Today we’d like to introduce you to Trevor Shankman.
Hi Trevor, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I’m 21 years old. I own and operate a company called “Maria ATL.” Maria is an ultra-exclusive, underground dining experience inspired intimately by my grandmother. I initially began cooking when I was 13 years old after becoming obsessed with the intersection between art and food. My parents were very young when they had me (18 and 17), so my grandmother effectively stepped in as my mother figure for the first 6 years of my life. She was born in Cuba during the 1960s and came to the U.S. when she was just 4 years old. She didn’t speak a word of English and had just the clothes on her back. That, of course, is immensely inspiring to me and, thus, an integral component of my cooking style as well. Each course on our 8-9 course tasting menu at Maria is intimately attached to some nostalgic childhood memory that I have of my grandmother. In this way, Maria is a “full circle” dining experience. All of our seatings are held out of the home that my grandmother designed and built herself.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being a young chef, of course, I’ve received a fair amount of criticism from others in the industry, but I feel that I’ve “earned my stripes” in the sense that I’ve devoted my life to honing in on and refining my craft. Becoming exceptional in any avenue requires that you devote many, many restless nights to learning and “obsessing” over what others might consider “arbitrary” details. Additionally, being a single-person business, among the most difficult aspects of growth is balancing both creative rigor and avoiding, at all costs, “drinking your own Kool-Aid,” as it were. In other words, it’s imperative that you recognize a need in the marketplace and know intimately how to generate demand prior to digging deep on the “creative side.” Of course, the two are mutually reinforcing, but having the ability to navigate both the right and left-brained “you’s” is absolutely invaluable.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
Maria is an incredibly intimate dining experience. It’s effectively a “supper club” but uniquely distinct in its origins. Each course has a meaning, and my objective is to essentially bring each of our guests through a series of short stories throughout the evening.
What matters most to you? Why?
Understanding how much I am truly capable of and how hard I can push myself whilst simultaneously executing with elegance and finesse. I want to understand, at an intimate level, what factors contribute to success and break those down into their most fundamental constituent elements so that I am then able to make a meaningful impact in whatever endeavor I choose to pursue.
Pricing:
- Tickets are priced at $120/person
Contact Info:
- Website: mariaatl.info
- Instagram: @cheftrevorshankman
Image Credits
Jordan Shankman
Petrichor Productions
T.J. Rosemond
