Our Noire Kitchen

ON THE MENU

Our Noire Kitchen

PREMIER PERSONAL CHEF & CATERING SERVICES

By James Coulter Photos by Laures Dockery

Kasean Dockery and his wife, Laures, took a leap of faith when they started Our Noire Kitchen, but it was by no means a blind leap. Kasean served more than 13 years of culinary experience at Walt Disney World. He also had plenty of experience and exposure from his grandparents, who had owned and operated their own popular eatery.

Upon being furloughed last year, Kasean decided to team up with his wife and start their own business. What began as a startup at Catapult Lakeland has quickly evolved into a pop-up kitchen that appears at farmers markets and other events throughout the county. With an innovative menu of items with big, bold flavors prepared by top-rated culinary professionals, their chef and catering service, along with their food photography, offers great food you cannot find anyplace else. "Our Noire Kitchen is the best personal chef and catering service between Tampa Bay and Central Florida, and we’re ready to spice up your life with our bold, innovative menu," their website states. "Hiring a personal chef means taking the pressure off of you to have a delicious, well-prepared meal. Offering top-rated meal prepping and catering services at the best prices, we promise every occasion will be something worth celebrating with food as amazing as ours."

We recently sat down with Laures, who works with the marketing, booking, and photography while her husband serves as the chef. We asked about her and her husband’s business. This is what she had to say

Q: Tells us about Our Noire Kitchen. What does your service have to offer? For example, you offer a pop-up kitchen.

What exactly is that?

A: Initially, we were attending a farmer's market and community events. We

decided to start participating and collaborating with other small businesses in Winter Haven and Lakeland, at other venues like coffee shops and other places that did not have a food element. We knew it would be a positive addition to offer our services while they offered what they are good at. Together, we can combine our clientele and create a bigger, better event by being there together. We have done pop-ups at Haven Coffee Roasters and the Poor Porker. We have some new ones in Lakeland we will be working on in the months to come like Swan Brewing and Yard on Mass, as well as a bar in Winter Haven that, once we have permitting figured out, we will be popping up there, too. The main point of that is to offer our menu options because, a lot of the time, people are always looking for something new and different. It is like I have been here before and had the same thing plenty of times, and people want to try different things. We offer new menu items based on where we are and what time of day we are serving.

Q: How did you and your husband get started with your business, and how has it been going since then?

A: I would say it was time which played a big role in [our business]. My husband was furloughed from Disney. He had worked there for 13 years. And I was wrapping up grad school when the pandemic hit. We were both home with time we had never had before, and I always told him we should start our own business and buy our own food truck. It was a dream of his. He is an amazing chef. I was wondering how I could get people to believe what I was saying [about him and his cooking] and actually book us for events to turn this dream into a reality. I took a food photography class because I believe people eat with their eyes. I really wanted to capture what he did very well. I invested in the class, and we started a food blog page. From there, the following January, we started doing public events with our smoker, and it grew from there. So we did farmer's markets and community events. We started to appear at chef events. Business has been growing and becoming very steady. Especially the last year. The community has come to recognize our name and what we offer.

Q: What do you have to offer that sets you apart from other catering services? What makes your business unique and sets your food apart from other similar eateries?

A: It is the flavor combination that we come up with. We did not want to do the norm because you can get that anywhere. We tried to be creative in the additions that we offer. The flavor is number one. When people taste it, they are like, "Oh my goodness!", and they try to guess what is in it and how it comes out the way it does. Closely after that is presentation, how we put it all together to [make it look appetizing].

Owners; Chef Kasean Dockery and his wife, Laures.

Q: For as long as you and your husband have owned and operated your business, what allowed it to be as successful as it has been?

A: I would say being flexible and the opportunities that have been presented to us. We never want to put ourselves in a box in that "this is what we do and this is the only way we do it." Trying to understand what people's vision is as far as our clients. Is it possible to accommodate them? How can we do it? How can we offer our own unique twist to it? Also, just being a really big believer that God will provide for us because our faith is what got us into this, and we felt there was so much more for our talents and other unique ways to blend them together. We are really leaning on that faith and see that it will turn out awesome. We don't know how it will get there, but we will show up and do our best. With every opportunity that we get. From there on out, the word of mouth has been tremendous.

Q: What have customers enjoyed about what you have to offer? And what can new customers expect from what you offer?

A: Because they are following us, we have some unique items that people have been looking for, but they can know they can expect something different just because we can change things up pretty awesome. I tell them that, too. You may see something at this event, but you may not see this particular dish for another few weeks because we rotate things out and want to try different ideas.

Q: What motivates you to do what you do at Our Noire Kitchen? What is your reason for getting up in the morning and doing your job?

A: I love the flexibility of doing what we want. We have full creative range to come up with dishes and come up with how we want things to look. We get to partner with the businesses that we want to partner with. There are no limitations on these things, it is a manner of other businesses and events and what we want people to experience, and it is exciting we can push forward and make it happen. I just love that.

Q: What are your big plans for the future?

A: Our next goal will be to have a food truck. Eventually, we will have an event space at our own kitchen area after we leave Catapult Lakeland. It would be a space to host events and markets and things like that. It will be a different experience than what is normally offered in Polk County.

UPCOMING POP-UPS TO ENJOY: • Fri, Jun 3rd at 6:30 pm is Cooking Demo at The Treasured Olive; 3-course meal and wine pairings with Our Noire Kitchen • Tues, Jun 7th from 11-2 pm is Tasty Tuesday at Catapult’s Patio Downtown Lakeland (Every Tuesday w/ rotating menu) • Sun, Jun 26th from 11-3 pm is A Taste of Brunch with Our Noire Kitchen at The Poor Porker

For more information about Our Noire Kitchen, visit their website at: https://ournoirekitchen.com. To schedule a consultation or an event with them, contact hello@ ournoirekitchen.com or call 954-805-0259.