Essence Eats: Go Inside Atlanta's Premier Black Owned Catering Business

[MUSIC] I am Spencer Humphrey. I'm Brianna Jenkins. I'm the co-founder and co-owner of Black Tie Catering. And I'm the executive chef for Black Tie. [MUSIC] We're behind the scenes at one of the special events that you're catering tonight. Tell me a little bit about how the business started. So it started in our backyard. >. In your backyard? In my backyard, me and my other business partners were out of work, it as during the recession and we decided to just take our wedding gifts. Your wedding gifts? Our wedding gifts, and we basically started telling people When we were caterers. And then people would say well, I've got an event next week. We have another event, we have another event, and we're like maybe we need a business checking account or maybe we need some insurance. Logo. Let's get a logo. I love the catering industry. Its beautiful, creative worlds that I get to live in everyday. It has its ups. It has its downs. When things don't go your way you have to fix it very quickly. But I love it. There's nothing like having a client high five you at the end of the night and be excited because their event Was a success. [MUSIC] How did you find her? God sends her literally. In Atlanta there are lots of African-Americans cooking but you don't really see them featured as prominent chefs. So one day we were a little bit annoyed so we had a really passionate conversation about the type of chef that we wanted to work with. we wanted someone that was french trained, we wanted someone that had experience at some of the best restaurants in the city. Our list was so long that we felt like gee that person doesn't exist. Right. We placed an ad and a few days later Briana showed up. Just like that. Yep. And the rest has been history. So, what are the guests and I having for dinner? My signature hors d'oeuvre is the jollof arancini. Okay. It's basically a traditional Sicilian hors d'oeuvre, fried rice balls stuffed with mozzarella, But for our client we made it a little more African we used the gel off rice. I am ready to sample I hope you guys saved me some. [LAUGH] [INAUDIBLE] cuz I can't. [LAUGH] Luckly for me I don't have to be able to pronounce it to eat it. [MUSIC] I grabbed a few samples from Chef Briana's beautiful [UNKNOWN], and I'm about to dig in. [MUSIC] I'm speechless. [MUSIC] When I start doing a little dance, How you know it's delicious. I'm gonna finish this, this is gonna be amazing. [MUSIC] Being a part of the black tie team is definitely an amazing experience. I mean, I have a whole nother family. These guys are like, my brothers. Most people look at me and think that I'm brave for being an entrepreneur. But the truth is I just basically played the hand that I was dealt. It's definitely been rewarding but ultimately, I feel like I'm in control of my destiny and my future. I wouldn't change it for the world. [MUSIC]