We recently connected with Lendrek Washington and have shared our conversation below.

Lendrek, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

Got my first client due to Covid. Things were slowly opening back up but a lot of people didn’t feel comfortable going in public; got a call from someone that asked if I did private dinners I said yes and the journey began.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Cooking has always been a passion for me. But nothin I wanted to pursue it first as I was more focused on goin to traditional colleges. That left me constantly searching and asking myself what my purpose was. A lot of my friends kept pushing me to go into cooking professionally while I was in this searching process; so one day I went to the campus of Los Angeles Trade Tech, walked in the kitchen and right away felt at home. Began taking classes that fall and got a job in the field to learn how kitchens work outside of just being a home chef.

Being a private chef allows me to bring the restaurant experience to your home. Allows for me to create whatever kind of setting for any occasion. The best part of it is seeing people reactions when they taste the food. You can taste the love and dedication I put into the product.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Covid put me in a box where I still had to get bills paid. Prior to Covid I worked in restaurants. However once Covid happened and I was eventually laid off after some months in I needed to pay bills and take care of my daughter. Unemployment wasn’t goin to be enough so I had to figure out my next move. Private cheffing was the answer.

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

Social media has been great to me in getting my followers and gettin people to reach out to me on there for there events. Instagram reels reach a much wider crowd so I take advantage of my events and get videos and photos to post.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Chef_Lendrek
• Facebook: Lendrek Washington
• Twitter: Chef_Lendrek