Chef Pam's Kitchen grew 19% in a year

About Chef Pam's Kitchen

Chef Pam's Kitchen in Waukesha, Wisconsin is a cooking school and event business built around experience, connection, and community. Guests actively cook, learn, and then gather around the table to share a meal together.

At its core, the business is family-run. Brian works alongside his wife Pam, whose idea of bringing people together through food started it all. Their daughter Bri helps too, running marketing and private events. Together, they've built a business that blends hospitality, learning, and community, and it keeps growing.

We are a hands-on cooking school. In 95% of our classes, people are actively prepping, cooking, and then at the end of the evening, they all eat together to build fellowship and meet new people.

Classes run seven days a week, plus private events and kids' programming. That's a lot of bookings, and their early setup of phone calls and emails couldn't keep up.

From phone calls to one simple system

Three years ago, before Occasion, the team booked people in by phone and email after they paid.

It was very manual. It was time-consuming, less than professional, and not always reliable because it depended on the human element.

Customers called at all hours and wanted answers right away. Almost every booking needed Brian or Pam to step in.

It was just taking too much time. We knew when we moved into the new space, we needed to pivot.

Occasion changed that. It replaced the scattered, manual work with one reliable system.

Less admin, more time to plan ahead

The biggest change wasn't just speed. It was the time they got back.

So much of our time was spent blocking and tackling. Now we can spend our time looking down the road, being better visionaries for the business. We're planning January next year already for private events. That would have been unheard of in our old world.

With bookings handled in one place, Brian and Pam could step away from daily admin and focus on growing the business. A simpler way of working changed how they plan.

A tool the team uses every day

Today, Chef Pam's Kitchen uses Occasion every day for bookings, invoicing, staying organized, and looking after customers. From copying a class listing to handling orders, it keeps a busy business running smoothly.

It's an incredibly powerful tool that our team uses every single day. You can easily navigate canceling orders and adding notes, which is incredibly powerful for us, especially as we do more celebrations. We can make sure we put down 'it's Brian's 50th anniversary', for example.

As the business grows, the team keeps finding new ways to use Occasion. They now use gift cards, invoicing, and loyalty tools to bring customers back more often.

Turning feedback into repeat business

One of the biggest wins has been hearing from customers and acting on what they say.

Before Occasion, we never knew those things because we didn't have a way to reach out to our guests.

Now feedback comes in right away, straight from the people who took a class. The team can act on it and make things better.

The customer reviews have been beyond a home run for us. We get candid feedback, and we learn a lot.

That means the team can fix problems fast and turn a bad experience into a good one.

We just had two in the past 10 days, and they both signed up for another class based on how we responded.

Peace of mind, day and night

Brian has been really impressed by how reliable Occasion is. Knowing it runs without them watching over it gives them peace of mind.

It works 24/7. It works when we're asleep and it works when we're leading a tour in Italy for three weeks.

That reliability keeps the business running smoothly, even when Brian and Pam step away.

A true partnership

It's not just the software. Brian values the relationship Occasion has built with them.

The team is amazing. It still feels like family.

Knowing he can reach out to anyone at Occasion and get help means a lot to Brian. Along with Gabby, their account manager, that support helps the team keep getting more out of Occasion as they grow.

The result: steady, measurable growth

With the admin under control, Chef Pam's Kitchen has grown without being held back by paperwork.

That growth comes from having the right system in place. With Occasion, the business has a solid base to keep running well and keep growing.

We've had double-digit growth. We're up 19% this year compared to last year.