Self-taught Gourmet Chef Gianee Razack turns passion into artistry with elite gifting experience
“Gifts are symbols of the value we place on relationships.”
That is the vision behind GIGI's Gourmet Gifts.
Founded in 2020 with the desire to provide exceptional gifts and gift experiences for all of life's special occasions; GiGi’s is a small but passionate team that creates customisable Gourmet gift packages.
Gianee Razack, founder of the business, takes care of the gifting process from ideas and food selection & creation, all the way through to assembly, handwritten messages and delivery.
“I would normally experience issues with finding the perfect gifts for my friends or my family just to show them my appreciation. I then came to a solution and I combined my love for food with the issue I had at hand and I came up with GiGi's Gourmet Gift Boxes.”
She started off just putting together gift boxes for the special people in her life made up of some of their favourite food items and gourmet recipes she was experimenting with.
“I’m a self-taught chef. I would’ve spent a lot of my summers looking at cooking shows, losing out sleep just to look at one more show cause I want to see how they cook this thing. And I started experimenting in my mom’s kitchen and it was…amazing.”
“What I learned was that the recipes; you don’t follow it directly all the time because it don’t turn out as well. So I started experimenting with my own things and I found it very therapeutic. It’s very fun.”
“Even when we have these events and hectic occasions that we have to plan for, cooking is still my therapy. It’s still an ease on my mind to be cooking.”
“We then came up with a list of our favourite menu items that we now offer and we now include a variety of pastries and deserts, charcuterie boxes and trays. We have wines. We also include fruit boxes and of course there are customisable gift boxes that can be curated to your liking.”
Gianee attributes some of her success with GiGi’s to her work with her mentors in the Accelerate-Her programme.
This is an initiative designed to enable the growth of small businesses through tailored workshops, access to one-on-one business advisory services, mentoring, pitch development, and fostering a strong and supportive peer-learning environment for women.
“During the course of this programme we basically put our business under a microscope. We investigated what was working and what wasn’t working in our business layout and then we came up with solutions. The Accelerate-Her programme not only focused on growing our customer base, but standardising all of our business procedures.”
The 22-year-old runs her own business on top of her full-time job at Conservation International. While balancing two jobs can be a challenge for most, it gives Gianee a chance to incorporate and incentivise both her passions; preparing gourmet delicacies and saving the planet.
GiGi’s luxe gourmet food and paired artisan gifts are in large part made to order, but now, two years after forming her business, Gianee has now launched her in-house brunch dining experience which happens every Sunday from 9:00hrs to 14:00hrs at Signature Restaurant.
She acknowledges as well that the restaurant experience is less environmentally sustainable if not executed well.
“GiGi’s is currently working on developing an effective food waste management system. Because as we know, restaurants have the highest food wastage and there’s a lot of people out there that are hungry.
“We may be looking for a collaboration with orphanages to donate the leftover food that we have. GiGi’s will continue to be conscious of the environment and other individuals and try to make not just the gifting experience but the interactions with all people on earth a more friendly one.”
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