From a young age, Yazmeen Sahadi has been a hustler. As a child, she loved watching her grandfather work hard at his restaurant and learned many valuable lessons from his work ethic. As a young adult, she majored in business management and graduated with a degree in business management. She hoped to use her business acumen and management skills to start a business later.
“After working at my first ‘big girl’ job out of college, I quickly realized that this was not the path for me. I was a hard worker, but wanted to use my skill set to work for myself and build something from the ground up,” Sahadi said.
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sahadi and her husband, Rene Escobedo, started considering ways to support their Rio Grande community while earning extra income to support their newlywed lifestyle. They decided to begin selling sandwiches, charcuterie, brunch boxes, and other small items on the weekends, and the response from the community was overwhelmingly positive.
“Our initial goal to just make an extra buck quickly escalated into much more. The community loved our food, and we loved being able to bring comfort food to our community in a safe and contactless way,” she said.
After several months of contactless delivery, Sahadi made a bold move. She decided to forgo her stable 9-5 and give the food industry a real chance. At the time, her husband was in school for engineering, so they had a lot going on. However, Sahadi felt passionate that this leap of faith was the next right move for their family. Four years later, she has not looked back once.
Sahadi Kitchen has quickly evolved into a full catering company with dine-in options twice weekly. “Catering is our bread and butter. Our first catering project was with a local organization Fem City. We got great feedback after our first engagement with them,” Sahadi said.
This feedback put wind in the sails, and she and her husband began to grow the catering side of Sahadi Kitchen. Thanks to their irresistible food and excellent service, they are overflowing with catering requests. “Sometimes we have a good three-month runway to prepare for a catering event and then other times a client will call asking for 60 sandwiches the next day,” she said.
“We always try to accommodate our clients regardless of the timeline and provide an excellent service.”
This dedication to excellence speaks volumes to the community’s obsession with Sahadi Kitchen. Sahadi and her team treat their community well; in turn, the community cannot get enough of what they have cooking up.
After graduating with his engineering degree, her husband decided that he would take the leap and use his background to better Sahadi Kitchen.
“I am the marketing and sales, and hubby uses his passion for food as the head chef and overseer of all operations,” she said. “He can make our processes run so smoothly and is always coming up with great ideas to maximize efficiency and productivity,” Sahadi said.
Sahadi and her husband love to work and put their heart and soul into Sahadi Kitchen. “We share the same entrepreneurial spirit even though we are good at different things.”
The past four years since Sahadi Kitchen’s genesis have been “full steam ahead,” Sahadi has no plans to slow down anytime soon. “For a while, we had a three-man band, myself, my husband, and cousin – a true family affair. Now, we are looking to expand and are hiring to build the catering and curbside sides of the business,” she said.
Sahadi is the definition of a true “Jefa” – driven, hard-working, and generous. Her passion projects expansion to a thriving business, thanks to her tenacious spirit and relentless work ethic. “It is a true dream come true to work for ourselves and work with each other. We are so blessed,” Sahadi said. In the past four years, Sahadi has grown Sahadi Kitchen more than her wildest dreams and is confident that the “best is yet to come!”.
