We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daniel-Isaiah “Chef Spodee” Graves. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daniel-Isaiah below.
Daniel-Isaiah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
To be honest with you this whole cooking career was a HUGE risk for me. I’ve always been a cooker but I guess the love that’s crafted into me , & the rush I get when in the kitchen made it a calling I never took full interest into beloved.
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.
For those who is not from the east side of the Mississippi River , my name is Daniel-Isaiah, also known as the legendary chef Spodee. Born in Atlanta, GA right around when freak neak stopped.
I’ve been talented for years in different crafts , such as a legend in football & basketball, & even golf all through school. All for me to end up a chef right.
Get to that in a second.
I wanted to do other things, God called me to be a chef.
I don’t think y’all heard me, I WANTED TO DO OTHER THINGS. GOD CALLED ME TO BE A CHEF.
Y’all remember when that Covid bull was going on.
Folk wasn’t working,
Trying to figure out how the new world was going to be, folk falling out dead out of no where. Yea then.
I was freshly getting out of jail in CDC staying with my grandma, the foolish kid wit talent. Icing on the cake I have a daughter that’s will be 2 coming soon.
Now I’m a working man. So I got a good job for a brotha that was going to pay me $28 an hour, but the fact that I wasn’t on the job for a month. I couldn’t work from home so I can keep the job that can provide for me to provide for my daughter.
So…….
I did what god did when there isn’t nothing else to do.
Cook a plate of wings.
Check it right, I’m chilling at a friend of mine house thinking of my next move. Cooking dinner for all of us. Just for them to love what I made so much they paid me just to run it back all the way to the begin the next day.
That’s when the light bulb popped like confetti at a birthday.
I can sale food to folk.
Started promoting me cooking different meals around the city of Decatur & Atlanta till an artist named “Diamond” from Crime Mob pulled me to the side & said unto me.
“These tacos are AMAZING” please feed me on the daily.”
As I started to make her plates on the regular she opens up my mind on more ways to make money as a cook. Turning me from a cook to a chef, & for this I love her always.
She expressed how I can cater, private chef, meal prep, & more with this food.
Told me these exact words, “Do you want to be big in just Atlanta, or do you want to be the biggest chef in the world & be legendary”
I WANT TO BE LEGENDARY!
Sense then I haven’t looked back from being on the HBCU tour cooking at different colleges and there events, private cheffing for people & there special moments, to making the most healthy meals for my clients that need meal prep in there career.
This has most definitely turned into a calling that I’ve been missing. It has taken me places & in rooms of growth that I wouldn’t have imagined. For that I’m blessed.
I’ve currently finished culinary school at “Auguste Escoffier School Of Culinary Arts”
out of Colorado, & my new venture is to open this restaurant for my children in Tallahassee,FL no later then the 3rd week of November at the latest called “The Chef’s Trap”. The 1st ghost kitchen in the city of Tallahassee that you can order online & pick up. Please take the time out to sign up to know when I open. Be apart of these legendary steps wit me. I’ll feed you soon. . . .
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
In all honesty prayer! I PRAY! I don’t ask God for ANYTHING! I thank him for EVERYTHING! Because I’m EVERY BOOK in whoever you believe in. There’s a message that going to round out expressing “treat people how u want to be treated”.
Love the answer so imma treat my clients they deserve & we have good relationship with my clients, they’re more like family. I check on them like you would do a garden that’s growing the freshest fruit. Relationships with clients are everything as well. You want them to feel like family. Money is the route of all evil. So it’s more than that to me, I’m making something for your soul , that’s as effective as I can express. Udigg, beloved.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Yes LORD! In this very moment I’m broke! Every dollar that I have going into the “The Chef’s Trap” ! Haven’t put any money in my children in about 2 months, I know my children’s mothers are getting frustrated financially. Those that have a children understand. Them bugger snatchers ain’t cheap.
Yet I just know & believe so much in the restaurant because the same hope and belief was just in becoming a chef & look at me. Never give up, NO MATTER WHAT!
Contact Info:
- Website: Chefspodee.com
- Instagram: @ChefSpodee