Today we’d like to introduce you to Rami Rassas.
Hi Rami, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I always had a passion for cooking at a young age. I grew up in a family where my earliest memories were cooking in the kitchen with my grandmother in Jerusalem, which is where my family is from. I grew up in the restaurant business, my mom is the best chef I know. I developed a passion for it at an early age. I would always find my way into the kitchen. My Mother owned deli’s, grills, grocery stores, cafes, and an Italian restaurant. I did every job I could at all those businesses and soaked up as much knowledge as I could. Our most successful venture was the Italian restaurant we owned in Frisco. It was before the big Frisco boom. I worked my way up from busboy to waiter, apps, Sous chef and eventually executive chef.
After a few years, we ended up selling the restaurant and I went back to college to complete my degree. I graduated with an associate degree in theater. The only other passion I had that equaled my passion for food was by passion for entertaining. I’ll be honest, at the time, I was not a good actor. I cared too much about what people thought. I took a job at a car dealership. I was recruited by my best friend at the time. It was a great opportunity for me to make great money at a young age. I was never a car guy, but I was great at it. In fact, soo good that I was awarded sales professional of the month for the entire nation by Auto dealer monthly. Despite my new career, I never stopped cooking. Then, one day, I got word of a casting call for FOX’s MasterChef from my sister. I made the drive to Austin. The entire audition process spanned a few months. I made the show but did not win. They start with 100 contestants, and I made it down to 19.
After the show ended, I resumed my employment at the car dealership, where I was promoted to Director of Sales. In the meantime, I invested in a venture with some partners and opened up a restaurant in Dallas. It failed, but not bc of my food. It was just poorly run, so much so that all reviews would say great things about the food, but give us a poor rating due to service or other variables. This prompted me to do something to help Revolutionize the food review system. I developed an app that focuses on bringing credibility back to food reviews but requiring you to check into the restaurant and take a picture of the dish. That app is Plate Pulse. The heartbeat of a restaurant is the food, each plate is the pulse. To keep an already long story short, over the next few years, I battled my happiness over my professional career. I became the Sales Director for a local Masersti dealership but was no longer happy to continue to chase the money over my passion. I wanted to be happy. I was afraid to leave the security that I had on my 60 hour a week job. I never stopped cooking.
I would do events here and there, dinners, catering, meal plans, but my long work weeks began to take a toll mentally and physically on me, till eventually, I decided I did not want to cook anymore. Gone was the MasterChef dream, and now I was just MaserRami. I hated my life. Going to work every day unhappy about what you’re doing affects everything. I was in a relationship that failed, I was on edge with my family. I partied excessively bc I worked so hard and was so unhappy that I tried to find happiness in other things. Then one day, things changed. I ran into a friend. A friend who’s tasted my food before and he said something to me. He said, “Rami, I know you’re not cooking anymore, but if you ever decide to, sign me up, I’m tired of eating all these meal plans that taste horrible.” This same friend has shared with me before his story about being in a corporate job and being unhappy until finally he quit one day to pursue his passion for music and is one of the top DJ’s in the city of Dallas, Zillamatic. I told him I would do meals for him.
I started offering meal plans to him and others while still working my job at Maserati, then a month into all that, the world changed. the pandemic hit. Restaurants closed, businesses shut down, people working from home. I took this opportunity to do more meals for people. I was working from home for Maserati, selling cars and also selling meals. After 30 days of working from home, I was called back into the office and called into the office of the owner of the company. He basically said I don’t care what you have going on, but I need your focus here and I can’t have anything else you’re doing interfere with your job here. I understood that completely. He has to do what’s best for the company. I went back to my office and sat there thinking for a few hours. I knew I couldn’t do what he wanted me to do. I turned in the keys to my Maserati demo, took an Uber home and MaseRami was no more and Rami Raw was born.
From that point forward, I began to grow my chef brand. Rami Raw. The Raw comes from the fact that I want to be real and raw and share everything about me and what I do in the kitchen. This entire time, I lived my life on social media. People followed my story. I shared my raw emotions and people supported me, to when now I can confidently say that I am probably one of the busiest chefs in the city and I don’t even own a restaurant. I do close to 300 meal plans a week, catering business lunches, do private in-home dining experiences and cooking classes. Food is a lifestyle and my life is about food, the final step in all this culminates in the launch of my food and lifestyle app, RAMI, and soo that brings together anything and everything food and fun. Feeding you entertainment.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The conflict between my job and my passion for food.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My food is by art. I combine food and entertainment. I specialize in private dinners, cooking classes and meal preps, however I take people behind the scenes of what I do in the kitchen and show them how it’s done with music and videos that show my passion for food and entertaining. Feeding you entertainment.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I spend a lot of hours alone in the kitchen and what helps me get through it is music and some podcasts. Michael Jackson always gets me feeling good and energized, but I’m an 80s baby soo anything from that genre will do. I love the Bill Simmons podcast. It’s talks about sports and pop culture.
Contact Info:
- Email: rami@ramiraw.com
- Website: www.RamiRaw.com
- Phone: 214-507-4217
- Instagram: @rami.raw
- Facebook: @ramirawtv
- Twitter: @ramirassas
- Other: www.PlatePulse.com
