Meet Henry M Tucker | Head Chef and 1/2 owner of Grub Rockstar Catering

We had the good fortune of connecting with Henry M Tucker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Henry, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Sacrifice. I was a government worker for 27 years and eventually I retired. The last 3 years I was a full time employee while working on the business, then I decided to retire and I haven’t looked back since. It was one of the best decisions I could have ever made. This has resulted in me going extremely hard for the business and sacrificing everything such as down time, vacations, extracurricular activities, for now, to get to the ultimate goal of having a successful and thriving business.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I learned to cook at a young age from my grandmother. She loved to cook and feed other people, mainly family. At the time I had no idea how much I would absorb, but it now shows. While I didn’t go to culinary school, I learned a tremendous amount of skills through being inquisitive and gaining knowledge from outlets and resources such as: The Cooking Channel, The Food Network, taking the online Top Chef University class and course, attending Master class by Gordon Ramsey and Thomas Keller, and being a member of the online group entitled Salted TV which taught an array recipes from various world renowned chefs. Even though I was in the government for 27 years, I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to leave. It was a 10 year process. I wouldn’t necessarily call it easy but it wasn’t hard either. It just wasn’t my passion anymore, working as a bank examiner, which made it easy for me to leave. The main thing that I’ve learned is that you will only go as far as hard as you decide to hustle and want it. When you do things half way you get half the results. We are a grass roots company that started from scratch and got it out the mud with no loans or financial assistance from banks, just hard work, blood, sweat and tears.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Food – Ben’s Chili Bowl, Ocennaire, Pearl Dive Oyster, Hanks Oyster Bar and Clyde’s. Drinks – Definitely Stan’s at 14th and Vermont

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have read both 50 cent and Rick Ross books and the one take away I received from the both of them is that you have to always stay hungry. I credit my mother as well for understanding when I finally decided to walk away from my cushy government job. Friends and family have also been extremely supportive during this process.

Website: rockstarsauce.com

Instagram: @grubchef @grubrockstar

Linkedin: Henry Tucker

Twitter: @grubrub15

Facebook: Grub Rockstar Catering

Image Credits
Henry Tucker