Meet Andrea Verner | Private Chef and Caterer

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

Hi Andrea, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I wanted to have the freedom of being with my family, traveling, just creating a balanced professional/personal life. After I had my daughter, it was an obvious choice to start my own business. As a solo parent, you would think this made our life more challenging, but it actually made us have an easier and more loving life. For years, my friends had asked me to meal prep for them, but I never had the time. When Covid hit, suddenly I had the time and I haven’t looked back since. I’ve been happier starting a business and dealing with the challenges that I have faced, than I ever had in a traditional business.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The lessons I have learned along the way, are DON’T WAIT to start your dream. I spent years slowly building up my brand and what kind of business I wanted to create. My only regret is not starting sooner. I have definitely had my challenges, sometimes not having any business, teaching myself about marketing and accounting, and everything else about starting a business. Learning through my mistakes has been my best teaching tool, overcoming the thoughts of thinking you’re a failure if something doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would. Those are the most frustrating days, but the most rewarding. I believe you always come out better after a lesson is learned, your business will succeed because you have failed. I wouldn’t say starting a business is easy, but I definitely have an easier life now that I have started it. My personal life has become more full of joy, love, and happiness since starting my own business.

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?
Since I am a family first kinda girl, when friends come to visit we usually hang out at my house. I spend the whole weekend cooking, playing dominoes, bags. Just spending time cooking and eating, making margaritas, and playing family games. If we are going out, it would be to the Dallas Botanical Gardens for a picnic. Depending on the season, we would either be at the Rodeo and Stockyards in Fort Worth, a baseball game to see the Rangers play, or Downtown Grapevine at the Wine Festival.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
What originally got me interested in learning how to cook, was this YouTube video I watched about school lunches in other countries. It was showing how the children help prepare lunches, it was all healthy lunches. I wanted to learn to cook so I can change the way people think about food. As for starting my own business, I couldn’t have done it without the support of my dad. He’s my biggest and honest critique, and always pushing me to be my best. Everything I create, goes through him first.

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