IAM1112- Chef Takes the Hassle Out of Dining Out

Chris Spear, is the chef and owner of Perfect Little Bites, an in-home personal chef business based in Frederick, Maryland. He’s also the host of the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast and the man behind the culinary networking organization of the same name. A graduate of Johnson & Wales University, Chris has been working in the food service industry for almost 30 years.⁣

• CEO Hack: My network
• CEO Nugget: Get out there and do it
• CEO Defined: Being able to be my true self and run a business with integrity

Website: http://perfectlittlebites.com/

http://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Instagram: @chefswithoutrestaurants
@perfectlittlebites

Twitter: @chefsworestos
@prfctlitlbites

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Transcription

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00:24 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:51 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a perfect guest on the show today. I have Chris Spear of Perfect Little Bites. Chris, it's great to have you on the show.

01:00 – Chris Spear

Hey, thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to this.

01:02 – Gresham Harkless

Excited to have you on as well too and have been looking forward to it as well. Before we jump in, I wanted to read a little bit more about Chris so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Chris is a chef and owner of Perfect Little Bites, an in-home personal chef business based in Frederick, Maryland. He's also the host of the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast and the man behind the culinary networking organization of the same name. I graduated from Johnson and Wales University.

Chris has been working in the food service industry for almost 30 years. And he's a previous contributor to our CB Nation site and a neighbor in the DMV area. And I love his passion and the way that he's been able to create a network and community around the things that he's most passionate about. So Chris, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:44 – Chris Spear

I am ready.

01:45 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, well, let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:53 – Chris Spear

Yeah, so I'm in the food business and I've always wanted to be a cook or a chef for as long as I can remember. There's nothing else I wanted to do. So the only thing I've ever done is work in kitchens. I started cooking at the age of 16. I went to culinary school for 4 years and got my bachelor's degree for 4 years in culinary arts. And then I got out into the industry and started cooking. And I've been doing that for 20-something years now professionally, but I never really worked, well, I never worked in a restaurant. I was gonna say never really, I haven't worked in a restaurant, which people think is funny. They say, you've been in the culinary industry for 30 years and you've never worked in a restaurant.

No, I've worked in catering companies, I worked in retirement communities, I've worked in hospitals, I worked at IKEA. And I just wanted to blaze a different path. And about 15 years ago, I had this idea of being an in-home personal chef. It came out of something I was doing at a catering company I was working for. And it just sat in my head. And about 10 years ago, I thought let's give it a try. I mean, it's something you can do as a side hustle, and see if it works out. And it did. And I balanced a full-time job with that for about 5 years. And then 5 years ago I quit the job I'd been at for a decade to start my own in-home personal chef business.

03:11 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate that especially the part about blazing your trail because I think throughout I guess the years, especially this year, I think there's been a monkey wrench in everything we thought was normal and this is how it should be. And I love that you've been able to be in that trailblazer path and be able to gradually build into what you're doing now. So I appreciate that.

03:31 – Chris Spear

Well, industries evolved so much. When I went to culinary school, I graduated in 98. We barely even had the internet and now looking at all the things you can do in food. I mean, I went to culinary school thinking I was going to leave and be a cook and then a chef at a restaurant. Nobody even really explained to me that you could go work at a retirement community or do research and development. And now there's the whole added thing of being a content creator. I mean, people are making money just from home, working with companies and doing the marketing kind of stuff and blogging. And that wasn't even something you dreamed of. So being open along the way to see what new things were out there.

04:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that there's a, I think it's a quote that's saying, you know, the way to truly involve or the power is in not being like a rock and being solid and never changing, but being like water, being able to kind of form, being able to change and evolve and understand that things won't always be as they always have been. So I think you have nailed that.

04:33 – Chris Spear

Yeah, yeah, I would agree. I think there's no shame in changing your mind. A lot of people, I feel, get stuck on this idea, especially once there's a sunk cost of, I went to culinary school, they feel like they have to then see it through. Otherwise, they're a quitter. It's like, no, it's okay to change it. If you want to leave the industry completely and become an accountant, that's okay too, if that's what you should be doing.

04:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I don't think we keep in mind how transferable certain skills are. Even if you decide to be an accountant, you went to culinary school, who says you couldn't do accounting for, you know, food entrepreneurs or something along those lines? So we just have to change the way that we're thinking and looking at other different things. So definitely love that you've been able to do that. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear how you're working with your clients and how you serve them. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and what that looks like?

05:20 – Chris Spear

So what I want to do is bring a full restaurant experience into your home. You know a lot of personal chefs do weekly meal prep. Some of them have 1 client. What I want to do is just replace going out to eat. So I'm going to build you a customized menu. So I want to find out about you, the people coming to dinner, whether it just be a spouse or a small dinner party. What do you like? What don't you like? Any allergies? And then I'm going to build you a customized menu around that with a lot of choices. There'll be a dozen soups, a dozen salads, et cetera.

And then I show up to the house. I bring my cooking equipment. I bring all the china silverware I'm going to set your table, and then I'm going to cook the food fresh there, and then serve it to you like you're in a restaurant. And that was something I was doing for 10 years before the pandemic. And then this past year, especially as people were becoming less reluctant to go out to dine, it seemed less risky for them to just have 1 person come into their house and then go out to a big crowded restaurant. And that's been great because I think a lot of people who had never done this before now have discovered this and I'm hoping that it's going to be a continuing trend.

06:21 – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and this could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both, but what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

06:30 – Chris Spear

I think that in the cooking world, my creativity, 1 of the things that I've always said is I don't want to make your food that you can get at a restaurant, which is a hard sell because a lot of times people come and they say, I want a good steak and I love a loaded mashed potatoes and I can do some of that And I have to do a lot of that But what I want is people to have a unique dining experience where they're having my dishes I think what we get into is, you know you go out to a restaurant because you want to eat that restaurant's food.

But when people hire a personal chef, they're thinking that you can recreate anyone else's dishes and that all of a sudden, I'm going to be making chicken parm or I'm going to be making whatever from their favorite restaurants. I don't want to just be interpreting other people's work. I want to be doing my own thing. And again, like kind of showcasing my creativity and what I'm doing. So I know not all personal chefs go off and do as much of their stuff. A lot of them bend over backward to make what the client wants. Not that I don't want to make what the client wants, but I want them to understand that I'm, I have my unique offerings.

07:39 – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

07:50 – Chris Spear

I'm going to go back to saying my network, the power of networking. I found so much success, not only with Chefs Without Restaurants becoming its own thing but with my chef business, having the support system. For me, I'm getting a lot of referrals from other people in my network. I'm able to get so much information for free. Instead of having to pay to get another degree or take a course, people can help out. But also, it's lonely when you have your own business, especially if it's a small business. I mean, I went from running a kitchen where I had 125 employees to no co-workers overnight.

And I just missed the camaraderie and being able to commiserate and share experiences with other people, but finding a network, a group of people, even if it's like 5 people on the internet that you've never met in real life, I think if you can connect with people, that's what I would recommend. And you hear all this thing in business about, you're the sum of the people you spend your time with.

And I think to find those people who you want to be like, or who are doing cool things, or just super supportive, like positive people. I think you spend too much time with negative people, and they bring you down. I had people in my life I had to cut out because they thought it was irresponsible that,  I had a wife 2 kids, and a mortgage and I was leaving a secure job to start my business. And there's only so many times you can hear these people tell you you're making a mistake and that you need to just separate yourself and find the right people who are going to support you.

09:19 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. This could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something if you were to happen to a time machine you would tell your younger business self.

09:32 – Chris Spear

I don't want to use the expression just do it, but that kind of mentality of what's the worst that could happen? I mean, go try it if there's a way you can do whatever you want to do and it's not going to put your whole life in turmoil or at risk and what's the shame? What's the harm in trying? And for me, it was starting a business on the side where it's like, okay, I can do this. I can dedicate a little money and some hours. If it doesn't work, okay, I don't have to leave my job. I can stay here. But that voice in your head that's telling you all the reasons why you shouldn't do it, that's just your self-preservation, right? And just get out there and try it. Do whatever it is that you feel your calling is and see how it goes.

10:17 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, and I appreciate that. And that's why I love a startup mentality that you can have to an idea that you have. And I think, especially in this day and age, we don't have to go from 0 to 60 or 0 to a hundred in terms of building a business. You can do it on the side, you can test it out, and you can do a questionnaire to see if anybody would potentially want to buy those products and services. So I think if we start to, you know, test out those ideas or those hypotheses that we have, then we can start to lean more into that business or whatever that idea is. But just doing it doesn't mean taking out a bank loan and then starting directly from that space.

10:51 – Chris Spear

Well, start it before you need it. If you're working a job and you're getting frustrated and you feel like you're going to quit, like maybe now is the time to figure out that exit strategy before you just have to leave where you're at because of frustration, because that's where I was at. I was at a job that I didn't enjoy anymore. And I took a deep breath and said, okay, I'm gonna figure out this personal chef thing. It's been bugging me for several years. And like I said, it took me 5 years to get out, but I decided tomorrow I'm gonna start, you know, and I think everyone can do that.

11:21 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that because I think so many times too, we don't hear of the journey, we don't hear the steps that it takes, we don't hear of the 5 years, we just see where you are, the success that you've been able to have, and we don't understand that journey and how you gradually built up from there and I think so many times too that we can allow our you know our fears and sometimes the fears of our friends and people around us to stop us before we even get started. So just doing it is so huge.

11:50 – Chris Spear

Yeah, there's a million cases where it didn't work, right? But there are also a million cases where it did work. So again, like your program to focus on the negative, like that's just how we're wired, right? And try to train yourself to start looking for positive stories. And you'll find a bunch of reasons why you should do it.

12:08 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Chris, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:20 – Chris Spear

It means being able to be my true self and run a business the way I want to be, which means having a lot of integrity. I've had to work in a lot of places where I had to do things that I didn't necessarily agree with because that was part of the job. And now I can run my own business on my terms.

12:45 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that definition because I think it even speaks to what we talked about and what you talk about on your podcast is figuring out how you want to build your business, whether it be integrity, values, or so many different things, you don't have to run the business this way. You get to be like an artist or even be like a chef and create the recipe that you want to create in your life and your business. And I think when you have that power to be able to do that, and then you take the steps to do that, then the world is your oyster.

13:11 – Chris Spear

Yeah, I think anytime you feel like you're powerless, that's not a good situation. I think that happens to almost everyone who's working a job; you're not 100% in control. Having your own business. I mean, you might have to do things you don't love but ultimately you're in control whether or not you work with that client or, you know, go in this direction. It's your choice.

13:31 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I don't know if you would feel this way, but I almost feel like a lot of that powerlessness might come from not being aware. And that's why I love the podcast and everything you do, because once you hear somebody's story, like, oh, they did X, Y, and Z, maybe I can do it because you start to realize that is a reality and that is something that can happen

13:49 – Chris Spear

Yeah, I just had a guest on my show recently who also podcasts and he has some amazing guests and I was like Not to discredit them, but I was like, how did they get those guests? Like did they just ask them that night I just decided to start emailing all the people I wanted to have on the show, and all these people said yes. But it was just thinking, like, wow, if this person could get those guests, I'm sure I could get those guests on my show. But for whatever reason, I just hadn't worked up the courage to reach out to those my stretch goals, who do I want to have on the show who I think is maybe above my reach and just go for it?

14:26 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, and I appreciate you sharing that because to me, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, it sounds like that imposter syndrome where sometimes we can have, where we cannot realize that we are doing awesome things and we can reach out to whoever that guest is or even start that business or do whatever that thing is. And sometimes we're waiting for that perfect time, but We might already have everything we need to be able to take those steps. We just need to take that action.

14:48 – Chris Spear

We talk about imposter syndrome in almost every episode because so much of people's perception of the food industry is like chefs in restaurants. And so many of us feel like we're not quote-unquote, real chefs. You know, even these guys that I admire and look at, they get it too because they're not working in a Michelin-star restaurant. They haven't won a James Beard award. They don't have a cookbook. Things that people on the street, everyone says like, oh, you're a chef. Where do you work? And then you tell them you cook in a retirement community and they're like you can't even convince them that you're doing really important, awesome stuff. So yeah, we talk about that almost weekly.

15:27 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. So that's why I appreciate you sharing that. And of course, you cover that, you know, in the show. So Chris truly appreciates that. And I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, of course, how best they can subscribe to your podcast, find out about the organization and all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:47 – Chris Spear

I don't think I have anything to add. You can find me on the internet at Chefs Without Restaurants. So my podcast is called Chefs Without Restaurants. You can find me at chefswithoutrestaurants.com and .org. And then my other business, Perfect Little Bites. If you go to perfectlittlebites.com or on my Instagram, you can see my work and what I'm going out there making. So I'd love to connect with people, anyone who's interested in food, cooking, or any of that, come find me.

16:13 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes as well. So thank you so much, Chris, for all the awesome things you're doing and telling your story so transparently and authentically and being you and reminding us of how important it is for us to be us as well too. Thank you so much again, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:29 –  Outro