Dare to be Different: a Success Story of Epic Proportions

With some serious cooking skills, good ideas, and the will to share her incredible knowledge of food past her inner circle, Robin Jemal managed create a successful and well known brand within he community. With two cookbooks, a catering company, and a sought after product line, Jemal’s Dare to be Different has reached incredible heights. Dare to be Different is a company that just keeps building as its founder’s ideas grow.

“Just like the name of my book implies, I never want to be doing the same thing in my career, I love to change it up,” explained Jemal. “You’ll continue to see a lot of different things from me.”

Just a few years ago, Jemal was just a fantastic self-taught cook who was happy to share her recipes with her friends and family. One day, Robin was a little overwhelmed with the amount of requests she was getting for her one of a kind recipes. She then decided she was going to type them up and print them out so she could easily distribute to anyone who wanted them. This is when she got the idea to write a cookbook.

Robin got to work writing her book and with the help of her niece, Lorraine Sherr, within only three quick weeks the book was written up. What came next was photo styling by Danielle Manache Gindi, designing by OffWhite Design, editing, and printing. Within months, Robin released her first cookbook: Dare to be Different.

Dare to be Different is a cookbook filled with original gourmet dishes that Robin came up with herself.

Dare to be Different is a collection of recipes I have developed and adapted from years of experimenting with different foods and recipes,” reads the first page of this lavender colored cookbook, written by  Robin Jemal. “It adheres to my Kosher Middle Eastern, traditional style, but with a twist.”

The book includes recipes for soups and salads, appetizers, sides, fish, chicken, and meat. The colorful and vibrant food pictures draw you in and the simplicity of the instructions makes it easy to follow. The book was a huge success, selling out multiple times from the few outlets Robin selected to sell them in. She believes everyone, including technology driven millennials, should have a few good cookbooks in their kitchen.

“Robin’s recipes and the flavors are very family friendly, I like using her recipes when I’m cooking for a crowd,” said Marlene Mamiye of @TheJewishHostess. “Since the first cookbook was released, Dare to be Different has really become a household name. My family loves the chicken and potatoes recipe!”

The Jewish Hostess exists as a page of inspiration on Instagram, great for anyone who needs good ideas for entertaining.

Shortly after the book came out, Robin began the next journey in her careeras a caterer. Jemal has catered holiday parties, dinner parties, engagements, bridal showers, bar mitzvahs, summer parties and many other events. She can make either meat or dairy parties and always works with the client to make up the perfect menu to suit their needs.

Lately, Robin noticed a major demand for healthy options when it comes to catering parties. Dare to be Different caterers has a vast array of healthy options to choose from that keeps clients coming back time and again.

For a while, Robin was so busy with her catering business she didn’t expect to have time to write another cookbook. That was until the day Robin injured her hand and was unable to cook in bulk for her business. It was then that she decided to be productive with her break from catering and make another cookbook.

Dare to be Different Volume Two: Turning Up the Heat is the second book Robin came out with. The driving factor was that, once again, people were asking for her recipes. Many of her clients would also try new dishes from her catering business that they wanted to make themselves. Jemal also saw a new interest in her clients towards spice and various hot chillies and peppers. Robin also got into this trend and decided to model her new cookbook and its recipes in that direction.

Two successful cookbooks and a catering company sounds like enough for one entrepreneur to juggle. Surprisingly, Robin didn’t stop there. In the recent months, Dare to be Different released a product line of frozen healthy meals.

Robin partnered up with her daughter, Jennifer Mann, and got to work on this next endeavor. Specialty vegetable pizzas, cauliflower rice, parve yebra, spanach, spaghetti squash and more delightful light meals can be found from Dare to be Different in the freezer section at many kosher supermarkets. The new product line is currently sold in Ouris Gourmet Market, and Associated Supermarket in Brooklyn, NY, as well as Deal Foods in Deal, NJ.

This is just the start as the Dare to be Different brand will soon roll out into other local shops in the tristate area. Some exciting news that Dare to be Different would like to announce is that they will be releasing their first kosher for Passover product line for Pesach 2018!

For more information and yummy food pictures, follow Robin on instagram @DaretobeDifferentCook.

Author Image

Frieda@sephardic.org

Frieda Schweky is Sephardic.Org's official community events reporter. For inquiries and to get involved with our site, please contact Frieda via email.