Today we’d like to introduce you to Rod Steele the Chef.
Hi Rod, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
In 2007, I moved from Los Angeles to Maryland. My family believed that I will have a better chance at opportunity. Moving to Maryland as a young adult I needed to support myself so I picked up a job at a local restaurant where I found my passion for cooking. I’ve cooked in multiple restaurants and hotels, building my skill set and résumé over the years. I have worked with some of the most well-rounded known chefs of the DC metropolitan area where I learned countless techniques and skills that sharpened my blades as a chef. These restaurants and establishments include Blacksalt restaurant, Blacks, bar, and Grill Riverbend country club and many more.
I would literally rent and purchase books to learn classical French techniques, and I will watch endless videos at night just like a pro athlete would watch their game videos anything to assist in sharpening my skill set. Hands-on experience was always a priority for me in becoming a chef. Flash forward r 2014 I moved back to Los Angeles from Maryland to continue to pursue my career as a private chef. Moving back, I began working in different restaurants in Santa Monica Ocean Blvd., Sunset Boulevard Sunset Tower, Hotel Soho House, in many other Santa Monica and Hollywood establishments. I stayed consistent in building my résumé and background as a private chef by using my social media platform to reach out to event holders and different venues regarding setting up pop-up shops and offering the best prices to cater any future opportunities that may be present. This allowed me to grow my social media platform in building a customer base in the Inglewood South Los Angeles area in all around Los Angeles county. Services that I offered included catering, private tasting menus, meal preps and weekly pop-up shops.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When you have tunnel, vision and focused on your career paths, Staying consistent and putting out positive energy. Sometimes you don’t expect trouble to blind side you. In this situation, not only was a blindsided, but this incident made my life do a 360 and turned my life upside down. On a nice warm day of June 2016. I decided to make a quick grocery store run before I had to be at work by 3 PM that day. At this time I was working at the Soho House in West Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard back to the story. Nothing was out of the ordinary on this day. Everything was fine I’m driving to the grocery store in Hawthorne California. I came to a four-way stop sign intersection, The other vehicle that came to the intersection at the same time as me was a Hawthorne police officer, but he decided to run the stop sign when it was my right away. I quickly came to a stop. I honked my horn once to make sure that the officer seen me to prevent an accident. The officer then proceeded to cross through the intersection just to go down a few hundred feet and make a U-turn to begin pursuing me. I continue to head to the grocery store by going a few hundred feet making a turn into the parking lot of the grocery store. I parked my vehicle and got out and proceeded to walk towards the grocery store until I was intercepted by the officer, pulling in front of me, getting out his vehicle to place me under arrest.
At this point I’m lost and confused to what is even going on the officer then states that I want it in Maryland for a burglary, and I have a warrant for my arrest. The officer then proceeded to place me in the back of his car and take me to the Hawthorne police station where I was held for six hours arresting officers gave me no details on the warrant or the case because it was an out-of-state situation. I was not allowed to make any phone calls to call my family or my job to let them know that I won’t be making it in today. A little while goes past as I’m waiting in the cold cell with the AC on high I don’t know where to US marshal deputies walk in with shackles and they were there to take me to Los Angeles county jail downtown: At this point I’m super confused why the US marshals are there to pick me up when I have no knowledge of any crime whatsoever. I was later processed and given no bail. I remained inside of the LA county jail for two months without any bail set, going back-and-forth to court every two weeks with no progress being made. At this point, I was stuck in the system between Los Angeles and Maryland waiting on word from Maryland police to be extradited back to Maryland. Me being innocent, the last thing I expected was to be extradited back to the state of Md. One day I was called out of my cell to go to through the process of being released. In the back of my mind I know there’s a catch, but and it appears that I’m being released to go home. Then my parade was rained on by being notified that I am actually being extradited to Maryland and I will be leaving the next morning.
After processing for multiple hours and waiting overnight in the holding cell with 30 other men, I was finally called to picked up by a privately owned prison transport service. Me in seven other men were being picked up in a white, seven passenger Ford van. We were being transferred ported across the country to Maryland in this van other people inside the van included other men who are incarcerated in being extradited back to their states including Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Texas, etc. I was the only person that was from Los Angeles in the van as the officers dropped off inmates they also picked up inmates along the way in other cities and states we started off by driving up north past Fresno and going up towards Northern California and then we circled around and came back down to pick up another inmate dentist turn around, need to go back up towards Northern California. We stopped and states such as Arizona, Kansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Illinois, and one of my most memorable stops was Ferguson Missouri, at the height of the violent protest that was going on the surrounding. Police brutality the prison transport drivers were very disrespectful they cursed at us, they also threatened to starve us. They threatened to assault everyone due to 1 inmate being defiant. They drove through many cities and states for hours at a time without stopping for bathroom breaks. Our daily meal budget for eating was around three dollars per person per day, so they only stopped at McDonald’s and Burger King and fed us hamburgers and cheeseburgers on the way so that’s three cheeseburgers or chicken sandwiches either one depending on what they had. We would get one 16-ounce bottle of water every 4 hours or so.
Throughout this van ride through multiple states, I dealt with severe racism and intimidation from other inmates who were facing much more time than me. I really feel like on the flipside this experience overall was a spiritual due to the time of my life that I was in when I was finding God, Everything just seems to synchronize they even down to the things that day inmates were saying throughout the ride. You can clearly see the evil spirits in individuals and there were many moments where God was speaking through some people for me to receive specific messages which was insight that everything was going to be fine. I believe one of my most memorable experiences from the overall situation was being inside of a holding cell in Ferguson Missouri inside of a small town, privately owned mom and Pop holding station nothing like I ever seen you had deputies and officers in plain clothes with big revolvers on their hips wearing cowboy boots. I thought I experienced racism from Los Angeles police but I haven’t seen nothing yet. These guys were the definition of just straightforward racists by threatening to taze us in the shower if we took longer than t2 minutes, also starving us in between meals. To make things worse, they piled seven of us men inside of one man-holding cell with mats and blankets to where we slept on the floor which was filthy and haven’t been cleaned and it looks like at least six months. In this experience, I met other good men who were just placed in unfortunate situations. Just hearing the different stories allowed me to put my life in perspective, realizing how anointed and blessed that I am in knowing that things can be much worse. So I don’t always view this overall incident as negative I’ll take the positive things that I did soak up from it and I know that God was working throughout the whole situation to open my eyes up to bigger things that are going on here allow me to infiltrate the system and be brought down to my lowest self from working at the top fine dining establishments in America on this career path as a young guy from the inner city that made it out, Then went back to the depths of the underworld to motivate and enlighten his people God said I’m going to use you for something else to be able to go through this fire to be able to come out on the other side and give your testimony to the world. That is the motivation that kept me pushing through and not breaking under pressure and folding. Knowing that God had my back the whole time and I was covered.
Fast forward, I finally arrive to Maryland eight days later now that those eight passengers in that van had dwindled down to just two or three people and I was one of them. The other gentleman left. We’re heading out to Pennsylvania after they pass through Maryland to drop me off I arrived at the Montgomery county police station in Rockville Maryland. Once I arrive to the station, I was placed in the holding cell overnight and then in the morning, I was interrogated by Maryland police officers. I told him I know nothing as I was telling the truth I had no idea what or how I could’ve been involved in a burglary case from 2011 when I lived in Maryland from 2007 till 2014 and have been pulled over on different occasions by multiple officers throughout 2012 to 2014 and was never notified about having a warrant for my arrest so I know that this situation was something that was put in place to for me to go through for a reason at the same time I know I was coming out on top because I know that my heart is pure I was then later informed that I’m facing up to 30 years in prison 20 years for one’s Argentinians for another charge the charges include breaking in entering, and also stealing property worth more than $1000. The property stolen from this burglary included a Xbox game, console, video games, and a laptop computer, the officers told me that my fingerprints were found on a pocket knife that was inside of the apartment left at the scene of the crime. This is impossible because I never broke into a house so there’s no way that I could’ve left my pocket knife inside because I never broke inside of the apartment.
Within 12 hours of being inside of the holding cell, my cousin and attorney Fareed Hayatt paid my bail and got me out of there. Within hrs he picked me up. I enjoyed the remainder of the week in Maryland with family and then flew back to California to reassess my life. I was keeping in contact with my cousin/attorney about updates on the case, and they wanted to take the case to trial, and I already had a trial date set if I lose in trial, I will be facing 30 years in prison being innocent, my cousin was able to speak on the phone with the district attorney and get my charges removed because I was innocent the whole time, and there was no concrete evidence to place this crime on me. It came out that a fellow employee that worked with me a black salt restaurant in Washington DC his fingerprints was found at the scene and it appeared that he dip with a pocket knife was stolen from me which I don’t recall losing a pocket knife around 2011 while at work. The Maryland police did a little bit more investigating in investigated this individual to interview people that he knew, and he came out that he was desperately begging for money and borrowing money from people and things like that around the time, so it more towards him, as being the suspect of the crime from other evidence came out that evidence was found in his possession that will implicate him at the scene of the crime I was able to pull up time cards back from 2011 from my former employer that show that I was currently working the day of the crime in which completely eliminated me from being a suspect I got the news from my cousin over the phone.
I already purchased my plane ticket to return back to go to trial and the plane ticket was nonrefundable. I just spent 450 bucks on a plane ticket but didn’t care about not getting the refund back because I will have my freedom. I just met my fiancé to be month after I was originally released, and it sucked that I had to break to her the unfortunate news that I will have to be flying out of state to go face trial for a crime that I didn’t commit. She seen how genuine I was and she knew that I was innocent, and I was telling the truth and knew that I will be back if I did have to leave, I was able to tell her to good news that I do not have to face trial and I’m not going anywhere. This was one of the key motivation factors that push me to blackout in 2017 and just start achieving success in my private catering company by booking events left and right parties, events and venues with an energy that can’t be stopped if it was it was enough confirmation to me that I had a purpose and to also keep my faith strong throughout any situation because I will always come out on top victorious long as I stayed consistent with faith in keeping my vision tunnel. I realize it’s much bigger than me. One day I will someday help someone who is going through something similar to never give up, you can always reinvent yourself. You can always redeem yourself because I did. So like that the case was dropped. I remain innocent and I’ll beat those charges of 30 years. Thanks to God in my cousin Fareed Hayatt.
Even though I have new blessings to be thankful for in life, such as being become on the father in March 2021 just last year in September, I was injured in a car accident which resulted in my vehicle being totaled. I was rear-ended by an intoxicated driver. My injuries included a dislocated hip multiple dislocated vertebrae’s and shifted disc in my spine. It put me out of commission for months where I had received lots of chiropractic and physical therapy. To this day, I am still receiving physical therapy on my road to recovery. I still face daily challenges of back pain in hip pain, which affect my day-to-day work and livelihood as an entrepreneur, and father and provider for my family. Like anything else that I’ve been through this is just another one of those challenges that is tough but I know that backing down there’s not an option.
We’ve been impressed with Cali Kitchen Catering llc, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
In 2010 I build a catering company by the name of California kitchen catering while I was in the state of Maryland and then in 2014, they move back to California bringing a company with me registering as an LLC here and pursuing my aspirations to be a private chef for celebrity clients. Even though I started the company in 2010, it wasn’t until 2014 until I started receiving paid gigs and catering for the Los Angeles county department of mental health and department of parks and recreation.
In the midst of that, I continue to book clients and build a customer base, using my social media platform to promote pop-up shops and other endeavors. In 2017, under the same catering umbrella, I created a pop-up shop by the name of the standing burrito, serving upscale versions of tacos and burritos with a twist, colorful shells, exotic ingredients from the fresh also fresh catches of the day. In 2020 I also created a wellness brand by the name of Steele Rod sea moss, also Steele Rod beard oil. Steel rod sea moss brand is all about good health, all-natural wellness and healing the local communities to knowledge and self-love. We specialize in the distribution of holistic herbs, raw seamoss wholesale, and the promotion of key knowledge relating to health, lifestyle and fitness.
Steel Rod beard oil a miss Caroline, that is dedicated to the group of men that take pride in growing and keeping a well-maintained beard. Whether dry and scruffy, fluffy and shiny or target market is to be the solution. In between meeting halfway at the same time, uplift those and motivate those in their journey, to grow their beard into the best version, and also give those who take pride in the beer, and keeping it maintained along their journey, and also growing theirs further more into the future. I created a natural spray beer miss spray, a beard, growth, oil, a beard, butter, and pomade. And also a beard wash and conditioner, along with beer bonnet, dress, and beard pick.
On my healing journey. In the last year I created a Fitness brand by the name of Steele sharpens steel. This is where I tie fitness in with promoting all-natural vegan meals. It is a behind-the-scenes of the lifestyle of Rod Steele the chef. As I recover from last year’s car accident. A motivational lifestyle brand based on not giving up when faced with adversity, whether physical injury or life’s hurdles. Reinventing yourself and resurfacing is ok. I’ve done that many times over this is just another example rising up.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
One of my most favorite childhood memories was when my grandpa Theodore Steele used to take me my sisters, and my cousins out to Palmdale. One of his good friends owned a farm. He used to allow us to come out to feed and pet the animals. Then we will all gather, and they will give us extensive knowledge about livestock and gardening. This definitely allows me to have a different appreciation for wildlife and food as well.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @rodsteelethechef @steelerodseamossgel @thestandingburrito @steelerodbeardoil @steelesharpens_steel
- Facebook: Rod Steelethechef
- Twitter: Chefrodsteele1
- Youtube: Rod Steele the chef
- Other: TikTok: @rodsteelethechef
Image Credits
Rod Steele the chef
