We recently connected with Cj Dube and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, CJ thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

From a young age, food and beverage was my passion. I remember the feeling of love and family via my food and it was a sensation that I never wanted to let go of. When I was 18, I left for my first semester at Johnson & Wales University. During my time there, I was always wondered when my ‘leap of faith’ moment was coming. I had very little cooking experience to that point, so I was doing my best to soak in all the knowledge from professors, friends and from chefs at my early stage kitchen jobs. It wasn’t till the COVID-19 lockdown hit that made me reevaluate my standing in the restaurant industry. With the short staffing, I started to see an ugly side of the industry that I never would have imagined as a young kid. But it was those experiences that helped light the fire under me to be an entrepreneur. I remember telling myself, “I love cooking, but I do not want to go back and work in a kitchen for someone else; I wanted to do my own thing.” So in spring of 2022 , I started to draw up my business plan. After I graduated from JWU, I went to Myers Park Country Club (Charlotte, NC) to bartend. About a year into my tenure there, I started to spread the word to the club members, my friends and my bosses that my private business is finally taking flight. Now over a year later, here I am. And I could not be happier with my decision.

CJ, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is CJ Dube and I am a personal chef, caterer and bartender. I own my own business called “Chef Dube” where we do everything from in-home multiple course dinners to mass catering for weddings or other large events. We also can provide bar packages (with craft cocktails) to help make every special occasion even more special!

Ever since I was young, I always knew that I would be apart of the food industry. I remember my mom would always ask me to help her make dinner for the rest of the family. It originally started with thawing the chicken before she got home from work or starting up a pot of water so it would be boiling by the time she walked in the door. As I got older, I got into watching the Food Network more. I remember my mom and I used to watch Cutthroat Kitchen, Guy’s Grocery Games, Chopped and other various shows and they would make me ask her “that looks so good, can we make that tomorrow?” Eventually, those ask of “can you start the water?” or “can you thaw the chicken?” turned in her walking in the door and the whole meal was done. All of this passion led me to Johnson & Wales University located in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2022, I graduated with my Bachelors Degree in Culinary Arts & Food Service Management.

The Chef Dube brand means a lot to me; it’s family and legacy. I’d like to thank my dad for the inspiration behind it. He owns his own law firm (Dube & Dowdy Attorney, PC) down in Wrens, GA. As a kid, it was always real cool to be able to see my dad go off to work and know that he was the one running the place. Seeing our family name (Dube) on various signs, billboards and even the local news was the coolest thing ever as a kid. My dad has a ton of nicknames for me growing up, but the one that I loved the most was “chef.” He gave me that one whenever I would come home from college.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The best way that I have been able to grow my clientele is word to mouth. Everytime that I have a booking for an event, I know that I will be meeting somewhere between 6-50 (roughly) new people. In those moments you have to be able to sell yourself; tell them who you are, what you do, where you’re from, etc. When you sell yourself, you need to be confident, engaging and informative. For example, anytime that I have an event and a guest looks like they’re finished with their meal, I will walk over to the table and ask them “how was everything today?” That little small gesture usually sparks the interest of the guest to start conversation with me and throughout that conversation I will explain my business/what I do for a living to them. I also always have business cards on me as well. After a conversation with a guest concludes, I will hand them a card that list all of my contact information on it so if they want to reach out about any other questions they have, they can. One more thing (in my industry especially) that helps me get new clientele is social media and pictures. You can walk up to anyone and say that you’re a private chef, but they are way more likely to believe you if you show them a picture of some good looking food!

Any advice for managing a team?

My biggest philosophies for managing a team are treat others how you would like to be treated and trust in the people that you employ.

Treat others the way you would like to be treated is something that we have all been taught since birth. You would be shocked at the amount of places/people that preach it but don’t enact on it. Anytime that someone comes and works for me, I treat them with nothing but kindness and respect. Without them, these events would not be executed to my company standard, so I am very appreciative of anyone who comes to help me out!

Trust goes a long way in the restaurant world. Any head chef that tries to micromanage his line always has a poorly functioning kitchen. That is why when I employ fellow chefs to help out with my events, I give them the creative freedom to get a task done their way. When I was working for other chefs, a lot of my ideas got rejected because they were different from the normal…being told no after no was a real killer to my morale. I hope to keep their morale of my employee high by giving them the freedom to experiment with certain dishes and recipes. Of course I have a timeline and recipes to follow if they need it, but at the end of the day I trust them to do the right thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: COMING SOON
• Instagram: chef.dube
• Facebook: CJ Dube
• Other: business email: [email protected]