“Math Dyslexia” Can’t Stop This Chef and Business Owner [Video]

By Understood

By the time Raquel Fleetwood was diagnosed with a learning disability at age 8, she had already discovered her passion: cooking. By 16, inspired by her Black Latino roots, she was selling cheese flans in NYC — and building confidence with each gig that followed. Now, Raquel is the owner and chef of a catering company that delivers 75,000 meals in an average year. Listen to hear how Raquel turned her love of food into a career. Learn her secret for managing challenges with math, spoken language, and organization as an adult. And get her advice on how to make your strengths shine when you have learning differences.

To find a transcript for this episode and more resources, visit the episode page at Understood. https://www.understood.org/podcast/ho…

We love hearing from our listeners. Email us at thatjob@understood.org.

Understood is a nonprofit and social impact organization dedicated to shaping a world where the 1 in 5 people who learn and think differently can thrive. Learn more about “How’d You Get THAT Job?!” and all our podcasts at u.org/podcasts. Copyright © 2022 Understood for All, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:01
[Music]
0:05
from the understood podcast network this
0:07
is how’d you get that job a podcast that
0:10
explores the unique and often unexpected
0:12
career paths of people with learning and
0:14
thinking differences my name is eleni
0:17
mathil and i’m a user researcher here at
0:18
understood that means i spend a lot of
0:20
time thinking about how we find jobs we
0:22
love that reflect how we learn and who
0:25
we are
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i’ll be your host
0:29
[Music]
0:30
i absolutely love food so i’m really
0:32
excited for our next guest
0:34
raquel fleetwood is a chef and caterer
0:37
in los angeles who draws culinary
0:40
inspiration from her black and puerto
0:42
rican roots in a typical year her
0:44
company delivers 75 000 catered meals a
0:47
year she has dyslexia and other learning
0:49
differences she also struggles with
0:51
things like spoken language math and
0:54
organization
0:55
so raquel welcome to the show thanks for
0:58
having me of course so yeah i’m really
1:00
excited to talk about food and i’m
1:02
really looking forward to hearing how
1:03
you made that your career
1:05
so tell us a little bit about your job
1:07
and what you do
1:08
i’m the owner and chef of catered by
1:10
raquel in long beach california and i am
1:13
a full-time mom
1:15
[Laughter]
1:17
four kids in a business four kids in a
1:19
business so you’re a chef and a caterer
1:23
have you always loved cooking and what
1:25
do you love about it i’ve always loved
1:27
cooking my mom worked a lot when i was
1:29
growing up she was back in school to get
1:31
her phd and i grew up on the upper west
1:33
side of new york with a mother that
1:34
didn’t cook so she would always order in
1:37
everything was take out which is i guess
1:39
good for some people but i remember
1:41
figuring out at a super early age that
1:43
if i learned how to cook i could make
1:44
anything i wanted so i remember being
1:47
four
1:48
and trying to work my way into my
1:50
grandmother’s kitchen and she eventually
1:51
got tired of kicking me out and they
1:53
gave me a stool so i could reach the
1:54
counter
1:56
how very new york a very new yorker to
1:58
take out every night
2:00
oh my gosh she’s like i’m the best chef
2:02
ever here’s my phone numbers these are
2:03
all the numbers
2:04
yeah and when you snuck into the kitchen
2:07
is there anything in particular that you
2:09
liked about being in the kitchen or that
2:11
you liked cooking any favorite meals i
2:14
just i’ve always been attracted to it or
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my mom has stories of when i was a kid
2:18
she would put on sesame street and she
2:20
would come in and julia childs would be
2:21
on the tv so i was referred to julia
2:23
childs as my big bird
2:25
cooking is where i’m at my zen my peace
2:28
my love it’s a place where my
2:30
nervousness my anxiety it doesn’t play a
2:33
role anywhere and you know i have
2:35
trouble with numbers and math and math
2:37
and numbers when it comes to food it
2:39
always makes sense i’m grateful to have
2:41
honed in on my talent super young yeah
2:43
super young three or four super young
2:45
yep my whole life yeah
2:48
so like you grew up in new york city
2:50
and you know you were diagnosed with
2:52
dyslexia when you were eight do you want
2:53
to talk a little bit about what it was
2:55
like going to school in new york talk a
2:58
little bit about struggles in school and
3:00
you know anything that you want to share
3:01
about that yeah i grew up on the upper
3:04
west side of manhattan 93 between
3:06
central park western columbus i lived in
3:08
the same building for 27 years so i
3:11
remember vividly starting the process of
3:13
being tested and you know my mom’s a
3:15
psychologist so i think things might
3:17
have been a little bit easier for me
3:18
than some because she was super
3:20
sometimes overly understanding of the
3:22
whole thing and in school i always had
3:25
one friend i was never the popular one
3:27
i’m an only child and now i have four
3:30
kids which is kind of ironic wow i was
3:32
never the one to play first and i’m
3:34
still not so i think that growing up it
3:36
translated into who i am now where i
3:38
only have a couple like really close
3:39
friends i can’t really deal with too
3:41
many personalities at once and i kind of
3:44
flew under the radar at school you know
3:46
i graduated high school i did what i had
3:47
to do bare bones bare minimum i was
3:50
supposed to go to culinary school and i
3:51
didn’t because my mom said she didn’t
3:53
want me to go to culinary school because
3:55
if i went and graduated and i decided i
3:57
didn’t want to cook then i wouldn’t have
3:58
something to have like a backup as so i
4:01
actually went to school for early
4:03
childhood development and failed
4:05
miserably i took a math class like four
4:07
times and then just left
4:11
i missed out on an associate’s degree
4:12
for one class because i just i couldn’t
4:14
do it anymore and i’ve always had issues
4:17
like if i’m not interested in something
4:18
i really don’t care it’s real easy for
4:20
me to just look at a sparkly thing in
4:22
the room and go somewhere else so i
4:24
think i figured out actually later in
4:26
life that there was a connection between
4:29
having a learning disability and still
4:31
being confident i know sometimes that’s
4:33
where it affects people and their
4:34
confidence but i think through food
4:36
through cooking it kept me confident you
4:38
were able to find something that you
4:39
were really good at and then gain your
4:42
confidence through that rather than
4:43
focusing on the things that maybe were a
4:45
little bit more challenging in school
4:47
exactly yeah it’s interesting i mean
4:49
it’s so rare to hear that people find
4:51
their passion at the age of three or
4:54
four i barely had memories from that age
4:56
you know
4:57
and you know it sounded like you were
4:59
pretty clear about what you wanted to
5:00
study but then kind of pivoted into this
5:03
other direction
5:04
how did you eventually find your way
5:06
back to the food industry it took a
5:09
while i had gotten a gig at like 16 in
5:12
new york selling my cheese flans to a
5:14
restaurant that i worked for what is a
5:16
cheese flo that’s a traditional puerto
5:18
rican flan dish tastes more like a
5:20
hybrid between a flan and a cheesecake
5:23
so i was pumping out cheese flans out my
5:24
mom’s oven thought i was something and
5:27
then i went to college didn’t graduate
5:30
wound up being in retail for like 10
5:32
years i was a retail manager i didn’t
5:35
like it per se but i was good at it
5:37
because the methodical folding and
5:39
making sure the stuff is perfect and
5:41
square and even and all the visual
5:43
displays that was the best part the
5:44
people were just not my thing
5:47
and even to this day with the cooking
5:49
sometimes i’m like you know i wish i
5:50
could just cook for nobody because it’s
5:52
always the people aspect of it all that
5:53
throws me off a little bit
5:57
but then i wound up meeting my husband
5:59
we had our first child and i was
6:01
approached about catering our this was
6:04
10 years ago now catering
6:06
our christmas party for our subdivision
6:08
we lived in i was like okay she was like
6:10
it’s 160 people and i’m you know fake it
6:13
till you make it sure why not and came
6:15
in there and made it all look really
6:16
pretty and the food tasted really good
6:18
and i was able to do that for a couple
6:20
years and i also was getting jobs the
6:22
word was kind of getting out so i had
6:24
jobs here and there and then when i
6:25
moved to california my husband worked
6:28
for a company that catered their lunch
6:30
every day
6:31
so they were like oh well does your wife
6:33
cater and does she want to cater for us
6:35
once a week and i was like sure why not
6:36
so it was like mad dash to cook for 200
6:39
people wow pregnant at the time with two
6:42
other kids and no child care so it was a
6:45
lot of fun
6:46
wow that sounds from there they gave me
6:49
the full program so i was their
6:50
corporate chef for three years before
6:53
the pandemic
6:54
wow
6:55
so when the neighbor approached you you
6:57
had never actually done catering before
6:59
they just knew you were a good cook and
7:00
they asked you to do it i did it when my
7:03
mom’s friends and stuff would have
7:04
parties i would do it for them and again
7:06
the artistic part of me was always
7:08
really good at making stuff look pretty
7:10
and that definitely it helped tailor my
7:12
craft yeah so i had experience here and
7:14
there but it was never for anyone i
7:16
didn’t know it was a little bit more of
7:17
a hobby yes and then it evolved into
7:19
something a little bit more and i had
7:21
worked in kitchens younger as a teenager
7:23
but it was never my thing i definitely
7:24
have a tough skin and stuff but the
7:26
demand working you know 15 16 hours
7:29
straight to then double i just it’s not
7:30
me yeah so i the catering was a really
7:33
great way for me to be able to cook and
7:35
still have a life essentially yeah it’s
7:38
important to have balance especially
7:40
when you have four kids
7:41
and they’re little we’ve got a nine
7:43
seven four and one so wow
7:46
yeah it’s exciting i just need them to
7:47
get older so they can help with the
7:48
company i’m like come watch these dishes
7:50
i’m sure they would be super cute doing
7:52
it it’s great
7:54
so i personally definitely prefer to
7:56
cook than bake and a big part of it is i
7:59
just cannot follow a recipe like i
8:00
always want to change it a little bit
8:02
mix it up and now with baking
8:05
yeah so for me cooking is a little bit
8:07
more of a creative outlet
8:09
is it similar for you yeah i think
8:11
baking is definitely more of a science
8:13
you can mess it up but it’s not my forte
8:15
baking i still do it and i still mess
8:18
around with the recipes and that’s the
8:20
biggest thing with cooking i always tell
8:21
people don’t be afraid to make mistakes
8:23
because it could either come out
8:24
absolutely disgusting or you could make
8:25
something that you really like so why
8:27
not try you know yeah do you think that
8:29
in terms of baking and following a
8:31
recipe do you think any struggles with
8:34
reading have anything to do with that at
8:36
all
8:37
no again the only numbers that make
8:40
sense to me and my head are food
8:41
measurements so cups
8:43
quarters converting grams it just it’s
8:46
so easy but if you ask me to like do a
8:49
simple math problem i had to hire tutors
8:50
to do homework with my second and third
8:52
grader because they learn math all kinds
8:54
of different now so you know it still
8:55
plays a big role and my sense of
8:57
direction is terrible i can’t go to the
8:59
corner store without my gps my husband
9:00
makes fun of me all the time
9:04
but yeah cooking and numbers like i’m
9:05
able to convert the recipes in my head
9:07
really quick it makes sense i can see it
9:10
in my brain and in my brain it makes
9:11
sense whereas with other numbers and you
9:13
know applying math to things when i see
9:15
it in my brain it just there’s no
9:16
translation to it it’s just numbers i
9:18
can’t apply it to anything that’s so
9:20
interesting so what kind of food you
9:22
like to cook and what influences some of
9:25
the cuisine that you serve or your
9:26
recipes
9:28
yeah right now we do just about anything
9:30
so we’re known for doing custom menus so
9:33
recently we had a filipino free pass and
9:37
they wanted me to do all traditional
9:38
filipino food and i think the best thing
9:40
about being a chef in 2022 is that if
9:43
you know food you can figure out how to
9:44
cook the recipe and you know once i’m
9:46
able to look at recipes i can make sense
9:48
of it and be like that’s too much salt
9:50
or that needs more or that’s not enough
9:51
garlic so i’m able to do basically
9:54
whatever the client wants and i am a
9:56
foodie myself growing up on the upper
9:58
west side being of mixed race you know
10:01
having that upper west side melting pot
10:03
really helped develop my palette and
10:05
that’s so cool that you can just kind of
10:07
look at recipes and then bring your own
10:09
yeah i can taste stuff too and i can
10:11
tell you what’s in it so if i taste
10:13
something for the most part i can
10:15
replicate the recipe i love it so you
10:17
just mentioned being mixed race i know
10:19
we talked about it a little bit in the
10:20
introduction do you want to share a
10:22
little bit about how your ethnic
10:24
background has had an influence on your
10:26
cooking in your career and then also
10:28
maybe how it’s played a part in other
10:31
parts of your identity
10:33
and even how your learning differences
10:36
have been perceived i love the question
10:38
i was raised by my puerto rican side so
10:41
even though i am half black i do
10:42
identify as latin i’m fluent in spanish
10:44
it’s like my thing we got married in
10:46
puerto rico oh lovely and i feel like i
10:49
was able to discover my black side
10:52
through food so yeah when i moved to
10:54
atlanta like really being able to
10:55
discover my roots their food was like
10:57
amazing i gained like 35 pounds because
10:59
i was worth it mac and cheese all the
11:02
yumminess fried chicken
11:05
but definitely felt more in touch with
11:07
my dad’s side through food and have
11:10
memories every now and then i would go
11:11
to one of his family member’s house for
11:13
thanksgiving and like smelling the
11:14
collard greens so like even to this day
11:16
the smell of collard greens reminds me
11:18
of his side so
11:19
really identifying who i am through food
11:21
and there’s such a push on my part i
11:24
feel like to be able to expose people to
11:27
what puerto rican food is which is a
11:29
mixture between the african slaves that
11:31
they bought over the spanish
11:34
and then the natives they’re called
11:35
taino indians so it’s more african
11:38
forward than what a mexican dish would
11:40
be that’s amazing yeah so given that you
11:44
love the cooking aspect but not so much
11:46
the customer client side
11:49
do you think that you’ll stay in
11:50
catering are you thinking about other
11:52
ways to incorporate cooking into your
11:54
life or another business we’re thinking
11:56
about it it’s not as easy as it was
11:58
pre-pandemic i think that the food costs
12:01
are astronomical the same brisket that
12:04
cost me like 36 before the pandemic now
12:06
cost me 100.
12:08
so the increase in food prices and
12:10
people just not understanding and
12:11
they’re like well this is too expensive
12:13
and i’m like i can’t make any money to
12:15
be able to pay a storefront and you know
12:17
it’s not that i don’t like the client
12:19
it’s more that the confrontation or the
12:21
idea of confrontation and having to
12:24
work my way through it which i’m
12:25
actually really good at even though
12:27
inside i’m like screaming
12:29
it’s the anticipation and the anxiety of
12:31
having to deal with people because
12:33
they’re spending a lot of money and it’s
12:34
warranted but i don’t want to deal with
12:36
it so i think me and my husband were
12:38
talking more about possibly going more
12:40
towards that tv food side that’s
12:41
interesting yeah so we’ll see well
12:43
earlier in the conversation you said
12:45
that while you struggled at school you
12:48
were able to have cooking as something
12:50
that you’re able to focus on and really
12:52
enjoy you mentioned struggle with math
12:54
but it doesn’t really come up in terms
12:56
of recipes and things are there any
12:58
struggles that come up that are related
12:59
to your differences at work with cooking
13:01
oh yeah the organization part of it
13:03
you’re supposed to be super neat and my
13:06
brain
13:07
is just firing it’s firing and i want to
13:09
do like a million things at once so then
13:11
i look around and like the kitchen’s on
13:13
the floor so like i’ve hired people
13:15
specifically to clean up after me
13:16
because you know my brain just like oh
13:18
like i can’t i can’t do it i’ve tried
13:21
i’ve done well sometimes but it’s not
13:23
fun that’s a bit of a struggle the
13:24
organization part of it and yeah you
13:26
know sometimes you know the ability for
13:28
me to organize my thoughts definitely
13:30
comes through on the cooking side yeah
13:32
how do you think that relates to your
13:35
differences or do you think it relates
13:37
to your differences i totally think it
13:38
does i think now you know at 40 years
13:41
old i know myself so it doesn’t bother
13:42
me it used to bother me my saying was i
13:44
get on my own nerves
13:47
but now i know to step back and i also
13:49
think that it’s really important if you
13:51
have a learning disability you’re not
13:52
owning a business to surround yourself
13:55
with people that balance you out that
13:57
can take up for your weakness so i tell
13:59
people i don’t need a five-star chef i
14:01
just need somebody that’s organized that
14:03
can clean that doesn’t mind doing dishes
14:05
all that stuff i’ve been able to kind of
14:06
balance myself out with my staff and i
14:09
tell them the organization on my end is
14:11
shot and i’ll have to sit there with a
14:12
pen and paper because even the phone
14:14
gets annoying and i write everything
14:16
down so that i can see my list of things
14:18
because if i leave it up to my brain
14:20
it’s gonna jumble it all up and mess it
14:22
up but again you know i also think that
14:24
being learning disabled when you immerse
14:26
yourself in a day-to-day activity that
14:29
causes you to have those issues and
14:32
figure it out the more it happens the
14:34
less it bothers you the less anxiety
14:36
there is behind it because you know that
14:38
you fixed it before and you fix it every
14:40
time so this time shouldn’t be any
14:42
different and you know you’ve mentioned
14:44
being a mother and having four kids are
14:46
there any challenges that come up
14:48
related to learning differences when
14:50
you’re parenting sometimes my patients
14:52
that’s why i had to hire a tutor for my
14:54
second and third grader because i
14:55
couldn’t do it and then my oldest
14:57
daughter who’s nine just got diagnosed
14:59
with dyslexia oh well yeah so we have
15:01
her in a special program to get her
15:03
caught up and i do think that me having
15:05
it and letting her know and being very
15:07
vocal about it i can’t stress enough
15:09
especially being in the black and latino
15:11
community how that was seen as like a
15:13
handicap and it’s not the main things as
15:15
a parent with a child that has a
15:17
learning disability is to make sure that
15:19
you figure out what they were put here
15:21
for hone in on it and run with it
15:23
because about
15:24
building that confidence as a kid
15:26
my daughter she’s super into science and
15:28
drawing and art she wants to be an
15:30
animal scientist so stuff like that just
15:32
really trying to make sure they’re doing
15:33
something on a daily basis that makes
15:35
them feel good about themselves and i
15:36
feel like it counteracts the other stuff
15:38
and you mentioned in the black and
15:40
latinx community there are some
15:42
perceptions of differences being
15:44
handicapped i think it’s the word that
15:46
you used
15:47
do you want to talk a little bit more
15:49
about what your view is on that how
15:52
stigma comes up and how you have handled
15:55
that within your own community in your
15:57
family i think it’s just kind of
15:59
embedded in who we are because we’re
16:01
coming from generations where there was
16:02
no exposure to this people didn’t know
16:04
you were just special you know what i
16:06
mean so now that they’re able to
16:07
actually break it down and specifically
16:09
tell you it’s kind of lightening the
16:10
load but i think that again within the
16:12
black and latino community because
16:14
there’s so much more exposure to this
16:16
stuff i do feel like it’s getting better
16:17
but it takes people to talk about it to
16:19
see that you can still be super
16:20
successful and be okay that’s great
16:24
do you have any advice for people that
16:26
are thinking about starting a business
16:29
that perhaps was previously a hobby or a
16:31
passion especially if they have some
16:33
sort of learning difference you know i
16:36
think that if you
16:37
have someone i got lucky enough my
16:40
husband is in marketing so i guess i did
16:42
it with my marriage too so i kind of
16:44
filled in where i lacked and just really
16:46
making sure that you have someone that
16:47
backs you that maybe knows more about
16:49
business than you do if you don’t know
16:51
anything about it and to do it because
16:54
if you don’t try you already failed
16:56
you know what i mean like the worst that
16:57
happens is you fall on your behind and
16:59
you’re still better off you’re more
17:00
experienced than had you not tried it
17:02
all i have my days here with four kids
17:05
and i want to pull my hair out and i get
17:07
in my car and i go to my kitchen and i
17:10
blast my music and i mind my business
17:12
and it’s the best feeling ever i really
17:15
appreciate it because i know that a lot
17:17
of chefs don’t get to experience that
17:19
and i always used to say growing up that
17:20
when i died i would go to heaven and be
17:22
in the kitchen by myself with music
17:23
playing
17:25
and you could do it while you’re like i
17:27
didn’t have to die to do it
17:28
[Laughter]
17:30
thanks so much for being on the show
17:31
raquel it’s so great having you thank
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[Music]
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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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