All smiles with personal chef Tim Meevasin who struggled at the start of the pandemic, but has rebounded since.
Finding a Life Balance in Reno
As COVID-19 continues to take its toll on small businesses all over the country, Tim Meevasin has witnessed some of this change in his own small business.
“In the very beginning with the shut down, (it was) almost dead. We worked maybe two days out of the month for three months,” said Tim Meevasin, owner of Tim Meevasin Personal Chef in Reno, serving the Biggest Little City and surrounding areas, with a signature paella party dish.
Meevasin is originally from Las Vegas, but he’s called Reno home for the last 18 years. He first moved to Reno in 2002 to attend the University of Nevada, Reno with a Millennium Scholarship. After studying Business Management at UNR, Meevasin studied Culinary Arts at Truckee Meadows Community College and was certified by the American Culinary Federation, finding his path.
Meevasin grew up in the kitchen and was always surrounded by food. Not only did he grow up cooking food all the time, but Meevasin loved watching cooking shows. “I watched Emeril and Julia Child. And I love to eat. It’s always (has been) big in our (Thai) culture,” he said.
In his short bio on his website, he wrote that he loved to sit, “at the kitchen table watching his grandma fix dinners and pretending to help her just to get free samples.”
In culinary school, Meevasin was introduced to many new dishes and was able to travel to Italy, Spain, and Japan just to name a few, where was exposed to different ways of cooking. He decided that being a personal chef was what he wanted to do because it allowed to do what he loves, cooking, while also having a balanced life that working in a restaurant would not grant him.
“Today we actually cooked. I left my house at eight o’clock and it’s 2 o’clock and we’ve already unloaded, had lunch, and I’m done with work,” said Meevasin. “Ya know what I mean? The balance is way better and that’s a huge, huge part of it.”
Tim Meevasin smiles with recent clients and several dishes. One is a valencia with extra green beans and the other is a large seafood paella with clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari, and lemon.
Adapting to a COVID-19 World
Meevasin started his personal chef and catering business in 2014. Since then, he has become known as the “paella guy,” offers different versions of the famous Spanish dish. “A meal prep is us going out to the client’s home, we do all the grocery shopping and menu planning and we cook a ton of meals and then we cool it, package it, and we’re out the door,” said Meevasin, of a typical business day.
Meevasin also offers cooking classes for any clients who want them. It is a relaxed course where Meevasin teaches them how to make a dish in the client’s home. Meevasin sees it as another way to connect with clients if they want to learn how to make dishes such as risotto or paella.
The intimacy of Meevasin’s business is what makes it stand out in Reno. Not only does he get jobs by word of mouth mostly, but works in clients’ homes. This allows for a connection to be built with Meevasin and his customers.
Meevasin says he doesn’t do any advertising, but mainly relies on word of mouth to get his next gig. In recent months, he said, business has really picked up again. “Since people can’t go out and do stuff, they’re doing small dinner parties like backyard outdoor paella parties or a small indoor plated dinner,” he said.
Now, Meevasin is doing smaller groups more frequently because of COVID-19 safety regulations. Meevasin did not file for the CARES Act or unemployment because technically during this time he was still working. Although Meevasin did apply for the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), but he says he only got very little because of being one person in charge of a small business.
“I just feel like the business environment is going to change so much in the next, it already has, but even continuing with COVID/flu season and we’re spiking right now in Reno,” he said. “I think businesses have to be able to adapt, a lot of businesses have to figure out how to still stay relevant if COVID shuts everything down because it’s hard depending on your business model.”
He’s optimistic for his own business model. “I think there’s a lot of business opportunities, there’s wealthier people moving into Reno from all over but, mainly the Bay, that creates opportunities,” he said.
He’s also happy to call Reno home despite all the current challenges.
“We love the mountains, we love the outdoors. I feel like being close to the Bay Area, being close to Yosemite, Mammoth, and honestly Tahoe. It’s a good mix of (like) recreational and professional, without being too big,” said Meevasin of why he’s stuck around.