Have you had this idea in your head for a long time? You have thought about it and gone over this dream so many times. The inner dialogue is full of questions. When is the right time to start it? Was it yesterday? Did you miss the chance? Maybe today is the day? Do you have the time? Can you manage with what you have in your life right now? Should you put it on the back burner and continue to dream about it while you do your everyday life? Maybe tomorrow, or maybe you’re just too late.
All these are constant questions that every person with an idea has. Same questions over and over, time after time. You have this idea, and you have thought about it for a long time, but taking that step and finding the time to make that jump seems impossible.
A Dream Deferred
For over 20 years, I had the same idea. I would talk about it with friends and my husband. It sat in the back of my mind as life moved on. In 2007, I had a baby. The Food Network was coming to my hometown for auditions, and I had planned on attending. They were auditioning for The Next Food Network Star. I had a 3-month-old baby, and I needed a sitter. Last-minute schedule conflicts with the sitter, and I wasn’t able to attend so I stayed home with my son Matteo. I missed my chance. I missed the opportunity to share my idea and my concept and potentially be on the Food Network.
Two more kids, a mother of three, while continuing to teach piano my dream remained in the background while I constantly watched Food Network and PBS Saturday morning cooking shows dreaming that one day that would be me.
Finding the Spark
In 2021, 14 years after my missed chance with the Food Network, while going through a kitchen demo and eating out of our living room through the extensive construction for 6 months, I decided I was going to do something that had taken so much space in my thoughts for so many years. I picked the name “Tricks in the Kitchen” on a whim, created an account on Instagram, and did my first post. What lit the fire for me was the fact that I was cooking full, comprehensive meals for my family out of a cooktop. Friends and family would stop by and ask me how I was able to do it even when I didn’t have a kitchen. It was the spark I needed. I did it. I took that chance.
I didn’t know anything about social media, content creating, algorithms, or SEO. I thought you take a picture or a video and you just post it. I didn’t even sound like myself on those first videos, I sounded forced and constricted in my mannerisms. I am none of that. I am loud and animated. I talk with my hands, and my tone has a strong crescendo that at times it’s on you to lower the volume, because I am still working on figuring out how to lower my internal volume (and not doing so well). I was working diligently on figuring out how everything worked. I Googled and read a lot, I began to understand what content creating was all about.
I had about 300–400 followers, and that came with many people questioning me and this endeavor, whether I was qualified or even good at cooking, if I had the skills, or if what I was presenting was worthy of social media. Did anyone care for what I had to say?
A Second Chance
A year and a half into Tricks in the Kitchen, my son Matteo, on a regular summer night, asked me if I wanted to watch a show with him. He chose a cooking show, figured it would be something I would enjoy. He picked MasterChef, and together we watched season one, first episode of the show. In the middle of the show, he pauses it and looks my way to say, “Mom, you can do this. You can be on this show.”
A quick search, and he finds out they were taking auditions online for next season and that I should apply. We paused the show. Him and I sat on the couch, and he helped me fill out the application, helped video my little introduction. Hit send and went back to the show.
A couple of weeks later, I was contacted by someone regarding my application for MasterChef, and 6 months later I flew to LA for the taping of MasterChef Season 13. When you think about it, this kid without knowing that I had missed my opportunity with The Next Food Network Star due to the fact that I had to stay home with him gave me a gift and another chance, which came at the perfect time. It came at a time when I needed that boost of strength to believe in me and my skills. To believe that I had what it takes to show the world my cooking, my tricks, my knowledge in the kitchen.
The Full-Circle Moment
This was a full-circle moment. It was my time and the right time.
It has been three years since MasterChef Season 13 aired. I got to be in the Top 10 for the Midwest Region, but wasn’t able to earn that apron. It wasn’t my time for the apron, which was OK because I was able to get so much more. Confidence in myself and my skills. Friends that I will cherish forever. I got to be on national television, and I didn’t embarrass myself. I walked away proud to achieve something that thousands of people apply for and don’t make it.
There’s Never a Perfect Time
As I have worked on Tricks in the Kitchen and building a business, I found out there is never a perfect time to start. There are going to be many roadblocks. There will never be enough time in a day for you to accomplish all the tasks. You’re going to have days when you allow the outside noise to come through and make you question your work. But it’s up to you to put those blinders on and keep looking forward.
I always think of the first time I went to New York City. I saw all the horses in the streets had blinders on. When I asked one of the drivers why, he said, “We put them on so they won’t be distracted by watching all the other horses. It helps them stay on track and look forward.”
I, myself, am one of those horses. I learned to put blinders on. I have my sight and my goals ahead. But there are times when I put those blinders down and I get caught up in the noise, and that self-doubt starts to take root. The inner questions of I am not moving ahead fast enough. I don’t have as many followers as other people. How are others able to do so much more than me? But then, I’m reminded to pull my blinders back on and stay on my path.
So what I am saying is that there will never be that perfect time to start your dream. You will fail many times, but there will be so many lessons that come with each failure. You will learn how to get up again and try again, and most of all if you believe in yourself and your dream, find those blinders and put them on. This is your life, your journey, and you get to write it. Don’t let anything negative or anyone take space in what you’re building.
If I look back, I could say, “Maybe if I didn’t miss that night with the Food Network, I would have been so far ahead in the game.” But I will never know, because it didn’t happen. And maybe that was not the right time for me.
But as I look back at these last 20 years of my life, I had a dream. And I was brave enough to take that chance. I didn’t have control of the timing. But what I do have is what I am doing the next 20 years. And that I am so excited for.
I am Jonida Preka Morelli a wife and mother of three teenagers, and I reside in Shaker Heights, OH. I am an involved parent in their schools and activities. I am a wife, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor, and active member of my community. I have been a piano teacher for 28 years. I am the founder of Tricks in the Kitchen, a place where I teach home cooks how to think in the kitchen. Simple meals from pantry to table. Real food, real tools, real confidence. Rooted in wholesome cooking and a Mediterranean way of living. And the home of The Standards Kitchen Method™.
Author: Jonida Preka Morelli
Jonida Preka Morelli was born and raised in Albania and immigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1996. She has been a piano teacher for 28 years and is the founder of Tricks in the Kitchen, a kitchen education platform rooted in wholesome cooking, real food, and a Mediterranean way of living. She is also the creator of The Standards Kitchen Method™, a framework that teaches home cooks how to run their kitchens with confidence, clarity, and intention. A MasterChef Season 13 contestant, she lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with her husband and three teenagers.
