Jeff Riley is the owner of Chef Jeff Catering, a New Hope company that caters events for weddings, corporate gatherings, and much more.
Born in South Minneapolis, Riley grew up in the inner city, where nearly every day tragedy unfolded.
“There were a lot of things going on, but at the same time I felt like I was protected and shielded from some of those less glamorous ordeals,” Riley says before then infusing his signature humor.
“I’ll say this: I’m so original to South Minneapolis that sometimes I think I’m the only one left over from that time period,” he adds with a chuckle.
Riley’s infectious optimism is on full display as we talk in his New Hope office, but as a teenager, Riley was lost, his future far from predestined, and eventually he started to make some questionable decisions.
This included selling drugs.
“That’s when my entrepreneurial days developed,” he jokes, but Riley also got a conventional day job and was immediately attracted to the benefits of working.
“I liked being able to buy my own clothes, and that was back in the day when everyone was dressing very sharp.”
Over the years, Riley began to dabble in culinary endeavors, but his foray into food was tabled when he entered rehab.
After exiting treatment, Riley says he became more spiritual, turning his life over to God, which soon after led to him returning to cooking.
He didn’t always plan on owning a catering company, but after seeing jobs fall through due to the misconduct of other business owners, he decided to begin his own catering company.
“You start it,” Riley responds when asked how to become a caterer, exhibiting a confidence that can be traced to making a concerted effort to turn his life around.
“Back then, I was going through a lot of challenges, and while they were hard, they were also positive. I started to see and really believe that I could do anything in the food business. I wasn’t relegated to being a line cook or even a chef.”
Riley’s efforts did not go unnoticed within his community.
For a man who was once battling the rigors of addiction, he now was a certified business owner who was setting an example for local kids yearning for leadership and direction.
“I tried to instill in these kids that you can make legit money and have a future in business if you do the right things,” Riley says.
That was twenty years ago, and while Riley found initial success, establishing and maintaining a catering service since then hasn’t been easy.
The last two decades have been challenging, but they were made easier when Riley’s daughter Amber joined the team, her business savvy a welcome sight for Riley, who knew how to hustle, but not necessarily how to turn a business into a machine.
“She [Amber] was from a corporate setting, and she came in with a lot of knowledge and energy, and the reality is she elevated us in so many ways,” Riley emphasizes.
“On paper, I’m the owner of this company, but we are only here because of the people around me. The ideas that my team comes up with are fantastic, and I’m blessed that I’ve been smart enough to listen.”
Adds Riley:
“And that’s the way I wanted to develop the business. I wanted to be able to train people to the point that they became so good at their job that they could teach someone else how to do it, and then they could rise up within the company.”
It’s at this point that Chloe Rock, Riley’s revered executive assistant, joins the conversation.
“What we do here is quite revolutionary, not only in terms of giving people opportunities, but also with how we customize our service to give an abundance of options to our clients,” she says.
For context, when a client visits their website, they are treated to a bevy of different menus.
“None of which are cookie-cutter,” Chloe mentions.
Once a client decides which direction they would like to go, Chef Jeff Catering sets up a meeting to collaborate with a prospective client and finalize details so that on the day of the event, everything operates at peak efficiency.
“We will also handle the logistics side of things, stuff like how many buffet lines they need, and how to make that event run more smoothly,” Chloe says.
“We’re very meticulous in our approach because we also don’t want to bring too much food that then gets wasted and costs the client more money than they need to spend.”
That client base Chloe references often consists of weddings, corporate accounts, and private events.
“We’ve been doing this for twenty years, so we have a really good idea of what works and what is less optimal for a client,” says Jeff Riley, reentering the fray.
“Our goal is to be more relational than transactional. We want our clients to feel taken care of at every level of the process, which is why we are so diligent about following our systems and processes.”
As far as price, clients of Chef Jeff Catering can expect to spend around $10-25 per person, so if 100 people attend an event, the cost will likely range anywhere between $1,000-$2,500.
“The easiest way to explain our pricing is that we charge by the serving,” Chloe says.
In the coming years, Chef Jeff Catering will undoubtedly continue to serve patrons of the Twin Cities in the same way that has ingratiated them to so many already.
But like most entrepreneurs, Jeff Riley is constantly tinkering, implementing small changes that allow him to ultimately offer the best catering experience to his clients.
And yes, he would like to expand the enterprise.
“We usually grow faster than we anticipate,” Riley says with another hearty laugh, recognizing that his struggles are evidence of a business on the rise.
Adds Chloe:
“Making more inroads in the corporate space and landing more of those types of accounts is always a goal as well.”
“To do that, we’re trying to offer a more robust menu and different creative elements that will appeal to those types of clients.”
Still, at the end of the day, Riley’s objective remains helping people.
Everything else, well, that’s just dessert.
“Food is the vehicle that allows us to carry out our mission,” Riley says.
“That’s because food brings people to the table and creates community. I’ve gone through hard times. I know others have gone through hard times. I also know a lot of people who don’t really like each other, but there’s just something magical and powerful about food, in the sense that when you sit down and share a meal with somebody, everything else just seems to not matter that much. Working off that, food provides a feeling and an experience, and the more we can bring that sensation to other people, the more that I believe that we’re continuing to make an impact on our community.” QS
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