We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jake Kladder a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jake thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

After several years working for the catering arm of a restaurant group, I started to dream about striking out on my own. However, I loved my job and was very comfortable there. Enter: the cosmic record scratch that was COVID. I lost my job at the end of 2020 and, like many people at that time, had to reassess a lot of things. I loved catering and had gotten very accustomed to the lifestyle I was able to have while catering, and wasn’t very excited about the idea of working in a restaurant again with typical restaurant hours. My wife and I ultimately decided, if not now, when? So our daydreaming turned into reality, and we went for it! We launched Kladder Catering in January 2021, thinking that we could appeal to those folks who were starting to feel more comfortable having small gatherings at home, but were not ready to go out to a restaurant yet. We also really wanted to debunk the perception that hiring a private chef is only attainable for the uberwealthy. The gamble paid off, and we have stayed busy since our opening!

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 back background and context?

I have been working in kitchens for almost 20 years in Michigan and Nashville. After moving to Nashville in 2012, I managed the kitchen for a sushi restaurant before becoming the kitchen manager for a caterer in Franklin for about 6 years. I learned so much in my last role and fell in love with catering. The company I was working for closed its doors at the end of 2020, and that gave me the push I needed to take the leap and create Kladder Catering.

We are a small family business of just my wife and me, so we are able to provide a personalized experience for each client. Clients who reach out will interact directly with the 2 of us to create a menu and bring their vision for their event to life. We focus on private, in-home events and take care of the food & clean-up so our clients can enjoy time with their loved ones and guests.

I can’t stress enough how much our clients love that once they are done with dinner, instead of the night ending after the tab is paid at a restaurant, they are already at home and they can just move into the living room or out onto the deck to continue the hang while we clean everything up.

One thing I love about private catering is the wide variety of cuisines our clients ask for; I don’t have to focus on a singular specialty because we create a personalized menu for each client based on their tastes. We pride ourselves on being able to execute a wide variety of parties as casual or upscale as our clients want. They get a unique experience, and I never get bored cooking the same thing over and over.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

It’s really all about the food at the end of the day. I think private catering is still a relatively foreign concept to a lot of people, but once people realize that it is an option and hire us, we really try to “wow” them with our food. Word-of-mouth has certainly helped; our clients have been very gracious about recommending us to their friends, posting about us on their neighborhood social media boards, etc. People put a lot of stock into recommendations from people they know, and we’ve found this holds true for catering. Plus, any time we cater for a client, we’re basically auditioning for each of their guests. If our client’s guests enjoy the party they attended, they think of us when they go to plan their own event.

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

Just saying “yes.” We had a very specific vision for this business when we started it: cooking private dinners for people in their homes. However, we have had some very unexpected opportunities arise that have really expanded the scope of our offerings and our reach. About half of our business now comes from record labels hiring us to cater breakfast & lunch for artists & musicians while they are in the studio recording new music. In October, we are doing our first pop-up brunch service at a local bar. We are even being flown out to cater a wedding outside of Zion National Park in Utah this week. Each of these were outside of the scope of what we thought our business to be, but every time we say “yes” to a new opportunity, we are able to get ourselves and our food in front of new people, expanding our network of clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kladdercatering.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kladdercatering/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KladderCatering/