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

Michael, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

It seems being a chef may be an exotic career path to some. Whenever I’d meet someone new and we discussed business, I’d mention I was a Chef and their face would light up. As soon as I saw this happen I knew it was inevitable the “how do you like being a chef?” question was coming. I’ve answered this question hundreds of times it seems and always with a somewhat boring and canned response, “it’s great… a lot of fun.” I wasn’t really sure what answer someone was actually looking for. And quite frankly, because of it’s frequency I was quite annoyed by it.

Before the business was even conceptualized, I had moved to Charleston and I made networking a priority. So I was at a party with some new friends and again the question was asked. I’m not quite sure what happened in that moment of wit but I decided to have some fun with it. It all of the sudden clicked as to why I liked being a chef. Growing up It’s what your parents dared you not to do. The answer was because I was able to play with food, fire and knives everyday. And it was true.

Michael, 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?

It all started with a small produce stand in New Jersey. I didn’t want a job. The summer was for friends, sleeping in, and the beach. I was 14 and my job was to replenish the vegetables as the customers pulled them from the baskets. I had to quite literally run. Because what seemed like a sweet old lady minding her business in a rocking chair was actually, at the time, more like something out of a nightmare. It became a common occurrence for her to call us “lazy kids” and scream in front of the customers to “move faster” or “hustle”.

She and her husband owned the farm and produce stand while their three sons worked in the fields. She allowed us a 30 minute break which I rarely took because there was nothing to eat and she charged us for a chocolate milk. I had no money because I was 14, and I was on a farm so there was nowhere to go. So I “hustled,” and after the first couple of weeks I would hear from her less and less. I was constantly finding small ways to be faster. It almost became an obsession and not just because I feared the little old lady. In a weird way it became fun. The most important thing, even to this day, was learning to show a sense of urgency. And in our industry, that’s everything. Over the summer I was taught to clean, pick and identify different produce items. I was learning a lot. This was my first real introduction to food.

The following school year came and I was finally able to talk to some friends about my cool summer job. As we traded summer job stories, one job had really stuck out. The restaurant was called The Village Roaster and I was told you could eat “whatever you want, whenever you want it.” So of course my first question was “do they have chicken tenders?” And my friends reply, “Yep!” I needed this job.

The menu was similar to any small fried chicken joint but we made everything fresh. Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, potato wedges, it was wonderful. I started as a dishwasher and after 6 months I was working the fryers. And eating chicken tenders all day was definitely all its cracked up to be. The owner Cheryl was high energy, maybe a little spazzy but very fair. She quickly became family. Co-workers came and went but I stayed. I loved it. Soon enough I was creating my own specials (maybe a little too nice for a chicken shack). They rarely sold as I would put items on like blackened salmon or pan-seared tilapia. She was never concerned with the sales. The fact that I was learning, playing with food and having fun was all that mattered to her. It was a real turning point.

Senior year came and so did the pressure of college. At this point I was making decent money, had a brand new car and… received THREE speeding tickets in a few months. So naturally, I decided to take criminal justice courses and become a State Trooper. The inevitable day came when I needed to put in my two week notice and become a mall cop. I didn’t want to quit, I had to. I remember sitting down, becoming cold, sweaty and pale. I was so nervous and upset. I told her the plan, we agreed it was best and we talked for what seemed like 3 hours. At this point, making this a career had never crossed my mind but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

The following week I received a brochure for “The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill college” in Philadelphia, and thats when it hit me. I wanted to be a Chef. I attended the two year program for Restaurant Management (thats another story). After graduating I craved more and attended “The Culinary Institute of America” in Hyde Park, NY. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. The amount of knowledge each Chef instructor had and working with Certified Master Chefs, it was all so unreal. I was so proud to graduate. What I or any other culinary graduate wasn’t expecting was the student loan payments and making less money than I was 4 years before. You won’t graduate into a celebrity chef or an Executive Chef position. When you graduate you’ll wash dishes and if you’re lucky they’ll let you make some salads.

In our industry we’ve grown accustomed to certain things. Things that don’t generally exist in other professions. Things that would seem torturous and terrifying to others. Things like: long hours (it’s typical for any chef to work 60-80 hours a week), hot kitchens, low pay, missing out on EVERY holiday and family party, cuts, bruises and plenty of burns. But these things we wear like a badge of honor. We certainly don’t regret. Things they’ll never tell you like your co-workers will become your family and you’ll meet your significant other at work. See we know that there aren’t many people who can do what we do. And we don’t like that… we love it.

I’ve been in the industry for a long time and Ive worked every kitchen station, been a Sous and Head Chef for many years, worked at prominent, four star restaurants, a brewery and some holes in a wall with great food. And of course I’ve seen some of what most people only read about or see on TV. It’s become clear that there are major issues we want to help solve to leave this world a better place. And this is where Food Fire + Knives mission begins.

There are so many great chefs out there that deserve to live comfortably, pay their culinary school bills while doing what they love. How can we supplement their income to provide a better quality of life? How can we take what every chef loves about restaurants and food and remove all the undesirable aspects?

We are a Chef forward, thinking and driven company. Our “open door” policy allows our chefs to express themselves in every way possible. In fact we set up a video conference call every Tuesday to hear their thoughts, struggles and wins. Our chefs also have so much value to pass on to chefs in our newer locations. Most of what the company is now, is because of our Chefs direct feedback. We’ve always wanted everyone to feel like an owner. This direct level of contact and care translates to our customers. We receive outstanding feedback every single day from each of our chefs events.

Our site is a free and open marketplace for Chefs. We interview and vet each one. Chefs have the freedom to create their menus, profiles and set pricing. Our Hosts enjoy the fun and simplicity of browsing the chefs and their menus, placing online orders and viewing their events in their dashboard. We also provide customer care via our site chat 7 days a week. Our Hosts enjoy the ability to make changes to their event in real time. After placing an order, the Chefs reach out within 48 hours to discuss the event in detail. We’ve created an easy, seamless and fun experience from the first visit to the website, to the event itself.

Our Hosts support local chefs. We’re enormously proud to be growing at the rate we are and have provided many of our chefs the lives they’ve dreamed of. A large portion of our chefs are now with our business exclusively and have been able to move away from the restaurant industry. They’re able to spend more time with family and friends and that means the world to us.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We took the less glamorous and conventional route. I initially cleared out my small 401K to for the smaller startup costs. At the time we were only doing in home cooking classes. So along with the LLC, website, insurance, etc., I needed a good bit of kitchen equipment.

The website was a very basic and laughable version of what it is now. Nothing was automated and the 4 chefs we had worked off of one menu. As the bookings came in, we used a round robin method of issuing them. I also had a day job at the time so it was important hosts could still book online. Customer service was also a challenge as most would reach out while I was still at work. We weren’t able to add availability or block off days and as we started to grow, we were taking on too many parties and didn’t have enough chefs. At this point I knew I needed a better solution.

One of our chefs had left the restaurant industry and worked at a marketing company. We’d discuss often about them building a new site with the entire marketplace functionality we desperately needed. After we met to discuss the site, a quote came back at $30k. Although it’s quite the deal at this time, back then it was a fortune. It was a defeating moment and I let them know we’d need to put the project on hold.

About a week later I received a letter from Discover letting me know I was pre-qualified for $30K. It was very strange and seemed like fate. I took it as a sign and hopped on the phone immediately. About a week later I had the money. I gave the green light and it was probably one of the most exciting times in my life. The weekly meetings discussing, checking progress and watching it being built was so much fun.

In total, the initial site was about 40K with adding videos. We’ve since blown this number out of the water several times over with our new site and big updates 2-3 times a year. But we were able to do it because of incremental progress and knowing we weren’t going to be perfect with version 1. We listened to our customers and chefs then made improvements. And largely based on feedback, that’s how we decide to update each cycle.

Bootstrapping a startup is ugly at times and I think it isn’t what new entrepreneurs think of when starting a business. I enjoy the fact I didn’t have to give up a percentage of my company, I still work for myself, we have no debt, we can re-invest profits and we’re growing rapidly. We haven’t entirely ruled out funding to scale faster, but now that we’ve proved our model, we can accept it on our terms.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

This one is always tough to relive. The beginning of Covid was a nightmare for us. We had hundreds of pending parties. We also take pre-payment which made the situation worse. Everyday we’d have 10-15 parties call to cancel their event. We were refunding thousands and thousands of dollars. And of those refunds, we also had to send back processing fees which obviously weren’t refundable to us. So each party we were usually losing between $25-$60.

We held frequent meetings with the chefs to discuss options. Perhaps drop-off services? For some with families it was too risky. And by the time we were able to get any traction it may be too late. It was very tough to come up with a viable option at this point. We had no idea how long the lockdown would last and when the virus would be under control. Would people even invite our chefs back into their homes afterward? It was a very scary moment.

At the end of April we were at $0 and we still had parties left to refund. I had to apply for a few credit cards at that point and for the ones I couldn’t take out cash, I had to place orders on the site. We were hit with more processing fees and once the money cleared we were able to refund. In the end, I racked up over $9,000 in credit card debt.

This was our make or break moment. There were many companies and services pausing refunds. For us, this was never an option. We didn’t want to break the trust we have with our hosts and damage our brand. We take so much pride in customer service and what we do. And there was the fact that our customers needed this money as a potential life-line.

It turned out this was the right decision. In May we booked a couple parties. Not much but it was something. Later, some of the parties that cancelled, re-booked. In June, we had our highest sales month EVER. Then July was our highest month. Then August. We’ve been growing since and this year we’re on track to more than triple last year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://foodfireknives.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodfire_knives/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foodfireknives
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/food-fire-knives/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/knives_food
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_bwvDE3TNapTeVxLy1xuKw/featured
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/food-fire-knives-charleston-2?osq=food+fire+knives