Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jharvis James. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jharvis, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

The most important lesson I learned at a job that helped me as a business owner came from the greatest work experience I’ve ever had.

I began my culinary career as a fry cook for a casual formal steak and crab house called Trulucks Steak & Seafood. This was more than just my first job experience as a chef, it fundamentally served as a foundation in the process of becoming not only a business owner, but a man.

I started at Trulucks as the youngest chef they ever hired, practically with zero cooking experience. They took a chance on me and gave me an opportunity most aren’t afforded. They recognized my willingness to learn and the humility I had in being teachable. That alone yielded life changing results.

I learned the principle of integrity and honesty. I learned how to be a leader amongst leaders. I learned the importance of showing up. I learned the righteousness in keeping my word and doing what I say I will. I learned how to persevere in the face of adversity and difficulty. I learned the value of excellence and becoming an expert in my specialized field. The lessons are immeasurable. Working for this amazing company was not only a great work experience, it became a personified mentorship program

The greatest lesson Trulucks taught me came from what they call their circle of values and it goes as follows: “If the business takes cares of its guests and its associates, the business will take care of itself.” An invaluable core belief as a business to have.

The precipice of Trulucks excellence and splendor was rooted in one thing, the human factor. They had an understanding that people are buying from people. It’s not just a dining experience but a human experience through interaction. So they focused on serving our guests superbly and treating associated like family. They went above and beyond for all those who bore their name on a uniform.

This one value broke the mold for me when I started out as a business owner of my own. I took this with me and it garnered massive success. I apply it to every aspect of business and life. As a personal chef, and now as a fintech startup founder, our core value is to take care of our clients and those who work with us. Business will take care of itself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Jharvis James, 31, born and raised in the most beautiful city in America – Miami, FL. I grew up in a family that was very close-knit.

We did everything together. We ate dinner together as a family, we celebrated every holiday together and that always meant cooking and cleaning and preparing the table. Food brought us together. I didn’t know it then, but I know now those early stages of life set the precedent of who I’d become and why.

I grew up watching the men in my family cook. My dad, but especially my grandfather. My grandfather had a rule we all had to abide by. His rule was simple: you can’t eat in his house for free. So that means you either help cook or you help clean, but you had to earn your plate. I chose to help cook, primarily because I hated the idea of cleaning – not realizing that when you cook, that included cleaning too, so I got a double whammy. But those times cooking with my grandfather were the foundations of my chef career.

I developed a love for food and cooking through my love of family. I loved how food brought people together to connect and celebrate with one another. However, I never wanted to be a chef. I never thouht to become one. I just loved to cook, but what I wanted to be was a business owner. Since I was a single digit kid, I always dreamed of being a CEO. I didn’t know what kind of business I wanted to own, I just knew I wanted to have one.

Eventually those two passions merged and become one. As a high school senior I realized exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a restauranteur. I wanted to own my own restaurant. And that’s how the story began.

I did research on what it takes to start a restaurant and came across a staggering statistic that read that restaurants had a 95% failure rate. The reality of owning a restaurant started to dim until I kept reading and saw that most restaurants fail because more than 80% of restaurant owners knew nothing about operating a kitchen. It was at that moment the bright idea came to me:

I will go to culinary school, learn how to cook, get a job at a restaurant and learn everything there is to know about operating and managing a kitchen and work myself up from cook to chef to manager to owner.

Immediately after graduation I signed up to join Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts and began that journey.

To make a long story short I did just what I set out to do. I got a job as a wide-eyed fry cook for an upscale steakhouse. I got demoted because the station was too hard for me to handle. I was put on salads and deserts. So I worked my way back to fry, earning my position. I went from fry, to sauté, to the most coveted position in any kitchen and steakhouse – Grill. I became the lead cook in the kitchen while also being the youngest cook at just 21. I ended up taking an Executive Chef position at another restaurant. Then I became General Manager.

I left the restaurant after filming a show on Food Network called “Food Truck Face-Off”, and pursued a career as a caterer. After a successful career of being a caterer, I finally opened my very own Restaurant called Phuse Rooftop Bar. Absolutely hated it, closed down, and went back to catering 18 months later while taking a culinary teaching job at the high school I graduated from.

I eventually moved out of catering to become a Private/Personal Chef. I got my start in 2020 right at the start of Covid. Who would’ve thought that in the midst of such calamity it would birth a surge in desire for Personal chef services. My business blew up overnight. I went from making a humble $5k-$6k/month to $10-$15k/weekend. I still can’t believe it.

I started working for celebrities and high C-level executives. I quickly learned that these were the people I wanted to serve. And so my focus became offering a high-value, upscale experience. And it served me greatly. I’ve cooked for the likes of Grammy awarded singers, Oscar-winning actors/actresses, NBA/NFL players and HOF’s, and my personal favorite – Billionaire FinTech CEO’s.

Because of the circle of values I adopted from Trulucks which states if you take care of your guests and take care of those who work on you, the business will take care of itself, I was able to do just that. I go above and beyond for my clients. I don’t say no, it’s always “I’ll figure it out”. I give them my all and my best. I provide a second-to-none service experience that’s unforgettable and incapable of being duplicated because of my sincerity and love of people. Over time my clients no longer saw me as just their chef, but as a friend. And I’ve built amazing relationships with MANY of them. I wouldn’t know what giving my best was had it not been for my experience at Trulucks.

I’m beyond proud and humbled by what I’ve been allowed to do with this career. It’s truly the favor of God on my life and the accumulation of every lesson and value I learned and adopted along the way. It’s always about the people, the client. And I never forget that. It’s my prayer that I bent will.

Because of the people I’ve served and built relationship with, it afforded me an opportunity to learn about other industries and find mentorship in those spaces which is how I landed the opportunity to start my own Fintech company. A world away from the kitchen, but the same values and principles apply. Serve the people. Take care of them. Take care of those who serve with me. Business is business and will take care of itself.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I feel like my whole life experience is marked by pivotal times to pivot. You know, life isn’t static. Life is comprised of transition and transformation in all shapes and sizes and degrees of difficulty.

A time I had to pivot was when I decided to close my restaurant down and go back to catering and back into the workforce serving as a teacher for supplemental income.

Looking back at it, it was the best decision of my career, but at the time it felt like defeat and failure. Here I am at the final stage of my dream of owning a restaurant and nothing was going right. I was losing money, dealing with betrayals within my business partnerships, and above all, declining in my health and personal relationships. I was holding on for dear life. I was holding on in part to avoid the reality that I still didn’t know enough about this business to operate one. I didn’t want to become the statistic I first read about a decade ago that led me to this very moment in the first place. I couldn’t accept failing.

Eventually, it came down to having to make a decision. I was at a turning point in almost every facet of my life and the one pivot I needed to turn everything around surrounded the decision of continuing to strive or walking away and starting over.

It took some soak searching and heavy reliance in my faith in God to reslIs the best thing to do for myself was to let it go.

And I can confidently say that I’m so glad I did.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met my business partner a little over a year ago in an interview to be his family’s personal chef. That’s right, my business partner started off as my client.

That’s the power of this business. I mentor up-and-coming chefs and often share this with people in business. I tell them all the time that I’m not in the food business, I’m in the relationship business – I just use food as a vehicle to get me there.

My business partner is the founder and CEO of one of the largest Fintech companies in the world spanning across the United States, Australia, and the UK.

He took me under his wing because I wanted to go into a new industry. The finance industry. One conversation led to another and now being under his tutelage he’s help me launch my own Fintech company. More details on that very soon!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @iamchefjharvisjames

Image Credits
Joel Henson Mar Faedo