We recently connected with Chef Cole and have shared our conversation below.

Chef , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

Definitely if I could go back in time I would’ve started my business sooner than 2020. When I started my business I was actually working in an a completely different industry. I was an maintenance technician when I was stepping out doing catering gigs for friends of mines. They were the ones who push me to wanting to be a full time caterer because they raved about how good my food was!!! Then I started to think I could really make this a career.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So I definitely started cooking at a young age and loved it so much I wanted to start a restaurant. It was so bad graduating high school I remember talking to my dad tell him I wanted to start a restaurant with not really much experience in the professional side of things. My discipline came from me understanding I love what I do and I wouldn’t let anyone stop me from pursuing this path I was on. What sets me aside from other caterers/chefs is that my creativity is my drive and I don’t wanna be like others in my field. My brand is to make sure that my customers receive the best service and recognize that what I bring to the table is top notch!!! Lastly my most proud moment is definitely me being invited to do a career day at the school. It was so amazing and the kids really enjoyed me coming.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding my business was definitely not hard at all but definitely came with discipline. When I started my business I started with $500 that help me get what I needed to start selling bbq. Me selling food on the streets made me so humble without a food trailer just a grill, 2 hot boxes, & a table. The best part of funding my business myself was not owning nobody the money.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The best story I can illustrate resilience with is before I started cooking with the truck driving school I caught pneumonia and Covid at the same time. Also my trucks transmission went out for 3 weeks I was down. That was a tough time for me because I don’t really like depending on other people to do for me. Being super independent can be challenging at times especially when you know you are able to do it. The thought of allowing someone else to do some for me just haunted me in ways of no retire. Now being in this place of peace I don’t have that same problem any longer.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Iamchefcole
• Facebook: SanchezChefCole
• Linkedin: Kwanza Cole
• Twitter: Chefffcole30
• Youtube: Cookingwithchefsanchezcole8612
• Yelp: Intimate Dinners with ChefCole
• Other: TikTok:Iamchefcole