Brandon Blackwell is a chef and co-owner of Elysian Events Catering. Brandon and his wife, Jen, got started in catering with their own wedding! They share a lot of career experience in the restaurant and hospitality industries, along with a true passion for creating incredible food.
Brandon is a Chef whose culinary career began 19 years ago and includes Sous Chef, Chef, butcher, and owner roles. When catering spectacular events, he benefits from his wife Jen’s many years of experience in fine dining restaurants including as a Sommelier, General Manager, and owner.
Brandon and Jen opened Elysian Events Catering in 2013, shortly after their own wedding. Elysian’s focus is on traditional New Orleans cuisine with a twist. Made with seasonal and local ingredients, Elysian’s food is fresh, inspired, and delicious. Brandon and Jen enjoy working with their excellent team to create memorable events for their clients. One of the more unique offerings available with their catering is a mobile oyster bar option for their events, and they also offer a drink menu, including cocktails and mocktails, with bartending services available.
Brandon lives with Jen in New Orleans. In their free time, they enjoy traveling, spending time with family, dining out, and catching great live music.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
As a catering company co-owner, I have no trouble making my day productive! A typical day can involve everything from creating menus, food prep, meeting with clients, visiting venues, setup, serving, and takedown.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I bring ideas to life with team brainstorming sessions. The collaborative process assures that everyone is heard and we can blend the creative and the practical to turn a vision into reality.
What’s one trend that excites you?
One exciting trend in the catering space is the excitement around “zero proof cocktails” or mocktails. I love putting creativity to work by adding delicious nonalcoholic options to our bars for weddings and other events, so everyone can be included in the celebration!
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Using productivity software definitely helps us to stay on track and productive.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would advise my younger self to stay focused on my goals and to never give up. That is what Jen and I did, and we both ended up working with our best friend doing something we love.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
Probably that in the long term people won’t remember the small details of your event, but they will remember how the event made them feel. We focus on every single detail to make it exactly as the client wants, but we also want to reassure them that they don’t need to stress out about every little thing on their big day. They can just enjoy their event with the people they love, who will also be happy they were there.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Take a moment every day to look around and be proud of what you have built.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
When you get overwhelmed, take a minute just to breathe. This is a high-stress business and you have to be able to keep a level head.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Never being afraid of hard work or new challenges helped us grow in our careers and grow our business. If you’re willing to put in the work, you can achieve a lot.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
One thing that could be considered a failure might be waiting as long as we did to start our catering business, since we enjoy it so much. However, the experience we gained in our careers leading up to starting this business have definitely helped. So essentially, we overcame any feeling that we should have started sooner with the lessons gained from our earlier career.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
If you’re passionate about food and not afraid of hard work, I’d recommend starting a food-related business in a culinary area of interest for you. Having a specific focus and intended customer base is better than spreading yourself too thin and diluting your brand.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Industry-specific software can really help keep everything on track, making sure everyone is where they need to be, with what they need, at the right time. I use Total Party Planner. For a more general use solution that’s truly customizable Trello is also great.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
A great dinner at our neighborhood Thai restaurant on a random weekday evening.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
A lot of great cookbooks have helped me to gain an understanding of food, wine, and classic New Orleans cuisine.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I am a little behind the times, and rarely have an opportunity to watch a movie, but we just started watching Succession and The Last of Us.
Key learnings:
- If you follow your passion, that will come across in your work. My wife and I are passionate about food and the food we create reflects that.
- Don’t be afraid to put in the hard work that makes it possible to do something that you really love.
- Focus your business on something specific, such as a particular type of cuisine, rather than trying to make everything for everyone.