Steven Hellman
Coast Guard Culinary Specialist (E-5)
Hellman’s Kitchen / Veteran Foodie (podcast)
Growing up in Italian-American household, Steven Hellman learned to love food at a young age.
While serving in the Coast Guard, Hellman served as a medical first responder and also matriculated at the USCG Culinary School where he earned the title of Culinary Specialist.
During his four-year tour, Hellman was privileged enough to travel to many domestic and foreign lands that were known for their culinary cultures, including Hawaii and many countries in Central America. He also learned how to deal with difficult cooking conditions. Among his most creative creations was the “underway omelet” which consisted of eggs frying all over the griddle that were then formed into some sort of recognizable (and highly edible) shape.
After being discharged, Hellman earned a Bachelor’s in Science in Economics from Fordham University and an MBA in Marketing from Devry University. These days, his main occupation is Assistant Director of Military and Veterans’ Services at Fordham, where works to facilitate student transitions from military-connected programming to civilian life and to empower students to advance their educational and professional goals.
In April of 2021, Hellman once again called upon his culinary skills and began Hellman’s Kitchen. Through this online entity, Hellman shares sea-worthy stories while helping others learn how to cook healthy plant-based recipes that can keep them ship-shape as well.
What does your company do?
Hellman’s Kitchen is a digital cooking series that teaches the home cook how to make healthy plant-based recipes with professional and easy-to-follow instructional videos that will save them time in the kitchen.
Students will learn unique and original recipes spawned from my years of experience feeding sailors and running out of ingredients which forced me to be creative in the kitchen. I share all my knowledge through my website and various social media platforms. Students can also subscribe to my email list to receive new recipes which I only share with my Hellman’s Kitchen digital community and they can also subscribe to my YouTube channel for free access to all my instructional cooking videos.
What prompted you to launch it?
Upon my graduation from Devry University with an MBA in Marketing, I decided to combine my passion for cooking and new skill set within the digital marketing realm. I started this journey inadvertently by making basic cooking videos such as how to cut an onion, and sending them out to the 400 student veterans I support at my full-time job as Fordham University’s Assistant Director of Military and Veterans’ Services. My goal was to support our veteran population during the…pandemic…. I thought I could help by sharing some fun cooking tips and hosting a couple live virtual cooking sessions to build back our veteran community.
I’ve only recently started eating mainly plant –based [ffods], due to my mom’s recent journey with breast cancer which led her to trying out any kind of nutritional change to support reducing her inflammation. Never in a million years would I think I’d be eating 90% plant-based [food], but now that I do I feel much lighter on my feet and don’t have as many stomach issues. It is also really fun being creative with this type of cooking!.
Now that I’m recreating all my favorite dishes with a new plant-based take, I want to share these with the world and help people save time in the kitchen with my professional cooking instructional videos.
How has your military life educated and influenced your business life?
One of my main goals is to share my own personal military experience, sea stories from my time in the U.S. Coast Guard, and [to] spread veteran advocacy by teaching the general population what it means to be a veteran. Only 1% of the U.S. population has served, meaning 99% might not understand what it means to be a veteran. My full-time job is very fulfilling in the way that I’m able to support…veterans at Fordham University, but I’d like to extend my reach further with this digital cooking series and leverage it as a platform to reach more military supporters.
What do you hope to do with your business?
I hope to teach the average home cook how to make delicious [and] healthy plant-based meals, without the…filler you see in other cooking shows. l get straight to the point and teach the best way I know how. The cooking skills I’ve learned along the way during my time cooking for hundreds of sailors in the military are skills I love to share with my audience. Down the road, I hope to own a farm and teach how to cook with my own home-grown produce. Living in a pandemic has forced many people to learn how to cook that normally would eat out. My plan is to reach the average Joe who never thought they’d eat plant-based [food] like myself. I accomplish this by teaching it in a way that doesn’t harp on the moral side of eating less meat, but instead simply teaches some tasty recipes which are…super healthy. Even if I reach one [person] who eats a plant-based meal a week, I think that is…worth accomplishing!
What advice would you give other Veterans looking to own a business?
Get your degree from Google and YouTube University, by Googling everything possible needed in starting your own business. ALL the information is out there in the digital world for you to grow from scratch. Also, the most important advice I have is to build your network. Take advantage of the hundreds of resources offered to veterans starting a business, from your local Veteran Outreach Business Centers to the Department of Veterans Services. Connect with other like-minded individuals to support one another, and you’ll be surprised how willing people are to help you!
What is the most important thing you want people to know about Veterans?
If [you are] in a position to hire a veteran, read between the lines of their resume and truly probe them for what their accomplishments are. The majority of veterans do not enjoy talking about themselves, especially when it comes to their own achievements. Take your recruitment efforts to the next level by taking action and hiring more veterans. They have developed skills in any position they held, whether it be cleaning a ship or running logistics for an air base. These skills are highly translatable to the civilian world, and you’ll be happy to have them leading your team.
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