Today we’d like to introduce you to Mondrekio (Drake) Robertson.
Hi Mondrekio (Drake), please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I knew that I really liked to cook since I was a kid, my grandad and uncles would grill on Sundays and everyone would come over. Then when I got older around 7 or 8, I would try out stuff with my mom’s supervision and it just became second nature. Around high school everyone in my family and most of my friends knew I could cook well, but I never looked at it like a career path. Instead of going to culinary school, I went to University of West GA for Computer Science because I thought that would be a more secure career path. Long story short around Jr year after doing an internship with Disney and getting more into my degree I realized that Computer Science wasn’t my calling at all, lol. I decided to take a leap of faith and go to culinary school with nothing but the notion that I’d rather do what I love over doing what I think would make me money.
In school I really just got my skills more polished and learned how to network and get my foot into the door of the culinary field. I started to work at a catering company while in school (Bold American Catering) and they taught me so much in the realm of catering and banquet-style cooking that I still use today in my personal chef business. After graduation, I got one of my dream jobs which was working for the Ritz Carlton in downtown Atlanta. This job taught me that I made the right choice in my career path and also that I wanted to incorporate travel into my everyday life. The Ritz is what lead me to the cruise ship world and I got my first job at sea on The Pride of America (Norwegian Cruise Line) in Hawaii. After working at sea I realized that I could fulfill my dreams of cooking and traveling and from there, I decided to forge my own path.
Moving around more and trying to figure out where I wanted to be I went into the restaurant side of things and this Is where I developed most of my management skills and people skills. The last restaurant I worked in was when I lived in Key West, Florida (Santiagos Bodega). The downside of restaurants is that you can get burned out very fast and it can consume your life a little if you are Executive Chef. Needing a change one of my friends who lived in Denver asked me if I wanted to come out for a change of pace, which would be working at the Broncos Stadium for the suites and some of the players in the off season. This was so cool and I decided to move cross country, but at the same time, I got offered a job from America’s Test Kitchen and Holland America Cruise Line to do live cooking shows on ships. Both jobs were out of my comfort zone and at the time, my personal chef business was on the back burner because I was working so many hours anyway so I took them both, lol. I quickly found out that working on the ship would take me away from land a lot and although I got to visit over 60 countries, I had to let my job at the Broncos stadium go because I was only home about one month out to the year.
After America’s Test Kitchen walked away from Holland America Cruise Line and our contracts ended, I decided to put all of my combined new skills and knowledge into my business and restart it all over. I invested in myself and just reached out to my contacts and it was great, working for myself was amazing. I had clients that were flying me out to do parties everywhere and personal dinner parties all over the country. Then covid happened which wasn’t too bad for me because I moved back to the east coast from Denver to be closer to family and built my business up here. During covid times, I took away aspects of my business like doing parties over 25 people for safety, but I added other things like meal prep kits and meal drop offs. The best thing that came out of this was me starting my podcast “Cooking Your Way Through Life” which connects me to people all over the world with my culinary knowledge and personal experiences. Today I have loads of clients here in Atlanta, and I just started back traveling for clients as well and I specialize in dinner parties and brunches. I also split my time now between land and sea and work for a small cruise company called Uncruise Adventures. Right now, I’m super happy because I get to travel and run my business on my own terms and I honestly have the best clients.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Unfortunately not, I come from super humble beginnings and it was a struggle just to even get to college the first time. While in culinary school, I worked two jobs and went full time so there were days I napped in my car in between classes just to make everything work. I think that those growing pains made me the person that I am today though and it made me appreciate where I am even more. Some other struggles come from just being a black man in a predominantly white man industry, there were definitely some places I worked where I experienced loads of micro-aggressions and some direct racism. There was time where I got my first Executive Chef job which should have been one of the happiest times in my life, but it only lasted about three months. The new Corporate Executive Chef came in and told me that even though things were running smoothly, I didn’t have the experience for the position and if I were to be on the brochure, it would be a “different look” for the company. Then he proceeded to ask me to train my replacement so that they could continue running the location smoothly. This was probably my most challenging boss to date and walking away from this job was my first step in choosing myself over a job.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My business is a personal chef business and I am owner/executive chef of it. I specialize in dinner parties, brunches, restaurant consultation, and cooking classes. Most of my clients in GA probably know me from my smoked crab legs that I offer and I just like to incorporate my client’s wants into each event and make it a super special time. I think what sets me apart from others in my field is that in a social media world, I’m more concerned about you and your event over making a cool post about me cooking for you. At the end of the day, I love cooking and bringing people together with food and a good time so that’s my focus, everything else is icing on the cake. I want to make sure that your party or event is exactly what you want and that the flavors are there first and foremost. Brand wise right I’m most proud of my podcast “Cooking Your Way Through Life” growing in number and listeners because since I work at sea half the year, I think it really keeps me connected to my clients all year round and it has brought me new clients as well. There are loads of amazing chefs, but I think when people get to know me better by listening, they pick me based on my personality as well as my skills. I want the readers to know that if I’m involved in something, I really stand behind it and my brand is built on the back of authenticity. I currently offer small events of 50 or less, and that means dinner parties, office events, and more. I also teach online cooking classes and in person ones, as well as restaurant consulting that helps you either get on track with things or just getting back on track which can be hard for places sometimes because everyone is already working so much there.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The biggest lesson I learned is that if you are working to make others happy, then you will never be fulfilled, and you end up living a life of regret. I had to break out of the idea of I have a culinary degree so since everyone wants me to have a restaurant, I should get one. I’ve never wanted a restaurant and I felt like when I told people that I was letting them down, but eventually I learned that I have to be ok with my decision and I’m the only living with it. So now I just make sure that every decision I make is for me and will I be proud of it in the end, if so then it’s the right decision.
Contact Info:
- Email: chculinarycreations@gmail.com
- Website: https://chculinarycreations.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefhollywood88/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chculinarycreationsllc
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChefHollywood88
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQywIe__jajrNDb_Prqfhgg/featured
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chef-hollywoods-culinary-creations-atlanta?osq=chef+hollywoods+culinary+creations
- Other: https://cookingyourwaythroughlife.buzzsprout.com
