How 4ft and Up Kitchen Came About
Hello,
My Name is Miranda, also known as Chef Mo. I am the founder of 4ft and Up Kitchen and I’m so happy to share this story with you. As a young girl, I have always loved to cook and bake. I started off with making boxed cakes and ginormous pancakes. No matter how hard I tried, I could never make a normal sized pancake. I would always make them so thick (never read the measurements), and over mixed the batter every time because I hated lumps. I now know that over mixing pancakes is a no no. But my family still ate them with smiles on their faces. I then became obsessed with cooking shows and decided to recreate a ginger chicken recipe. I obviously put waay too much ginger and despite the kick in the mouth the chicken gave everybody. They still ate it with supportive smiles (haha). At least it was fully cooked :). I always loved cooking and the smell of food cooking, especially on holidays. I loved our Sunday family dinners and the nights when we would have breakfast for dinner was my fav. Eating together always made me happy and until this day gives me a feeling of warmth and home. Fast forward to my senior year of high school. I was trying to decide what path I wanted to take and what career I wanted to have. I applied to Le Cordon Bleu Chicago and also a photography school, which I also loved. I was accepted to both but I decided to go with culinary, shocking… I know. (haha)
I graduated and hit the ground running. In school we had to do an internship. I decided to do my internship at a then new bakery called Molly’s Cupcakes. I worked my way up to head baker and basically lived off of cupcakes. After working there I decided to get a second job at a restaurant as a host and worked my way to back of the house as a prep and line chef. I was trying to get as much experience as I could in the hospitality industry. I then decided to leave the bakery and work at the House of Blues, but I still kept my job at the restaurant. I was definitely not shy of working hard. At the House of Blues I was able to work private parties and I loved it. At this point I was making a Meze out of jobs and eating up all the experiences it offered.
After working in the hospitality industry in Chicago I made a huge leap and moved to New York to help with the new Molly’s Cupcakes bakery there. New York was amazing and is where I decided to change career paths. I have always loved kids and caring for them ever since I was old enough to hold babies. I would gravitate towards moms with babies a little ones at family parties and just sit and play with them the whole night. I started to babysit when I was in high school and was always told how much of a natural with kids I was. So when I moved to New York I started to nanny and help care for kids professionally and I loved it! I met so many wonderful people who I now call family. This is when I had my light bulb moment. I would always bake and cook with all of my kids and loved teaching them and helping them create delicious meals and baked goods. I loved how their faces would light up when they would see and taste their final product. I realized that this was what I was meant to do. So I did it.
I met a mom, now a friend, who was opening up her own salon and she asked me if I wanted to offer a cooking class for kids. I was beyond thrilled to partner up and get cooking. This was my time to shine and really test my idea out. It was a wonderful success. We had so many amazing little chefs come and create and leave with happy taste buds and bellies. I knew I wanted to do this and only this from then on.
When I moved to San Francisco, I worked for a short while as a nanny before finding the perfect fit for me which turned out to be a culinary director position at YUM Chefs. This job was everything I wanted. It taught me so much and gave me a taste of what it would be like to run a business. The first official night of my new position, We all went to dinner to discuss the role and what it entailed. At the end of dinner we were offered fortune cookies and mine plain as day said “ you will be successful in a business of your own”. It gives me chills to even think about it. I still have that fortune today hanging on my door. I kept it in my sight everyday and I give it a tap every time I leave the house.
Fast forward to 2020. The world is a mess and no one saw it coming. I was furloughed from YUM Chefs because of the pandemic. This is when I said to myself “it’s time”. I decided to stop making excuses and putting off starting my own business. I needed to do this for myself and to secure my future. With the help and advice of my amazing mentor I started the process that brought about 4ft and Up Kitchen.
I created the name 4ft and Up Kitchen in 2018. It was a name I ponder on and change so many times before I decided this was the perfect name that fits my idea. 4ft(feet) and Up Kitchen embodies the idea that you don’t have to be an adult to learn how to cook and create delicious meals in the kitchen. You can be a tiny chef with the help of your parents until your are an older chef that can navigate the kitchen on your own. It also embodies that we want to teach chefs that are young all the way up to adults.
Starting my own business gave me an indescribable feeling. I was so happy and full of joy. 4ft and Up Kitchen is my business baby that I am going to feed and help grow. I still have no words to express how happy I am today. I know that the road ahead is going to be windy and full of bumps but I am ready for everything it has in store for me because with every turn and bump comes a lesson that turns into knowledge that I get to share. My hope is that along the way I spread the joy of cooking with kids and adults that pass it along to their loved ones and it keeps going for years and years to come.
Thanks for taking the time to read my story.
Chef Mo
