Interview with the Head Chef..."Man"
The last rounds of fireworks are popping and glistening over the Charlotte Uptown skyline and we will all be eating leftover barbeque the rest of the week. Hopefully you’re heating up Cordré’s famous ribs as you read this. My condolences if you missed out. Nonetheless, I invite you to have no shame in the three plates you went back for at the cookout, as I have no regrets. The 4th of July is one of our busiest weekends, and it is our greatest pleasure to assist in making all holidays more than memorable here at Cordré.
Something that I cannot fathom being overlooked, however, is the 2nd of July which marks the exact halfway point through this year, 2022. Can you believe we’re already here? I propose if the 1st of January is the day to list resolutions, then now is the time to check up on them. Everyone has personal goals, even if they go unspoken, and steps towards those goals are always a reason to celebrate. In the process of addressing some frequently asked questions for the website, I captured a moment with Executive Chef Manual Cordray where he sat back and remembered his goals for Cordré. The question dawned on me when we started on the topic of what separates us from other catering companies.
Cordray responded confidently, “We believe in bringing a restaurant to your home or to your event,” among further explanations of what this entails. He ensures that the perfection of dishes over time and keeping our sales service in check takes a team effort like the staff of any successful diner knows. Oftentimes the process of catering is underestimated. The bench of our own team became deeper in my mind as we talked about the marketing specialists, the servers and the cooks, the sales representatives and those behind the phone in the office. This mobile-restaurant approach is nostalgic to Cordray, plating dishes and having our caterers bussing tables at times. Accommodating is an art that not many catering companies have mastered comfortably. It’s an adjective that both Manual Cordray and Events Coordinator Nikki Young use to describe Cordré– not to be confused with negotiation, as prices are solid and curated deliberately.
Our services are carried out with professionalism and creativity is well-alive in the development of our dishes. I’ll never forget that one word I always heard Young say when someone would approach her and ask what kind of food we serve. “Everything” she’d blurt out with a smile. I’d laugh quietly to myself knowing what it translates to (“We will always do our absolute best to give you what you need”). In order for Cordré to continue to be the chameleon it has been event after event, Young and Cordray express how vital it is for clients to fill out the questionnaire provided for our services.
“If you fill out the questionnaire, you will see what the expectation is from us, and then we can better accommodate you and eliminate a lot of time. Fill the questionnaire out, 100%” Cordray shares. An “everything” kind of company needs to know everything about what the client desires. Coming with a budget and a stable idea of what kind of food you’d like is one of the best ways clients can help us do our job. Of course, satisfying the customer is always the goal of each event– a smile in a corporate meeting or a mean mug on the dance floor because the music is almost as good as the food.
On the topic of those goals we all should take another look at, I decided to ask Cordray about his plans for the company in the future.
“The plan to grow the company in the future is to get team members involved that buy into Cordré. We will set it up so that there's an opportunity for them to grow with the company as well. Knowing that Cordré is a living breathing thing, and we continue to treat it as such, then it will keep expanding,” he says.
It did not surprise me to hear that Cordray’s goals for the company mostly entailed finding a way for everybody to thrive through his business. We recognize the role the client plays in this dream of ours as well, so book your next event with us to bring our restaurant experience to you.
Written by Madison Smith