Today we’d like to introduce you to Deundre Zachery.
Deundre, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story begins in 1975 or so in my grandmother Effie D Hodge’s Kitchen in Vivian, LA. I watched her cook 3 hot meals a day from scratch for our family. Not only did she cook the food, but we either grew it or raised about 80% of the food we consumed. We are a big family, she had 10 children and 26 grandchildren. I was a sponge in the kitchen with grandma, being very careful not to get caught sneaking into her pots to see what was cooking. We were never allowed to disturb her pots, only Paw Paw had the privilege. So being the mischievous young boy I was I’d time my peaks during her bathroom breaks. These memorable days instilled a love, a passion for cooking, well eating first then came cooking. As I got older I was drawn to the kitchen, I began cooking my own breakfast at about seven years old, simple things like Grits, biscuits, pancakes and of course eggs. During the summer I spent many days home alone as an only child so cooking for my mother was my thing. I always loved the look on her face when dinner was ready when she came home from work. I found new guinea pigs in my college friends, we’d hang out at my house mostly so I’d always find myself on the grill barbecuing. We were broke college students so I had to use my resourcefulness because we never had all the necessary seasonings or ingredients, so I improvised. It actually taught me flavor profiles which is a great tool for me now.
After college, in my early to late 20’s I lived in Arizona and there was not much good home cooked creole/ cajun restaurants so guess what…yeah I cooked. My place became the destination on Sunday’s for all my buddies. I’d cook full home cooked Louisiana style Sunday dinner, it was my way of dealing with the absence of my family. In 1999, I moved to Dallas, TX to be near my daughter. She attended a school in North Dallas so I got a condo next door to the school. It wasn’t long until I was at a local car wash and there was a guy with a BBQ pit, he was selling plates. I became a regular customer on Saturday afternoons, I loved to support him. This led me to have a BBQ trailer built, initially my plan was to do as I saw others do. After trying it out, I determined it was not what I wanted to do. I changed to seeking small informal catering for small parties. This lead to a few corporate clients that supported me. I worked full time as a Financial Services Executive so this was something I was doing a few times a month to earn extra income but more so to learn food service, as my ultimate dream is to own a restaurant. I continued to pick up a few clients here and there over a 15 year period maintaining existing clients too. In April 2017, life changed for me professionally, The job that I planned to retire from in five years, well let’s just say it abruptly ended. I woke up faced with a huge challenge, I did what I know to do, which is pray. I was comforted, by the holy spirit. I was lead to use my savings and go all in on a food truck, when I say all in…I mean all chips to the center of the table.
I didn’t know how I would stock the truck as I had no funds. I did have faith though, it’s what gets me through each day as a minority underfunded small business owner. We have been close to shutting the doors on a couple occasions but by the grace of God we are still here. We have a unique business plan and model that we believe will lead to multiple locations in multiple states. We utilize Social Media to build our brand and to introduce the world to Ragin Cajun Louisiana Kitchen. This is my passion, my heart is on this and you’ll taste the love in the food. We cook to order so your food is always fresh, and we cook from scratch. We pride ourselves in the quality ingredients we serve to our customers, we source locally whenever it’s available. Our Seafood comes from my home state of Louisiana…we like to say it was swimming yesterday, yeah it’s that fresh. Come see for yourself.
Great, 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?
Our largest challenge has been capital, more precisely the lack of capital.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Ragin Cajun Louisiana Kitchen – what should we know?
I am most proud that I 100% own my business.
We are a scratch kitchen on a food truck I think that’s what sets us apart from the rest.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
We take pride in our customer service. We understand without the loyalty of our customers, we won’t be here long. We love to hear from a customer that they were referred by another customer. Our customers are our best marketing partners. We appreciate them and we show them often.
Pricing:
- Most dishes on the food truck is $10
Contact Info:
- Website: www.foodtrucksin.com/ragincajunla
- Phone: 3185178619
- Email: ragincajunlafoodtruck@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ragincajunla
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ragincajunla
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