Business

Manhattan Catering spreads the business of food

Jul 5, 2015

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Chef Cody James likes to freak people out.

And then he likes to amaze their palates.

Through Manhattan Catering, James serves up cooking classes, cooking tips, personal chef services, cookbooks and, yes, as the name implies, catering. He creates cultural favorites from around the world and his own favorites. But he most enjoys cooking in front of groups of people in the shared experience of food.

“I love cooking,” James said. “When I put a plate in front of a customer, I want them to freak out at first with weird ingredients and I want them to say, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve got to eat it all.’”

He turned that concept into a business, Manhattan Catering. James founded the company in 2000 with his wife Linda, who does most of the organizing and simplifies the recipes in the cookbooks the company produces.

They only recently made the foray into Maricopa. They moved to Chandler “looking for a nice home at a nice price” and ended up landing in Homestead instead.

Manhattan Catering uses several business platforms. The Jameses host classes in businesses and homes. They started the MeetUp.com group Chef Cody’s Culinary Adventures (now at 130 members). They have online videos for subscribers who want to follow along in making his recipes. And he shares recipes on his Facebook page.

Claire Bullivant, owner of Bead & Berry Coffee House, is bringing in Chef Cody for an event July 11, 1-3 p.m., along with Brent Sherwood of DoTerra.

“He will be preparing three items,” Bullivant said, “and he will be incorporating essential oils into the healthy juices and into the food.” The event will involve quinoa, caviar, free-range chicken and Smoothjuice.

“We will be highlighting interesting ingredients and oils and teaching people how to utilize them,” James said.

The key, he said, is that the recipes are simple but elegant and reasonably priced. Even caviar is within budget if they don’t go overboard, he said.

Born in Milwaukee and raised in Louisiana, Chef Cody was cooking for the public as a teenager. His ran a fried chicken stand called the Chicken Joint. Because he was a self-described brat, his father fired him and sent him over to a friend for an apprenticeship “because they knew they could get more work out of me than my dad could.”

The apprenticeship, he said, wound up being a four-star restaurant with separate rooms dedicated to specific cultural dishes – a German room, a French room, an Italian room.

“So you had a 15-year-old kid frying chicken like a madman, and then someone says, ‘Look over here and do this fun stuff,’” he said.

He did another apprenticeship after high school and then took internships cooking around the world. He was an executive chef before starting his own company.

Chef Cody and Linda James

BUSINESS NAME Manhattan Catering LLC

PERSONAL
Ages: 55 and 57
Hometowns: Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Chef Cody) and Turkey Ridge, South Dakota (Linda)
Now live in: Homestead Eagles Landing
Education: Chef Cody had a three-year apprenticeship program plus multiple international culinary internships in France, England, Germany, Italy, Korea, etc. Linda is completing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
Family: Linda has three kids and eight grandkids in South Dakota, plus her mom and 105-year-old grandma live in Iowa. Both have sisters and brothers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Nebraska and lots of nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews.
Pets: Sammi, their much loved rescue Australian cattle dog
Pet peeves: People who say they will get back to you by a certain time and this date but don’t do it.
Car: 2014 Camaro
Hobbies/Interests: Cooking, golf, drums, R&B music, martial arts, sports, painting and reading.
I wish I was … doing what I love (cooking) in front of a large audience.
Currently reading: Cookbooks using “essential oils”

BUSINESS:
First jobs: Cody had a paper route in Milwaukee. Linda was a farmer’s daughter.
Favorite job: Doing the culinary internships because I got to travel.
Why this business: Cooking is my passion.
Why Maricopa: We came out here looking for a place to rent and decided to make it permanent. Our business travels with us.
Greatest challenge: Being dyslexic
Greatest opportunity: My culinary internships – I learned true culture and cuisine, not bastardized concepts of what their food should be.
What was the best business advice you ever received: Give everybody a chance to prove themselves.