Catering Company Owner Receives Resources to Grow Business

Chrissy Miller, owner of Cultivating Catering by Chef Chrissy, has created a Bossy Sauce that she puts on a lot of the dishes she creates. Photo provided by Bank of America.
Chrissy Miller, owner of Cultivating Catering by Chef Chrissy, has created a Bossy Sauce that she puts on a lot of the dishes she creates. Photo provided by Bank of America.

Catering Company Owner Receives Resources to Grow Business

By Tia Carol Jones

Chrissy Miller launched Cultivating Catering by Chef Chrissy 10 years ago and she has been growing ever since. She has been cooking since she was eight years old and she loves to eat. In high school, she went into foodservice and eventually, she went to culinary school.

Her goal when it comes to the dishes, she creates is to make people eat with their eyes first. She creates beautiful setups of her dishes and once people taste her food, she knows she has them. Being the best that she can be came from being raised by a single mother, who passed away when Miller was eight years old.

Miller attended the Inner City Capital Connections program, an executive leadership training program that helps business owners from under-resourced communities build capacity for resiliency and sustainable growth. While participating in the program, Miller was introduced to Johnny Wilbon, a Small Business Community Officer at Bank of America.

In his role, Wilbon brings awareness, literacy and education to business owners across Illinois by connecting with community partners, small business incubators and not-for-profit organizations. Wilbon has served as a mentor to Miller. Having Wilbon provide information about resources helped Miller apply for grants that she didn’t know she was eligible for, because she was really just focused on running the business.

For her participation in the Inner City Capital Connections program, Miller received a $2,000 grant, as well as a $20,000 Cook County Small Business Source Grant. The capital Miller received is helping fund and grow her business. Now, she wants to find a location to house a brick-and-mortar kitchen where she will have an afterschool program and teach children how to cook.

“The big goal and the dream is to have a location and a shared kitchen for me and other people,” she said. She added that she believes there is a need for a shared kitchen space on the South side. Miller is in the process of looking for mixed-use properties, which she will still need funding for in order to purchase.

Miller has catered Kids Off the Block’s Feed A Teen Thanksgiving Meal, which she said was a huge opportunity for her. She has also catered for celebrities and corporations, as well as spirits activations. She wants to get into doing more corporate catering, but without a brick-and-mortar space, it is a challenge.

Miller has created a signature sauce called Bossy Sauce which she uses on everything, including her jerk chicken rolls, buffalo chicken rolls and veggie rolls. She also makes pasta salad and shrimp and grits, which are crowd favorites.

Her advice to other small business owners is to connect with people like Wilbon who can connect them to resources they might not know about. The type of information Wilbon has given Miller has been invaluable.

For more information about Cultivating Catering by Chef Chrissy, visit cultivatingcatering.com.

For more information about Bank of America’s resources for small business owners, visit www.bankofamerica.com/smallbusiness/


Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

Peggy Riggins