{"id":2620,"date":"2020-08-03T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T17:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenstatekitchen.com\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2022-10-05T13:44:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T17:44:27","slug":"entrepreneur-feature-back-in-business-how-graze-and-braise-kept-cooking-under-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenstatekitchen.com\/entrepreneur-feature-back-in-business-how-graze-and-braise-kept-cooking-under-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneur Feature: Back in Business: How Graze and Braise Kept Cooking Under Lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This month, we spotlight\u00a0Graze and Braise<\/a>, the meal prep company chef Ayaz Adiguzelli built over the last four years. He joined\u00a0Garden State Kitchen<\/a>\u00a0in March, right when stay-at-home orders came down and food supply chains started to seize. Ready to cook for his regular customers again, he shared how he kept his business going during lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of March, Ayaz, an entrepreneur who comes from a family of Halal meat wholesalers and once ran his own butcher shop, was faced with a dilemma. He’d just moved his business to Garden State Kitchen, but he couldn’t source a main ingredient \u2013 organic grass-fed beef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without it, he couldn’t maintain the level of quality his customers expected from his healthy comfort food menu. As a result, he decided to temporarily close and pivot to something different: cooking for hospital workers treating Covid-19 patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayaz went from delivering seasonal favorites to busy families and professionals, to large batches of small, allergen-free meals that were easy for doctors and nurses to reheat and eat on the go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We put our heads down and produced food because that’s what people needed,” Ayaz said. “This is what we do. There was a need for food, so I said, ‘let’s grind’.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For six weeks, they pumped out 700 to 1,500 meals per week, including trays of green curry chicken or pulled chicken over vegetable fried rice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A non-profit funded his frontline efforts, but payments amounted to one-third of what Graze and Braise usually earned. To compensate, Ayaz pushed for large orders, using volume to increase the margin and help keep his business afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to book flexible blocks of time at Garden State Kitchen also made working with the non-profit possible because he only paid rent for the hours he cooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all the juggling and hard work, Ayaz said it was a rewarding experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It felt good,” Ayaz said. “You were tired, you were fatigued, but you felt like you were part of something bigger.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that restrictions are lifting, Ayaz plans to reopen Graze and Braise again deliver to customers throughout the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The whole situation has been scary and uncertain for a lot of people'” Ayaz said. “I hope the worst is behind us now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about Graze and Braise, check out their website<\/a> or follow on Instagram<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month, we spotlight\u00a0Graze and Braise, the meal prep company chef Ayaz Adiguzelli built over the last four years. He joined\u00a0Garden State Kitchen\u00a0in March, right when stay-at-home orders came down and food supply chains started to seize. Ready to cook for his regular customers again, he shared how he kept his business going during lockdown. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-entrepreneurs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEntrepreneur Feature: Back in Business: How Graze and Braise Kept Cooking Under Lockdown | Garden State Kitchen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenstatekitchen.com\/entrepreneur-feature-back-in-business-how-graze-and-braise-kept-cooking-under-lockdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Entrepreneur Feature: Back in Business: How Graze and Braise Kept Cooking Under Lockdown | Garden State Kitchen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This month, we spotlight\u00a0Graze and Braise, the meal prep company chef Ayaz Adiguzelli built over the last four years. 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