An Inspired Chat with Eliezer Rodriguez

We recently had the chance to connect with Eliezer Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Eliezer , thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
There’s been a lot of proud moments lately, but one of the biggest ones was being able to contribute more in the community with cooking classes and food education to address the problems of food insecurity in our Capital City Area in PA, I have been able to do a lot more of those. That’s definitely one of the proudest moments I have experienced recently.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Chef Eli is a Puerto Rican native personal Chef, Central PA’s premier traveling Chef, & Food Security Advocate.

With more than 17 years of experience in the culinary world, he operates Koki Latin Cuisine, traveling the state cooking for clients in the comfort of their home or at the site of the event.

In his time off from the business, he works with local non profits, farms and help other community organizations to address food security, provide chef/cooking services and cooking classes for underprivileged communities, families,seniors and medical organizations targeting the comunity’s food knowledge through skill development, time management, healthy cooking and how to make a healthy meals on a budget.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
The biggest relationship that shaped my perception of myself, is my wife she saw a lot of potential in me before I even saw it myself. She believed in me when I had nothing, she helped me a lot to see things differently, she poured into me a lot of emotional intelligence as well.
To this day she is still by my side helping with my business ventures, providing insights, art & organization skills to make my business better , she is the perfect partner.
I’m immensely grateful for her.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Back in 2019 I was ready to just leave the restaurant industry for good, I was tired burnt out and tired of all the problems that plagued the industry like low pay, crazy work hours, no work life balance. I knew it was going to be difficult to leave an trade that I loved and was the only thing I’ve done since high school, but by the time Covid came about and got laid off my work, I took a break (I think we all did lol!) after the break I was ready to start anew so I started to build the foundation for my business, gladly 4 years later my business Koki Latin Cuisine still works providing private restaurant experiences in all throughout the PA Capital Area.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
I feel inspired by every day by amazing local folks doing the work in our community, but If I need to choose someone I will definitely feel very inspired my Puerto Rican Chef Carlos Portela (James Beard winner) about his philosophy about cooking, and the passion about elevating Puerto Rican gastronomy, another person is Mexican Chef Cristina Martinez (another James Beard winner) her story is very inspiring as well, very representative to what we go as immigrants in the US

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I love this question, I think legacy is more about the impact that you have with people in your community, than building any kind of material wealth, I hope when people ask about me when I’m no longer here. My kids can say confidently that I made a positive impact in someone’s life even if just one person I helped them change their trajectory or teach them something useful that for me is what is all about impact you have in people through the course of your journey.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Photo Credits, Savannah George, Slice of Lime Photography, Collab Create HBG

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