months. My catering company suffered the most because we are very much about catering large scale events which means big crow. Post March 2020 virtually means no events. We were fortunate that some of our clients postponed to 2021, but others panicked and attempted credit card charge back. And on top of that emotionally we had to deal with civil unrest due to injustice and police brutality.

On the positive, many have used the current events to support black creators and businesses. Hence why I decided to take my platform online as people wanted to purchase my products.

All of this planted the seed that a book would make sense.

It is bittersweet as we are dealing with the impact of a pandemic, loss of business but this also forces me to think of innovative ways as a creative entrepreneur to adjust and meet the needs of my very committed and supportive audience.

What are some of the business strategies you had to employ in order to remain sustainable as an entrepreneur?

One, I had to acknowledge the time. Daily as I cooked or did videos, I was very authentic in my feelings and what was going on. People needed to relate.

Two, I had to be very present and consistent. With so much uncertainty, many of my audience would write to me saying how they looked forward to seeing me go Live on Instagram and Facebook to cook and chat with them.

Three, I learned the importance of dancing in the rain as opposed to just running inside. In business, that means you have to be innovative and resourceful. Use what you have.

What did you learn from COVID-19 and overall as an entrepreneur this year?

I learned that entrepreneurship is really a life skill. Prior to COVID-19, I used to do entrepreneurship workshops and training for junior high school and High School youth, and I preached the importance of those skill sets. COVID 19 showed me that clearly. The traits of an entrepreneur: Resourcefulness, creativity, grit, confidence and bravery all had to be tapped into in order to tackle some of the negative impacts of COVID 19.

But above all, I learned that power lies in our hands. We determine how we will use situations. It is up to us to decide if we will get crushed or if we will fight and come out the victor.