When Julia Cox started posting photos of her dinner on Instagram during lockdown, she had no plans to turn it into a job.
Like many others, the 26-year-old had a moment of questioning what she really wanted to do with her life while being stuck at home.
Originally from Dunkeld, but then managing a bakery chain in Edinburgh, Julia spent more time in her kitchen learning new recipes in lockdown. With parents who have always cooked, the interest in food has been there from a young age.
As her Instagram profile grew, her sister suggested that the skilled home cook take it one step further. Julia hosted her first dinner party for her sister and friends, and Food With Jooj was born.
“It started very slowly, I practiced on my sister and her friends, and that’s still one of my favourite dinner parties,” Julia says.
“Sometimes I think people get confused, Jooj is just a nickname that my dad started calling me.
“But a lot of people think it’s food with zhuzh, like you zhuzh something up.”
Dinner with ‘the whole shebang’
Julia now runs Food With Jooj alongside a part-time job as a marketing executive. Monday to Wednesday she’s in the office, and the rest of the week she prepares for and hosts dinner parties.
Small events are her forte, be it at a venue or in someone’s kitchen. The self-taught chef has noticed private dining increasing in popularity.
“I think so many more people want to stay in now,” says Julia.
“People get in touch and say they want to host a dinner party, some won’t have a clue what they want and some will be like, we love Mexican food.
“Each menu has been completely different and we’ve had many fun themes. I do love a themed dinner, but I try not to make it cheesy.”
After chatting to her client, Julia plans a menu, checks that it fits the bill, and arranges when to come to their house. On the day, she decorates the table, cooks, hosts and cleans up – or as she puts it, “the whole shebang”.
In total, each event is a four-day process of prepping, shopping, cooking and unpacking.
Her favourite parts are planning the menu – researching recipes and finding ingredients – as well as doing the tablescapes.
Working with other entrepreneurs, she gets menus designed and printed to go along with colour-coordinated candles and locally grown flowers. At the end of the night, guests get to keep their menus and flowers.
Food With Jooj signature style
As a “comfort person”, the cook has never been drawn towards fine dining.
“I’d love to be able to plate stuff beautifully, but I’m more family style, big sharing place on the table, everyone digs in,” she says.
“Scotland’s produce as well, my dad and I went out this morning and picked a basket of chanterelles.
“Being able to cook stuff you’ve gone and done yourself, then you eat the final product, it’s amazing.
“I love that kind of cooking where you can see the full process.”
She highlights slow cooking big joints of meat as a favourite, and has even learnt how to pluck and breast pheasants. In true comfort food fashion, she turned them into pheasant nuggets.
Julia’s mum grows vegetables and edible flowers for her business, such as kale, tomatoes and nasturtiums. Eventually, she’d like her own garden, but she’s happy with the current arrangement.
“I’m just setting her up for her retirement as my supplier,” she laughs.
“It just tastes so good coming out of the ground. Stuff like that, where it’s simple food, but the produce is high quality and you know where it’s from, that’s my favourite kind of cooking.
“Not super complicated, just really delicious.”
No need to ‘take the leap’
As Food With Jooj has grown slowly over the past two years, Julia is in no rush to expand.
With her marketing job she gets to go into the office and meet co-workers, and with her business she puts her events management degree to good use.
She says: “What I enjoy about events is you’re flicking between a lot of different things, not just doing one job.
“When I worked in events I always liked that moment of manic, but everyone’s working together, then you pull the event off and you’re like, ah, we did it!
“I love that bit of slight panic in the middle.”
Despite the moments of manic, the chef is calm and collected in the kitchen. She says cooking “really chills me out”.
She continues: “There’s obviously stressful times, but it relaxes me and if I can make a job out of that, then that’s great.”
Her tip to young entrepreneurs is to not feel pressured into “taking the leap”. Many are not in a position to leave their job and go full-time with their business.
Julia recommends lots of practice, speaking to others who are self-employed for advice and taking it slow. Instead of going self-employed full-time, pairing it with a part-time role takes some pressure off.
When Food With Jooj gets a little bigger, she hopes to take the next step into her own space.
“Not a cafe or restaurant, but a space where I could do more of my own ticketed events,” she explains.
“It would be a cool thing to do and I could run it more as an event rather than being hired.
“And also have a space where I could grow more of my own stuff.
“Maybe in the future, a little team would be nice.”
Conversation