Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christian Dominique. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

the biggest challenge we face in the restaurant industry is constant rise in price of food supply and labor shortage.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was born and raised in Port-au-Prince Haiti, from Haitian parents. I grew up in a hospitality family where my maternal grand father owned 2 hotels and 2 restaurants when I was a kid but I never really understood what it was and I wasn’t really exposed to the operational side of it.

As a young kid, I was always attracted to the kitchen when I discovered that all I needed to add was sugar to bottled pasta sauce to call it cooking.

There weren’t many things I liked eating so I ended up eating the same things over and over. I really learned how to cook at the age of 19, when my grand mother came for a visit during my time in Concordia University in Canada. I always loved her cooking; she made the best dishes out of nothing.

One day she told me in creole –“listen boy, you are as skinny as a pine tree so I’m going to teach you how to cook so you can start eating”.
The way she spoke was very unique and extremely funny; she always cracked me up. So that day, she taught me how to roast chicken. We spent many hours in the kitchen during her trip cooking rice, making soup, and tournedos. That’s when my love for food was born. Surprisingly, I was really good at it and started cooking things I used to love as a kid. I then started to cook for friends. A year and a half later, I switched majors and moved to Miami where I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management at Florida International University.

Though I was learning the business side of hospitality to go back to Haiti and work in the family business, my real love was creating new dishes, blending flavors, and ending with something original and flavorful. I love going to fusion restaurants and discovering how flavors blend together. I am still a very picky eater but i tend to be picky about where and what to eat. If it doesn’t look or smell good I would rather stay home and cook.

After Graduation, I moved back to Haiti and helped my family start one of the best hotels in Haiti.
My grandmother passed away exactly 2 years after I moved back to Haiti; it was one of the worst days of my life. I still feel her presence in my cooking and in the creativity she woke up in me.

Manjay was created with a purpose. When you look at Caribbean cuisine as a whole, it is a diversity in cultures and ethnicities, which have joined together and created a fusion that has existed for so long it became it’s own.
Our purpose was to create something that reflects that inclusion, which embraces the diversity of cultures and accepts that not all flavors are similar but the mixture of all those flavors, creates something so unique yet so global.

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

i remember 3 days before our opening at The Citadel, i was in Haiti that week, and the day of my travels there was an on going riot in the country. there were people shooting in the streets, throwing stones and burning cars. being in the streets was a threat in itself. I remember telling my wife if i don’t make it to the airport today we’re gonna miss our chance at opening this restaurant, so i took my car and literally had to drive over burning tires and barricades negotiating with protesters to let me through so i could make it to the airport. it was a very scary moment, i did not think i would make it out alive, but i had worked too hard to get this project up and running and it was my only way to assure that my family would have a secure future so it was worth the risk.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

So, if i have one advice to give any teenager, it would be to start saving. i have been saving since i was 17 years old, when you accumulate all those years of savings you get a nice chunk of money in the bank. My business was 100% funded by my savings. i used up most of my savings to open up shop. some people say that using OPM is the best way to do business, and that is great advice, but nobody will lend you money if you do not have a track record. And in my case, i had no track record of opening a restaurant, i ran a couple of restaurants but never opened one myself. there is no better feeling than investing in yourself. now that i have a proven track record, OPM is a great option for us to grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.manjayrestaurant.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manjayrestaurant
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManjayRestaurant/
• Twitter: manjaycaribbean
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/manjay-miami