Whether working as a realtor or in food service, Eva Bangert noticed that what she really enjoyed was the relationships she made along the way. 

“I am always building relationships,” she says, describing her time as a food server in the VIP suites of a large stadium in Tennessee. “My suites had people like Carrie Underwood and she was super nice. It was like catering during concerts and hockey games.”

After spending just a little time with Eva, it’s clear she can easily connect with kids, celebrities, and everyone in between. She calls her family and all new friends, “my (fill in name)” and you can’t help but feel honored and ready to be part of her inner circle. 

“From the minute we met Eva during Meet the Team Day, I knew she was a good fit with our company values,” says Erin Fletter, founder and CEO of Sticky Fingers Cooking. “Eva is ready to expand Sticky Fingers Cooking to the families of Lexington, Kentucky–and they will be better for it!”

Searching for A New Business

“I’ve always had some type of business that was my own,” Eva explains. “When we moved to Kentucky, I was looking for an after school cooking class for my teenage daughter but couldn’t find any. I tabled that idea and then about four to five months ago, I started thinking about getting my own business again.”

Eva, 56, is a breast cancer survivor who found health insurance hurdles after her recovery so she took a full-time job in (ironically?) the insurance office of a friend, but she still wanted to have her own business too. 

“I started looking at franchises because I didn’t want to reinvent any wheels and wasn’t interested in going back into real estate,” she says. “I just started doing Google searches with the intent to reach out for more information if it sounded interesting. I was looking for businesses that I would enjoy, had a mindset for growth, and I came across cooking schools, then Sticky Fingers Cooking.”

Sticky Fingers Cooking came up in one of these searches so Eva did reach out. 

“I just really clicked with the people, the idea behind it, the enrichment cooking program, and I also think that my Kendall could maybe take this over someday,” Eva says of her daughter. “It just fit with my own ideals.”

Food + Family + Fun + Business

Eva has found the fun in food with her family so it makes sense that she’s ready to lead a team of chef instructors in Lexington as they teach children’s cooking classes in local schools. 

“I’ve always been in the kitchen with my kids,” Eva shares. “The kitchen is the heart whether it’s the holidays or another celebration. My boys [now adults] do their own cooking now and I love that they have explored food and have a love for cooking.”

She casually mentions there are annual family cooking contests that spread from the kitchen to the backyard that could be anything from BBQ to cookies when she’s hosting a holiday or family visiting from outside of Kentucky. “We pair off into teams and it’s a ton of fun,” she says of having more than a dozen people at once have a cooking competition. 

Her own culinary background is a blend of her Columbian mom and Israeli father who grew up in Belgium. They each brought their own flavors but also joy to cooking for the family, Eva says. 

An Education Franchise Business

As an experienced entrepreneur herself, Eva is comfortable with being the boss and building her new business. She is equally prepared to not figure out many “how tos” that can come with starting a business from scratch solo.

“I liked that the numbers to get in were very reasonable and the numbers to succeed seem very attainable,” she says. “They have the Dash, the recipes, it’s just ‘follow the bouncing ball and keep up with the system’.”

Can you relate to Eva as an entrepreneur who is looking for a business opportunity that has it all figured out for you? Contact us today about the Sticky Fingers Cooking franchise opportunity to see if we’re a good fit.