We recently connected with Eliezer Rodriguez-Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.

Eliezer, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I always had the idea of having my own business, After many years in the restaurant industry, a couple of fail trial businesses. I came to the city of Harrisburg from Puerto Rico after the hurricane Maria with my family to work and try to have a better future with my family.
When I came here I became Sous Chef at Los Tres Cubanos Restaurant for about 2 years.
I move to a local hotel as a breakfast cook, to have more time to develop my skillset.
But since I came from PR I was reading & studying marketing, business, personal development book, business structure and anything I can get my hands on about business.
I took a couple of courses, my development as a person for a time was my main focus.
I was still working, taking care of my family then as we all know the pandemic hit.
I got laid off from my work.
I had basically a year of planning developing the ideas of what I wanted to do and my brand identity.
First I thing I did was my business structure.
Then in 2021 and 2022 it was a lot of testing, I read this book called “The Lean Startup” about developing and testing ideas
and then validate them in the actual market. Long story short, I tested a lot of ideas about services, menu items, food in a short amount of time. I kept what work and make sense financially and business wise and discarded what didn’t work.
Forward to 2023 I getting my name out there consistently and I’m working on my next phase as a business owner.

Eliezer, 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 Eliezer Rodriguez (Chef Eli) , my business is Koki Latin Cuisine based in Central Pennsylvania. I help friends, family and businesses have personalized, creative and unique culinary experiences privately in the comfort of their home or office.
Our mission as a company is create a parade of flavors, colors and textures for the enjoyment of our clients, having a great focus on quality of the product, experience and service.
We are about bringing the Latin Flavor with restaurant flare to Central PA & the tristate area.
We like as a brand to bringing the restaurant experience to a next level, personalized and unique.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

September 20 2017, was the fateful day when hurricane Maria hit the island of Puerto Rico, it was devastating for the island as well as for me as a person. My family and me were truly scared, we already planned on moving to PA but we were truly unsure if it was gonna possible or not. Thankfully we flew out of the island October 12 of the same year. About 2 days after we arrived, I landed a job as Sous Chef at the cuban restaurant we mention earlier.
But in the 3 years that I was consistently working before the Covid Pandemic hit, I was truly educating myself around business and how they work.
When I got laid off, I was ready to go and create for me what I always wanted my own business.
It might sound cliche but self education, mindset, and personal development is key when it comes to goals in life.
Having goals, breaking them in actionable “bite” size steps is definitely necessary.
As well the internal work, growth mindset and focusing on the action that you can do now, even if is small is very important.
Small progress is still progress. One of the books a always recommend is “Drive” by Daniel Pink, it completely change my perspective on motivation. Small steps as long as you are moving forward.

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

My best source for new clients it been referrals by existing clients. But to get in front of the eyes of more people I definitely enjoy pop up events a lot.
I’m doing some really soon if you are in the Harrisburg area stay tuned!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kokilatincuisine/
• Facebook: Koki Latin Cuisine
• Other: Tik Tok @kokilatincuisine

Image Credits
Cherisburg Bree