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

Hi Khalieb, thanks for joining us today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

I don’t see innovation as something difficult to achieve. A lot of the time, as creatives, we are merely re-inventing the wheel and referring to it as innovation. With that being said, I have to give credit to those who give birth to the ideas that change the way we think and operate as a society. To date, my most innovative ideas have come in the form of Menus.

Eritrean and Ethiopian food has remained consistent for hundreds if not thousands of years. As an American-born Eritrean Chef, one of my initial ideas in cooking was to fuse these two cuisines and bring these communities together at the table. Connecting the diaspora through traditional flavors of my home country along with familiar tastes and textures of the Southern states.

Khalieb, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Khalieb Rufael. I started cooking while in university in a town called San Marcos, Texas. While learning to feed myself as a young adult, I found a new creative outlet in culinary arts and discovered a passion for curating the type of vibes that I find ideal for socializing. I graduated school and went straight into working in professional kitchens in Houston so that I could get tutelage from Professional chefs.

Today I work as a private chef and also a kitchen manager for a catering company called Rufari based in Austin, Texas.

I’m different from a lot of other chefs in the city because I provide a diverse pallet and cuisine that is very rare to find. Not only are there no other Eritrean Chefs making noise in the city, but there are also no Eritrean restaurants here either. When I do a pop up or a dinner and discussion, it gives my audience an opportunity to try something extremely unique that they truly can’t find anywhere else.

I’m proud of the collaboration that Chef Yems and I have put together in Spice Boyz. Our ‘Dinner and Discussion’ series began as just an idea, and with the help of Servante Cook, it blossomed into a beautiful experience that everyone who’s invited gets to treasure.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In the beginning of 2020, I was hustling my way through restaurants, training and mastering the fast pace and organizational skills that are important in the kitchen, while also, scraping up every dollar that I could at the time to save. Through a mutual connection I was blessed with an amazing opportunity to spearhead a weight loss program for a local Houston based clinic, by providing meals on a daily basis for 6 weeks. This meant that on top of my part time prep cook position at Brasserie 19, I was now meal prepping from my kitchen for 25-30 nurses for 5 days a week. I was busy and making what felt like tons of cash.

The Program ended on March 15th, 2020, which subsequently was the day that the Covid 19 Pandemic shutdown began. The same day, the Sous Chef at my restaurant gave me the call that meant I was no longer needed at the restaurant due. I went from hustling everyday, making good money, and fulfilling my purpose in serving food, to having nothing to do, no cash flow, and a dry inbox.

I had no choice but to pivot. I took the next month to figure out how I was going to sustain myself. I knew I wouldn’t be down on my luck for too long. The industry that we’re in is ‘need-based’ which means even when there is an economic down-turn, we should still be able to offer our services in some capacity. During this time I wrote a full business plan for a food truck concept that I still have yet to bring to fruition. I maintained a good relationship with the clinic that I was serving by staying in contact and offering aid in any way that I could during the first unsettling months of the pandemic. I also took the time to revise a branding strategy for my social media. I took the time to practice my craft by mastering recipes at home, especially the difficult ones that I had not had a grip on yet.

By the end of the summer, things in Houston had begun to get back to normal. The clinic began to reach out to me for more meals on a weekly basis and I was back in business. This time with more skills and knowledge under my belt.

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

Yemi and I first met while working a 40th birthday dinner together on the northside of Houston. A mutual friend in Chef Shade Ojelade hired us both and we immediately hit it off.

Later that week I ended up coming to one of Yemi’s pop ups in Montrose to try some of his food. I was pleasantly surprised. I could tell he understood the basic principles of serving food and what people look for in really good food. There are some chefs who I consider to be too flamboyant. They look more forward to receiving praise from their clients than they do towards actually delivering the food in the best way possible. It’s not hard to tell when you taste Yemi’s food, that he’s both skilled and focused on producing his best work every time.

It wasn’t long after the first link up, that Yemi and I had started planning our first collaborative event. ‘Backyard Brunch’ is where it all began and the rest is history… being written.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chefkhaliebrufael.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefkhalieb/?next=%2F
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/khalieb.rufael.5
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalieb-rufael/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZfe4S00FbIyNh6FdXfRNYQ
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/spiceboyzent/

Image Credits
Gabe Simon @ivscene_ on Instagram https://ivscenemedia.com/