We were lucky to catch up with Mike Harden recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mike, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

One of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken was starting my current business, Caribbean Grill. The whole story starts more than a decade ago. I graduated from college in 2005, and then completed my MBA in 2009, both from the University of Illinois. After school, I worked professionally in Information Technology before brainstorming from my apartment kitchen table what would later become Caribbean Grill. Officially, Caribbean Grill started in the summer of 2010, debuting at a local food festival that year. This is when I really began to take the idea of going into food service seriously, so the festival was supposed to be a one-time thing, just for the experience and also to test the market for Caribbean food as a concept I could scale. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and I knew after that weekend that something special had been created. It wasn’t long after that I quit my full-time IT management job — in the middle of an economic recession, and planning a wedding with my now wife, no less — to fully dedicate my energy toward growing the business. The festival led me to do catering; catering led to a carry-out lunch service, which let to a food truck; and the food truck led to a brick-and-mortar restaurant location. This was me betting on myself and I thank God that I followed where I was being led and it worked out!

Mike, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My story is a pretty unique one and is definitely still being written. I’m an IT guy by education and didn’t attend culinary school for formal training. However, one of my earliest memories of choosing a career was me saying I wanted to be a chef. I use to make pretend “recipes” as a kid (that would turn out awful), but I took them very seriously. Aside from that, I have exceptionally good cooks throughout my family. Both of my parents, my sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunts: everyone can cook.

My greatest inspiration though, comes from my grandmothers, both from Arkansas, both coming to Chicago during the Great Migration and both amazing cooks in their own right. It was my maternal grandmother who would have the greatest influence on me. She was the head cook at the church we grew up in, so every event, she was in the kitchen and cooking in high volume but still maintaining that made-from-scratch high quality. Always seasoned but never salty. Satisfying, filling comfort food. I grew up spending a lot of time with her in and out of the kitchen, while my parents worked, so I was able to see the impact that food — specifically her recipes & flavors — had on the people around us.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think the best story from any of our journey’s that illustrates resilience is surviving pandemic life over the the past 2 years. It’s a testament to us all to have gone through something so disruptive yet being able to adjust and adapt in order to continue to thrive. From a business standpoint, having to make so many operational changes to remain safe and open, despite a laundry list of unknowns, has been nothing short of a blessing. We’ve all endured so much physical, mental & emotional stress as a result of the pandemic so I am grateful to be experiencing life on the other side of it all.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The irony of this question is that it was also the pandemic that led me to pivot and pursue building my personal brand as an aspect of business. If nothing else, the pandemic exposed how vulnerable even the most established businesses could be. So one takeaway for me was to use my business skill set in a way that gave me more control and autonomy than traditional ways of doing business. From that, I started an Instagram account and begin posting videos of me cooking food at home for my family and friends. As time went on, I became more intentional and strategic about sharing content on social media and using the platform to create new professional opportunities for myself, while still working within the culinary space. In addition to Instagram, I’ve branched out to having an online presence on my own website (chefmikehard.com) Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and even Pinterest. Across all platforms I’m known as “@chefmikehard” and have amassed a following of nearly 100k supporters!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chefmikehard.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/chefmikehard/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChefMikeHard/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQlNiEN8r44V1UCm63Ws-rw/featured
• Other: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@chefmikehard

Image Credits
Photo by Mike Harden (@chefmikehard)