Meet Kharel “Chef Relly” Autrey | Owner/Executive Chef

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kharel “Chef Relly” Autrey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kharel “Chef Relly”, what is the most important factor behind your success?
We pride ourselves on being different and innovative, instead of having a set menu for everyday like most restaurants and food establishment. We use a different approach and have Themed Menu days for every cooking day we are open to the public, Like our #TacoTuesday or #SoulFoodSunday menu days. Success is a path that might not seem successful when you start it but for us our brand has maintained a continued success because we have over 100 menus when can enter and change around for every day of the week it helps us to never get stagnant in our creativity and gives us the ability to keep our content and food we provide to the public new and always eager to try it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In 2015 I was working for the State of California and I used to bring my lunch I would make in the mornings to work, my co-workers would ask where did I buy that from I would tell them I made it so I would then get asked “If I paid you could you make me one for tomorrow because that looks and smells so good” I said sure and then after a month I was selling my lunches to the whole office and making the food for every office event after that. My co-workers did not know I was driving 74 miles a day just to get to work, and at the time we were in a contract standstill so most of the people I worked with were only getting 20 hours if that a month and only getting paid once a month, it was not easy for me because I would need gas every other two days just to make it to work the rest of the week, it was God’s favor that blessed me into seeing that I could sell food professionally so I quit my job in 2019, to invest in my love and vision of cooking for people in my own restaurant. I created an Instagram page, started posting my meals on there, started an LLC, and I now have a location I purchased in March of 2020. I came to learn from all this “it’s not about how you start but how you manage to keep going and finish” I was selling my lunches for the week to my co-workers and haven’t been the same since, in doing this it help me build a brand from the ground up where I now have cooked and sold food in five different countries, and traveled to 10 different states to do food pop-ups and sell food there, it all started with me selling one lunch to one co-worker who just wanted to try my food.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The Smhokin Pot in Carson for food everyday they were here, we’d go have drinks at Mama Por Dios and enjoy that full experience and presentation they give you, we’d visit LA Live and all of the newly DTLA attractions, Santa Monica Pier, Downtown Disney, and The Fairfax district to enjoy the culture of the area.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My father deserves multiple rounds of applause, for instilling in me at the tender age of four the gift of “Know How”. He would teach me how to fix and make things, every Saturday morning that I wasn’t playing a sport or busy with a kid activity. He would take apart or fix various things around the house or cars three times and on the fourth time say “Ok show me what you just learned from watching me do it”, now at four of course this was not what I wanted to do on my weekends. But in showing me how to build ADUs on a home, Install or fix a water heater, fix the basic and more complicated issues with a car, and make various breakfast lunch and dinner meals he provided me with life skills that are priceless to me now that I am a man with a business of my own.

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Facebook: “The Flavor Kitchen”