Meet Heidi Blacker

We recently connected with Heidi Blacker and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Heidi, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Growing up in Nebraska, we had a simple life and all worked to run the family business. We learned the secret of being content with the bare necessities and had a lot of time to travel which showed me the direct relation of living within your means and working to live instead of living to work.

We also had time to help our neighbors or members of our local congregation and experienced the joy of laboring to benefit others regardless of a monetary reward.

Later in high school, I did odd jobs through a vocational program called “DUO” (Do Unto Others), where students would take “jobs” once a week in exchange for academic credits. One job I took was working for an artist to help her organize her studio, which led to a paying job with her later on. This showed me that using my skills, no matter how easy or insignificant I thought they were, when used to help others brings a lot of joy. This also taught me commitment and the value of following through on a task.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

• A lot of chefs create a brand to represent themselves, but I love what I do, to quote Jamie Oliver, because “cooking is the ultimate giving.” Whether it’s classes or private dinners, I like to see the effect on the recipient. Catering to their dietary needs, making food that will bring a smile to their face, and creating a restaurant-like atmosphere so they can enjoy new flavors or comfort food with their close friends or family, is very rewarding.
• I also love doing cooking classes. Sharing the joy of cooking with others and empowering them to feel more confident in the kitchen is really satisfying. The payback is seeing how families are starting to look forward to mealtime, sometimes cooking together. This is a life-skill that can improve the building blocks of society and create a higher quality lifestyle.
• The challenge is balancing the passion for what you do with making a living and getting adequately rewarded monetarily. Being well-paid isn’t satisfying enough. When I see the people I serve, nurtured and content, then the financial aspect is fulfilling.
• I would say my brand was built by friends who believed in me, built my website, thanks Rene at gpspolice.com and encouraged me to get certified and launch online classes during the pandemic. I want to thank Warwick Valley Olive Oil who got me started teaching cooking classes in their space for three years at the tail of the pandemic. In 2026, I’m excited to start doing cooking classes @Watergrasshillny, named best Bed and Breakfast in the Hudson Valley in 2024.

This year I started writing two books simultaneously. One is a hospitality guide with hacks for hosting parties as well as some basic kitchen skills for every day meals. It will include stories of hosts in other countries that gave me a taste of how cooking for others is a moveable feast that you will always have with you. It will also include some of my crowd pleasers, since for most of my dinners, people order the same things. You don’t need to know how to cook everything to be a good host and throw an impressive dinner party. The second one is a specialty cookbook, TBA.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Reliability, showing up when you say you will, following through on as small of a commitment as a phone call.
2. Courage to get out of my comfort zone and try new things until I got it right. Crown roast for Lenore or bread
3. Humility to recognize what you don’t know and an eagerness to learn as much as you can. This is often why many successful chefs had started out as a dishwasher. A successful entrepreneur must be familiar with every task involved and being willing to perform them themselves without hiring them out. It’s the passion that makes you successful, not striving for prestige.

Advice?
Experience can’t be learned in the classroom. It takes time. While on the beach in Grand Cayman, I shared a picnic table with a couple from Long Island. As we sat eating our jerk chicken, I found out that Sandy was the executive chef and part owner of the Oyster Bar in GCT, NYC. Having graduated from CIA, I asked what advice he would give to someone interested in going to culinary school. “Work for a year in the restaurant business, before coming to school. Then you will appreciate more how things are run.” That is absolutely true. I started my culinary education at NECI working as a server. I was eager to learn as much as I could, Being willing to put the work in, I diligently did any humble job asked of me and followed through. 27 years later, I’m working as a high-end private chef in NY.

Be curious, open and brave enough to try new things. Don’t limit yourself by staying in your comfort zone. Staying where it is “safe”, often comes from a fear of failure. Of course, we like to do things we are good at. To quote Julia Childs, “If you are afraid of failure, you’ll never do anything, because cooking is just one failure after another.” You’ve got to learn to pick yourself up and keep trying. Don’t feel you have to know everything about cooking to start cooking professionally. Have the building blocks of good work ethic and the details will come.

Recognize the value of the service you are offering and don’t compare with others. Know what you know and know what you don’t know. If they ask you to make something you aren’t comfortable with, say no. Work with your strengths but don’t be afraid to work on your weaknesses.

I have a friend who is an amazing cook and catered many weddings for her friend. She said she can’t charge because she doesn’t feel she is good enough or if something goes wrong, they won’t complain because she did it for free.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When overwhelmed about how to reach a goal or complete a big job, one of the principles that helps me is the 80/20 rule. If a task seems overwhelming, break it down. Sometimes the hardest part takes only 20% of the time but encompasses 80% of the task. For example, it may seem overwhelming to vacuum the whole house, but if you start by just doing the traffic aisles, it’s 20% of the square footage but 80% of the dirt. Then the rest of the house takes less time, because it’s not as dirty.

If I have a catering job, doing the legwork to get the job, communicating with the client, making the grocery list, hiring staff and shop takes 20% of the time but contributes to 80% of the success. When I don’t have gigs, I keep testing recipes to keep up with food trends and keep my skills sharp.

Another strategy to avoid procrastinating was developed by David Allen, called Getting Things Done (GTD), which is a productivity methodology that helps individuals manage their tasks and reduce overwhelm. The core principles of GTD include Capture: Collect all tasks and ideas in a trusted system to clear your mind.
Clarify: Process what each item means and what action is required.
Organize: Sort tasks into categories based on their context and priority.
Reflect: Regularly review your tasks and projects to stay on track.
Engage: Choose what to work on based on your current context and priorities.
GTD aims to enhance focus, clarity, and confidence in managing tasks

I also like the principles in creating healthy habits by James Clear’s book Atomic Habits:
Every day we are discovering “this is what I need to do to get the result that I want”
The strategies we follow to get the results we want in life, but not all are healthy.
Create a new habit in 4 steps:
1. cue (gets your attn)
2. craving (brain predicts what that cue means and gives you the desire to act)
3. response (how you react)
4. reward (payoff from the habit)

Not all behaviors are rewarding, but if it’s not meaningful in some way, it’s not going to be worth repeating.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cookwithheidi.org – www.blackercatering.com
• Instagram: blackercatering
• Facebook: Blackercatering Heidi
• Youtube: cookwithheidi

Image Credits

Skyedphotography