Eat, Graze, Love: Massive Cheese Platters Become Life of the Party

Notes from Chris

Episode 762

Bianca Cashman loves well-presented food. She spends hours perusing Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook pages looking at the creations of others. She often wondered if she could start a food business. Something to align her love of creative display with her taste buds.

But she wasn’t always interested in creating food for human consumption. In fact, in 2014, Bianca and her husband started a food business of another kind, specializing in selling healthy snacks for dogs.

They achieved some success, but decided to move on after one year and sold the business. After that, Bianca returned to focusing on her day job as a Senior Account Manager for a large media company.

This continued until 2018 when a special event rolled around that gave her a bite-sized idea. It was her mom’s 60th birthday, and she was tasked with preparing the all-important cheese platter. Not wanting to disappoint, Bianca decided to super-size it.

While perusing some of her favorite Instagram pages on food, she noticed a growing trend. The concept of grazing and charcuterie boards had really taken off. It’s a relatively new idea that is most easily described as a food platter on steroids.

So instead of a simple cheese board, Bianca planned a full-on grazing table. She’d set out bowls, platters, and stands layered with cheese, cured meats, fruits, breads, dips, and more. It would be a buffet of organized chaos! The grazing table would allow people to try a bit of everything and have a small adventure while they ate—nibbling their way through a plethora of different flavors.

Before the party, she set up the table and, once finished, it looked more like a work of art than a meal... To capture the moment, she took some photos and posted them online. She received a tremendous amount of praise, but more importantly, some interest to do the same for others.

And one of her friends shared her all-encompassing amazing grazing platter with a local caterer. That caterer decided to take a chance on Bianca and booked her for a job—a bachelorette party. It was time to recreate the magic!

But at this point, she didn’t yet know the right quantities or even what price to charge. So she completely chicken winged it, settling on a price per head of $25. Enough to cover the expenses and then some. Once again, the platter was a huge hit, and Bianca knew it was time to get serious.

She decided to use a play on words for the business name. She called it, Eat.Graze.Love … Elizabeth Gilbert or at least Julia Roberts would be proud.

She’s been working on Eat.Graze.Love for just over one year and, in that time has generated enough income to replace her paycheck. So, with much excitement, 2019 brought with it a nice gift. Taking the project from a part-time side hustle to a full-time job.

Bianca has done what many people only hope to achieve, one mouthful at a time.

 

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Eat.Graze.Love: Chew it over, and head on over to Bianca's website to learn more about this tasty side hustle!

 

SEE ALSO:

• House Arrest Leads to $500,000 Food Truck and Catering Hustle: While serving time after a run-in with the law, one man and his cousin get creative in the kitchen, then launch a successful food truck, catering, and restaurant business in rural Pennsylvania
• Nacho Average Tacos! Chef Puts Twist on Mexican Culinary Classics: A San Diego chef turns her weekend catering gig into a popular brick and mortar restaurant for visitors on both sides of the border
• Louisiana Vegan Community Becomes a Big Dill: Feeling like the only vegans in Louisiana, two friends start a roving, multi-course dinner series

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,