Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Richter.
Hi Matt, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Growing up in Milwaukee, WI as part of an Italian-American family had to be the only reason I became a chef. Every family get-together was, and still is centered around food. At the age of 17, I started to work in professional kitchens and fell in love with the work. For me, it was the perfect balance of craft and creativity.
I moved to Austin, TX a few years later and worked in/ran some amazing kitchens for over a decade. Feeling burnt out from the grind of restaurants, I started to look for something else to do. I went back to drawing and thought I’d take up graphic design. While doing this, I started to pick up some private dining events with colleagues and eventually on my own. It was reinvigorating to be able to cook on my own terms and focus purely on the hospitality of catering to people’s specific needs and preferences.
I was skeptical that I could make a reliable living this way but I fully invested in myself and made the jump. I started my LLC and slowly built up my social media & website. I created a rough business structure that has steadily grown into running my own company to help highlight and elevate other talented chefs and industry professionals and give them the same opportunity I found for myself.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly, I can’t complain. Overall, I have always sensed the business trending upwards which gives me some piece of mind. That said, there are so many things I don’t know about business structure, accounting and so on. I would all of a sudden get some letter in the mail from some local tax company saying I never paid this tax I hadn’t even heard of. I was trying so hard to be compliant but so genuinely confused over what I should be paying to whom and how often. I knew enough to prepare for these things so it never got the best of me, but it was stressful, nonetheless.
I was very familiar with “imposter syndrome” and did my best to keep it at bay, and still do. I would finish an event and suddenly realize that I had no other events booked in the future and I would start to freak out that maybe that was the last one ever. This was a good kind of stress that kept me hungry and adaptable at finding more business. I just needed to remind myself that that fear isn’t a reality and it was up to me to remove that fear through action.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about La Sagra Dining?
La Sagra is taken from the Italian title for parties centered around food. It might be an abundance of artichokes growing in a certain region leading to a street festival selling anything and everything to do with artichokes. This is not only a lovely, romantic idea to me but a way in which I like to cook. Right now, it’s summer and I’m using and eating so much stone fruit that I might just get sick of it for a whole year..until it’s in season again.
I would like this to be more than just a private chef company but a celebration of food and where it comes from, whether that’s the individual farmers and ranchers that work tirelessly for our most base ingredients, or the chefs who spend hours coaxing the best from these ingredients. I believe people are paying attention to what they eat more than ever before and I want to help drive that trend forward through education. Educating people about their diets and, simultaneously, their palates.
We are a carefully curated collection of industry professionals who do this for the love of it. It’s great to be able to make money doing what you love, but at the end of the day, we’d all do something else if it was only about the money. We believe that message is very clear when you sit down for a dinner with us.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I consume all sorts of podcasts on the regular and most recently, “Stuff You Should Know” did an episode on Co-ops that has me questioning the structure of our business. You never know where inspiration will come from so I tend to shift away from consuming only cooking-related media outside of work. Right now I’m reading Ray Dalio’s “Principles” as well as Rick Rubin’s ” The Creative Act” which are both quite interesting on their own, as well as from an introspective point.
I get a lot of inspiration from dining out, especially with my wife, who is another industry pro. She’s so smart and talented in this industry and will always tell me her honest opinion which is invaluable to me not only for my business but for our relationship, as well.
Other than that, I really try to learn as much as I can about business, marketing, accounting, tax codes, etc. All of that stuff scares and bores me equally but I feel a huge responsibility to my employees to have some understanding of it as our business grows.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lasagradining.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lasagra_dining?utm_source=qr
