We were lucky to catch up with Dominic Parks JR recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dominic, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Our company name came from our founder Chef Dominic Sean Parks JR. He created “ChefNIC” from the last 3 letters of his first name. N.I.C. which has a meaning behind it and houses the core of our mission statement (Nutrition. Inspiration. Creativity.) which is what we provide for our clients by Creating tasteful Memories

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 background and context?

Our company name came from our founder Chef Dominic Sean Parks JR. He created “ChefNIC” from the last 3 letters of his first name. N.I.C. which has a meaning behind it and houses the core of our mission statement (Nutrition. Inspiration. Creativity.) We are based out of Frisco TX, and we love our community. when possible we provide meals for our Frisco Police and fire department, Frisco ISD staff events and meeting, and some of our non profits we work with are Frisco Chamber of Commerce, St. Arbor Community Development, Refresh frisco/LittleElm, Able Faith Ministries and a few more.

We are a team of Hospitality officials from Chefs, bakers, banquet captains’ servers and more who have a passion and mission for Creating Tasteful Memories for our clients and consumers. At ChefNIC & Co. our mission is to produce remarkable dining experience by surpassing our Clients expectations with tantalizing cuisine, extraordinary service, and artistic presentation.

We will achieve this effectively by unfailingly:

~Focusing on quality and consistency.
~Creating a positive environment and respect with our clients and employees.
~Displaying appropriate manners, and gracious serving etiquette.
~Preserving an essentially thorough business devoted to development and economic stability.
~Working environmentally friendly as possible.

Dominic Parks Jr Created this company while attending the University of Arkansas and studying Hospitality and Restaurant Management. While growing the business he gained clients by selling food at a stand outside the bars and clubs on Dickson street. He then grew into catering events and buffets for Sams Club, Walmart, Dealership, Weddings, Graduations birthdays and various athletic department for the U of A.

He then went through a few hardships along the way that caused some setbacks with identity theft which led to bankruptcy and a heart condition he battled with for a few years. Throughout his battle he found Christ and continued to fight his way to achieve his dream in growing ChefNIC and Co. In 2014 he moved to Dallas and started studying at the Art institute of Dallas to grow his knowledge and perfect his craft of cooking and being a chef. After graduating he worked in various fields of the restaurant industry so he could gain all the experience and knowledge he needed to make ChefNIC and Co. very successful. Through his journey he has learned through his testimony he can also provide a way for others seeking to achieve their dreams in this field and give them the guidance he has been blessed with.

We have 5 sectors of our business that allow us to service our clients and help others in the industry:
– Catering – the can be buffet or plated, large corporate event for small intimate ones. These events may be a prom for a high school, business luncheon, anniversary or birthday party etc. the limitations are endless, its just whatever our client needs us for.

– Private chef – is the restaurant experience coming to you. this is a 4 course dinner plated and cooked to order in the comfort of your own home or venue space, this comes with servers, fine china and all. Our clients only provide the table , guess and location we bring in all the food, servers, eating utensils etc.

– Home Meal Solutions – Similar to meal prep but this is a full on extensive menu that is made to take the hassle out of shopping, cooking and cleaning. these are meals or items for you to simply heat and eat in your own time, ranginging from lasagnas, ranch dressing, hummus, shrimp cocktail a whole brisket, individual protein starch and vegetable options and more.

– Meal Prep – this menu we provide the nutrition fact table for each item for those trying to control or watch their intake of fat, sodium, sugar etc. this menu we cut out all butter, use very little to no salt and focus on bringing in good flavor to food with out all the added extra bad stuff.

– Consulting/Event planning. We consult and said others in the industry that seek out for our professional advice on starting, growing or maintaining their business from concept, to menus and control labor or food cost. We also do some event planning and fundraising for gals a lot of the time for non profits and we will aid them in organizing the event and executing and raising funds for their cause.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Current or old clients. in our business when we are booked for events or get orders for meal prep or home meal solutions, We are paid in full from the client or customer. some businesses will just execute straight from there when the event or order is due. I took the initiative to make this my means for growth. I will add extra items to an order in meal prep or home meal solutions. By putting in items that the client has not ordered or tried, I have just now given them a free sample of something to try and more that likely they will order in the future.

when it comes to catering or private chef. I always look at it as if I am catering a wedding for 200 people, that’s 200 potential clients that are trying my products first handed and not having to pay for it as they are guest of the bride and groom. So when we set sip a buffet I will do extra things to make the display very appealing and beautiful. or in our private chef dining experiences create the environment and ambience for the guest that have been invited and make the host whom hired us feel at complete ease and worry free.

Because of this strategy I almost get booked form someone who attended simply off the way our business presented our selves. So for me My current clients are my main source of marketing or grasp to new clients, They literally brag on our services or team, or food products to their family and friends, which in turn gets us booked for events by them.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

In the summer of 2021 we bought a chevy 2500 for our business as we were planning on getting a mobile food trailer built. However throughout the summer our sales dropped very low and in the month of august we took a huge loss. However by the grace of God that turned around the last quarter and a half of the year and we were able to do in 4 months the sales we did and more from the previous 4 months. we got so busy with catering that we could not get back to trying to get our trailer built.

I wanted to get the truck wrapped for our business to help display our work and it would be a great mobile billboard for us as we travel a lot and the truck goes all around the city and state. However the bids that we were getting were very high and not something we wanted to pay that much for. Then we found a company out in Lubbock that would do the wrap for a fraction of the cost and we already loved their work. so in November we went out there and had the work done.

I return to Frisco Tx where we are based out of and it was a big shocker to us how much attention the wrap on our truck got. I drive the truck out to eat one night and park with valet, they park the truck upfront we go inside to eat and come out to leave and get in the car. My wife tells me to turn around and when I do I see 12 people standing behind the truck with their phone out taking pictures and using the (QR code) we had put on all sides of it. I saw how much attention the wrap got over the next week and wanted to canalize on it.

So I priced out getting some wheel lights and under glow and rims to bring in more attention. But I didn’t want to pay the price for the wheels and tires. after a few weeks of searching for used I went to a shop that said I could finance it and make payments. Although I didn’t want to take the risk to do so, I prayed about it and god led me to the decision to move forward with it. I got smart about it and wanted to make Sur ei benefited the most from it. So I made payments every week on auto pay and paid the loan off in 2.5 months instead of the 2 years they had it planned for. This allowed me to shoot my credit score up a lot in a very short amount of time. and the best part it drew a lot of attention to our truck and business that gained us more followers on social mead, more inquiry request, and closed more deals in the process. The images we put on the truck to showcase our work were our most popular requested items, so when clients reached out they would reference to the image on the truck for items they wanted to order.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chefnic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefnicandco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chefniccatering
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-p-b8b2ba7a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChefNICandCo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5hpnkXR3ecwS1iGQV2r40g/videos
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chef-nic-and-frisco

Image Credits
Daryl Johnson Astute imagery @astuteimg – Instagram https://www.astuteimagery.com