Keys to Running a Successful Personal Chef Business - Earl Arnette III of Steez Catering

Welcome to the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast. I'm your host Chris Spear. On the show. I have conversations with culinary entrepreneurs and people in the food and beverage industry who took a different route. They' e caterers, research che s, personal chefs, cookb ok authors, food truckers, farme s, cottage bakers and all sorts of culinary renegades. I my c ll phone to the personal c ef category as I started my wn personal chef business perf ct little bites 10 years ago. nd while I started working in kitchens in the early 90s, I ve literally never worked i a restaurant unless you co nt Boston Market. This is one of our meet a member episodes. hese episodes are meant to high ight someone in the Chefs Wi hout Restaurants community. In tead of a long form interview, e'll be doing a quick 10 to 15 m nute show to learn about the and their business. And I th ow a bunch of fun, sometimes w cky, rapid fire questions their way. This week. I have chef Earl Arnett of Steez Catering in Baltimore. You're going to find out all about his business. And I asked him questions like his culinary school worth it. And what's something you wish you knew before starting your business? I also asked hard hitting questions like this ketchup belong on a hot dog. I hope you enjoyed this episode and go check out his Instagram. I think he's doing some really great stuff. And reminder that you can help support our podcast and the Chefs Without Restaurants community by donating through our Patreon. Monthly support starts at just $5 a month. Go to patreon.com/ChefsWithoutRestaurants to find exclusive recipes and see our tiered rewards. And now on with the show. Thanks so much and have a great week. Hey, Earl. Welcome to the show. Thanks so much for coming on.

I appreciate you having me, man. Thank you.

How's things going today?

Ah, so far so good. I can't complain another day. Another opportunity.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm doing some prep work today for gigs I got coming up this week. Are you are you working today?

Yeah, I'm working today. private dinner tonight. Little prep here and there. We've got some more events coming up this weekend. So just got through a busy weekend this past weekend, couple dinners and whatnot. So anything to stay busy, and you know, stay productive.

Cheers to that. Well, let's let's do this. Where are you located? And what is your business?

So I'm located in Baltimore, Maryland. And my business is called steez catering. I basically do any private chef thing off Prem type catering. In Home catering, meal prep, you name it.

So you do a little of everything in the culinary world, where what's your travel radius? Like? Where are you serving clients?

Um, so pretty much all through the DMV area. People ask me all the time, there'll be like, Hey, I have an event. Or I live in such and such. You know, is that okay? And I'm, you know, if the opportunity is good, the money makes sense. And I know I can make a great event out of it. They're most definitely I'll travel and come out and I'll bring all my supplies. Anything I can do to, you know, accommodate the client, but also, you know, keep the integrity of the food presentation, and, and the service. So yeah, I'll go pretty much wherever, as long as it's a great opportunity.

Do you have a crew? Are you a one man show

before COVID and when things were a little different, bigger events, I would depending on what was going on. I have a crew that would help Nine times out of 10 one man show, or at least I try to be.

So why the name Steve's catering.

So Steve's catering steez comes from basically means style and ease. And my favorite hip hop group coming up was a group called gangstar. And one of their famous songs is, you know, my steez the way that they just carried themselves style with swag, what they represented, was just, you know, hip hop on their terms, they were gonna, they were gonna put their style on it, their, their flair to it, but it was gonna be smooth, and they were gonna have this style, and then we're gonna do it with ease. And now, when it comes to cooking, I try and, you know, attack it with the same approach. I want people to be like, Wow, that's great. But he made it look so easy. And it's this wasn't anything complicated, or, you know, running around in the kitchen, like a, you know, chicken with my head cut off or something like that. So,

I think that's one of the coolest names for a business like this. You know, I think restaurants have to have these really pretentious names with seemingly like, no meaning to why, you know, it's like Albertine or something like that. Yeah, something that just sounds catchy. Yeah, you're a culinary graduate, aren't you?

Yes. I graduated from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. What

year was that? Can I ask? Yeah, I graduated back in 2010. So you're like a young graduate there. So I went to Johns Hopkins Providence, but I graduated in 98. Okay, there we go. Small world. Yeah, I grew up in Marlborough mass. I was like, 45 minutes from Providence. And it seemed like a no brainer to me. Yeah, I stayed and did the full four year bachelor program there.

Yeah, I went up, I actually, um, so when I found out about Johnson and Wales, I was here in Maryland. But originally being from New York, it worked out because our school days were like, Monday through Thursday. So you know, I could easily pop back to New York.

So I know, this could be a long answer. But I get asked all the time. Should I go to culinary school? You went to culinary school? Is it something you do over?

Yeah, most definitely. Um, I tell everybody, the whole people, you know, go to school for the experience, I will say, from a learning standpoint of not just food, but people, it was very diverse, which was great. You got to meet a lot of different people in regards to who were, you know, big foodies, or people who were there because their family had a restaurant, and that was just what they were trying to do. Or you might people who, you know, hey, listen, this isn't going to work out for you. So some of your classes, you know, you had your teachers that were very, I guess, instrumental in trying to like push people, and then you had your other teachers who were like, very realistic, and they were like, Listen, you look to your left, you look to your right, by the time this course is over, you won't see the person standing next to you, because they're not going to pass. And it definitely instilled that, you know, if you if you want to make it and you want to be successful, in cooking, and be knowledgeable, and and all of that jazz, this is something that is going to have to be your passion does not have to be a craft, it's not something that you can just do, you know, on a whim or in your free time casually or anything like that. So I really enjoyed the experience. So much so that like I said, I ended up living up there and in East Providence. And the only reason I came back here was because I got family here, but I ended up getting an internship back here. But yeah, I tell everybody, I mean, if you can go, you can afford those student loans later on. definitely take advantage of that's a

that's a tough, tough thing. And I'm still reflecting on whether or not coming out with a student loan repayment of $404 a month for 10 years was worth it. But you know, I am where I am now. So yeah, I think there are a lot more options these days. But I guess, I guess I'll leave it there. Do you have any mentors?

When I was coming up? I had a few. Well, I started so I got like my first job at like 14, my mom knew a guy who was running a catering company here in Maryland called Red Rock mansion. And Mr. Clowney and he gave me my first gig. And I was basically just, you know, in the kitchen, doing all the stuff that nobody wanted to do. But you know, at that time, I thought I was like, doing amazing things. But um, between chefs their chefs downtown, I've worked a lot a lot of different resorts, I mean, hotels and whatnot and the Baltimore area, you just meet different people and take a little bit here and there. I would say I'm a quick study, but I like to do my own thing. So I wouldn't say like I was like under anybody, per se like, you know, copying everything that they did. I just had a couple of different chefs that were instrumental but one guy like I never even got to meet. But always watch on TV, I was books the whole nine yards was G. Garvin on TV one. And he was very instrumental was, you know, good thing another, you know, black chef doing this thing and putting style on his, you know, style of food and whatnot. I took that to heart and that was something that I was like, Hey, listen, you know, this is something I can do and put my own spin on it and whatnot. And, you know, here I am.

Well, what's your style of food that you like cooking?

I would say my, what really, I try and I try and accommodate What? Any client if any client hits me up and they want something I'll accommodate. I'm in Maryland, seafood is big, I've definitely put my spin on a lot of different seafood. So I would say I guess maybe, you know, mostly American for what people order from me. But um, I'm just big on the simple things like I mean, maybe even being in Maryland, you can go to some spots. And a crab cake isn't what you would think it should be? Or would be, you know what I mean? Either it's filler, or just plain or whatever. And it's like, we have strong opinions on crab cakes up in this place, don't we? Yeah. So it's like little stuff like that. So, um, I would say definitely, you know, the seafood is a major hit,

you do a lot of lamb chops, too, don't you?

I do a lot of lamb chops. And so much so that like Lamb has become, I eat a lot of lamb ain't even gonna lie to you, like it's, and it's always something different you can do with it, you know, you got your traditional, you know, just roasted rack of lamb or whatever the case may be. But I now got the jerk style, I'll put the crab meat on it. You know, you just got you got so much so many different options that you can do with food and make it make it your own. So

what's something you wish you knew before you started your business?

That's a good question. I would say it's something that I see here a lot. You You would think like if you make really good food, and a lot of people have your food that you would be like, you know, the man and people you know, it just constant non stop business that you're just never gonna have time to sit down. And places that aren't that great, or, you know, don't have the best food, you know, wouldn't be around that long, or whatever the case may be. And it's like, it doesn't seem unless someone knows about you, who is a foodie, or someone like you who has a nice platform, you put people on and put the information out there. It's hard to be seen, unfortunately. And a lot of people just follow trends. Oh, this is a popular place to eat the food doesn't even have to be that good. But, you know, maybe it's popular on Instagram and take a photo there or whatever the case may be. So in the beginning, that was a little demoralizing, but now it's more so of a thing of Hey, listen, if you stay true to you, you're always consistent have no negative reviews, repeat customers, new customers, the whole nine yards. You know, you'll be alright.

Yeah, I think the marketing piece that's what I'm hearing consistently from everyone, you know, and something that I've had challenges with too, so I totally understand where you're coming from with that one. Yeah, so catch up on hot dogs. Heck yes. Or Hell no.

I'm weird. I hate ketchup. I don't know what it is. I used to eat it as like a kid. I will be more so like a nice barbecue sauce on a hotdog. No catch up. No

catch up from See I love ketchup. But on a hot dog. I think it's the worst thing in the world. Like I will go through a whole container. It has to be Heinz. I don't know why anyone else makes any other ketchup. Nobody has made garbage but a hotdog. That's just weird man. And I guess it's something about having kids like kids always put ketchup on hot dogs. It's like now No, that's just not right.

I'll say ever since I've really I don't know what happened like some just switch overnight and then I wasn't like really into ketchup anymore. And then you just see like people putting ketchup on everything. It's like ketchup on eggs and all sorts of stuff. I'm like I'm just I can't do it but yeah, definitely not on hot dog. No, no thank

you. Do you have a memorable meal is there like one or two that stick out? They don't necessarily have to be like the bass but just like one dining experience,

I would say to there was a spot in New York called La Traviata. And they made you know house made Italian food and whatnot and they had a veal parmesan there that was to me like to die for it out. But that was that was my jam right there and they closed down like years ago and like I was heartbroken that they closed down but their veal was good. And then my grandmother had 1,000,001 dishes so it's like it's really hard to pick one. But she did this fried corn. That was like more of like a corn pudding type of deal. But like Even I would say like, even if I tried to, like redo it myself, and it's just, it's just not the same. That was like heaven right there, man, I say like Thanksgiving and stuff will come around. And everybody was trying to like, you know, put their little rations up somewhere, so somebody else would need it. And stuff was good. stuff was really good. So those would be like the two that stick out for

me. That stuff is impossible to recreate. I have some recipes from like my great grandmother. And even if you follow it, like there's just always this like little something they did. They didn't write it down and try to figure out what that is. Yeah, there's some there's some of those things. So yeah, that sounds good. I love like corn pudding. Was there anything new and exciting you're working on.

That's it, like over the next year or so. I mean, I like doing the freelance thing. And being able to cook a variety of different things and go all over. But eventually getting a spot, you know, a nice little intimate space. I'm not talking about anything huge. But like 15 See, you know what I mean, something something, something small, a nice bar area somewhere, I can have a nice season of menu, and just have my own little vibe in there. And people who come there, it will kind of be like all for how we were just talking about with, you know, people following trends and whatnot, I don't want to be like the trendy spot, I want to be the spot where you're a foodie, I'm a foodie. You want to come have a good dining experience, come relax and try something either new or something with a twist. That's the that's the end game right there something that I can I can have my name on and call my own. And basically a set of you know, I know I'm gonna be living in there like 24 seven, but I'm fine with that. Like, that's, that's, that's all I want right there. So people want to find out about you and your business. Where should we send them online? my Facebook page is Steve's catering. We're on Instagram and cheese catering as well. Email is Steve catering@gmail.com. So it's like, everything is just the business name. I like to be live and direct with the photos, especially with the videos because people take a lot of photos and whatnot. But I want people to know, hey, listen, this is for me. You know, come see the content for yourself. I stand 110% behind my food. And you know, everyone that that has an experience with me, I wish Instagram and like Facebook and stuff like Well, on the Facebook side, you can leave you know, your reviews and whatnot. But people normally comment and stuff on the Instagram, but just get more of the comments and stuff out there and the reviews and stuff for people to leave. But yeah, that's where you can find me.

It's tough getting reviews. so tough. I've got like 50 like 50 reviews out of like 1000 gigs. It's like come on, like I said, I sent a follow up email with like links like, here's my Google link, here's my Facebook, here's my Yelp, like put it on, people have a great time. I know they have a great time, but just getting them to just go and drop a five star reviews and everything was great. So take that.

And it's like that's what I had like the website set up or I could send the link to you and say, Hey, listen, if you'd like this, and then you know how people do Oh, yeah, you know, and then it's like, bad. I

never get around. Yeah, they've every time I had an event someone left a review. I think that would definitely go a long way people don't understand how good you know positive reviews or to everyone listening out there. Go review a business just go It doesn't have to be our business. If it's if it was my business, please go review it. If it was his business go review. But like just it really means a lot to small businesses. Also, this podcast again, I have like 40 reviews and 30,000 downloads. That doesn't seem quite right. If you love you can only rate and review on iTunes right now. But go do that. But thanks so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity. We're gonna have to, we're gonna have to get together one of the fans man in the kitchen. I would love

to do that. Yeah, man. This is awesome. Something No, yeah, yeah. So to all of our Chefs Without Restaurants listeners, as always, this has been Chris, and you can find us at Chefs Without restaurants.com.org and on all social media platforms. Thanks so much, and have a great day. Thanks for listening to the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast. And if you're interested in being a guest on the show, for sponsoring the show, please let us know. We can be reached at Chefs Without restaurants@gmail.com Thanks so much.