Today we’d like to introduce you to Dana Cohen.
Hi Dana, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I began my journey by baking macaroni and cheese for church potlucks. I just wanted to serve good food to my loved ones and as a mother of 7 kids cooking was always happening in our home. I did not expect for it to be so loved. Over the years I would bring the dish to every gathering because it was always requested and always brought joy to whoever ate it. Many would ask for me to sell it to them after they had a baby, for gatherings, or for after their weddings, etc. I would always just gift it because I didn’t want to sell the mac and cheese, I just wanted to bring joy and love to my friends and family. Due to all of the serving, my recipe became cheesier and cheesier, and better and better. I knew for many years that although cooking was a gift it was not something that I wanted to use for anything other than giving.
After my family relocated to Nashville my husband, Terrell, suggested that once and for all, I sell the mac and cheese. Since my husband always has the best ideas and because people had been asking me to do so for a long time, I knew that I should try it. I prayed for God to show me how to sell the mac and cheese, and that is when it became clear that I needed to add toppings to the mac and cheese. My children (Damian, Brittany, Damani, Daniel) also LOVE cooking, and we are so close as a family. We have houses in the same neighborhood and are always cooking, serving, and loving up on people together! It is so much fun that it made complete sense for us to go into business together. The kids came up with the quirky names for the mac and cheeses and they advertise it in the most fun and creative ways! Our business started off with catering and the Thompson Station Farmers Market. We were surprised by how well we were received!!! The love was amazing and people did not mind paying for the mac and cheese! They still felt all of the love that was put into the food and we were having fun!
To our surprise, an opportunity came up for us to open a location in Spring Hill right on Main Street. We are so excited and feel so blessed to do this! Everyone in this city from the mayor on, have been beyond supportive! We can’t wait to open and to continue to spread the love our family has for the community to everyone we serve.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I must say for the most part it has been pretty smooth. The only struggle we had was trying to figure out how we were going to expand by opening a location. Catering and the farmers’ market provided an amazing opportunity for us to promote our name but we were finding it difficult to keep up with production. It was challenging to serve an eight-blend gourmet baked mac and cheese with the variety of toppings we provide as a vendor. Thankfully we persevered and God opened doors.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Mama D’s Baked Mac and Cheese provides a specialty eight-blend gourmet baked mac and cheese. It is baked fresh daily and is very cheesy and buttery. This dish has been perfected over the last 2 decades. The process to making each pan from start to finish takes 2 hours. I perfected the recipe not for a restaurant but for loved ones. It is what I have fed my own children over the years. We are proud to share this recipe with our community and are hopeful that they will feel the love put into it with every bite. What makes our mac and cheese even more special is that we have added foods to it that we absolutely love!!! This perfect blend of cheese and pasta is topped with meats such as bacon and Italian sausage, pulled pork, taco, fajita, jerk chicken, chicken Parmesan, Philly cheesesteak, shrimp, and one of my personal favorites Nashville hot chicken (just to name a few). Some of our dishes have special meaning like the Memphis BBQ Chicken. We adopted one of our children and he is from Memphis so we created this dish in honor of him.
We are sensitive to the fact that people have different intolerances so we do provide a gluten-free mac and cheese and non-dairy options such as French fries and chicken and waffles. I must warn that we always joke by saying that if you are on a diet you will have to wait for your cheat day to eat at Mama D’s!! Trust me it will be worth it!
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The food industry continues to evolve. We are seeing more specialty shops and restaurants opening than ever before. People don’t always know what they want but they know what they like. They are often interested in trying new things and new trends form. We see Mama D’s Baked Mac N Cheese playing a major role in that trend for years to come.
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