Here we are. What started as a concept a few years ago has finally given birth into a full fledged company. How about a little history… In 2004 I was miserable professionally. Working in a family business shilling prison clothing in a “price first” ask questions later market. Hardly rewarding to say the least. Sure I was making decent coin, but the old adage of “money can’t buy you happiness” was never truer in my case. You see, the way the Government procures its supplies is inherently broken. In this industry price often trumps value and vendors are willing to sell their soul in order to win contracts. Inevitably what happens is the price gets so low that facets such as quality and customer service must be sacrificed in order to earn an award. This happened at my former company where beliefs such as reciprocity and trust were set aside for what was perceived to be in the best interests of the corporation. In the end, the only light I saw at the end of the tunnel was the tail lights of a bus pulling away. It was then that I knew that the time had come to get off that bus and start down my own road. Walking…
In addition to being a government contractor I also have about 15 years of experience in the Promotional Products Industry. My old company used to dabble in that market, but could never get very far due to their unfocused message. (Kind of like the McCain Campaign.) Anyway, I saw an opportunity out there to consolidate the major retail catalog brands of the industry and centralize them for sale on a specific website. We would market our wares to companies that sold less than 1M and allow the distributors to make their purchases in any size or quantity as long as the product was on the floor. Carefree Casuals was born in March 2005 and I’m proud to say that it has achieved a fair amount of success now in the heart of its third year. Shortly after the initial launch of Carefree we quickly saw a demand for our line of value priced lifestyle fashions from the general public. The site has since been redesigned with the retail consumer in mind and now offers more than 45 well known brands and over 20,000 SKUs of product.
Carefree Casuals was just the beginning. I am a huge fan of the arts. Particularly anything that has to do with performance be it on stage, screen or sound. But, my preferred passion has long been for the Culinary Arts. There’s something about taking a garden variety product and turning it into an out-of-body experience for the “consumer” (both literally and figuratively) that I truly admire. The problem is that the world is filled with starving actors, singers, and certainly chefs so a direct career in any of these fields was immediately out. However, with my background in the industrial uniform business I was certain there was a way I could merge this skill with my passion so I started doing some research and it turns out, while there are lots of companies that sell chef apparel very few of them do anything to elevate or inspire their customers. We aimed to change that. So I began the task of interviewing suppliers and pulling together what I consider to be the most complete offering of both chef and hospitality apparel in the market today. In addition it is our privilege to “kick things up a notch” by offering an “Industry Spotlight” to highlight significant accomplishments in the trades as well as the creation of this blog. Which most of the time will be devoted towards something a bit more educational than my personal life story.
So, on that note I would like to humbly welcome you to Killer Chef & Hospitality. Why Killer Chef? Well we wanted to start something that was fun which we could build a unique culture around. Most people go to work for XYZ Company. Nice, but incredibly boring. If we were going to promote, project and inspire a positive image both to our employees as well as customers then we needed to start at the very beginning. This idea has been a long time in the making and I’m thrilled to see our little Frankenstein finally brought to life. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and touch us once in a while. We certainly look forward to getting to know as many of you in the industry as we can. And now in the spirit of the upcoming holidays I thought I would share my favorite recipe for desert from one of my favorite restaurants.
Make it a Killer Day!
Aaron Tucker
Chief Assassin
Served at the Tommy Bahama Tropical Cafe, this delicious dessert is the perfect ending to a meal shared with friends.
PIÑA COLADA CAKE
1 box Pillsbury Deluxe White Cake Mix
1 box Swiss Chalet White Chocolate Mousse
1 qt. heavy cream
1/2 C. Dark Rum
8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 C. toasted coconut
Bake cake as directed in two 9" x 12" rounds. Let cool. Slice off rounded top level with baking pan and cut each cake into two layers (four cake layers in total). Make mousse according to the directions.
Assembly: Generously brush each layer of the cake with Myers Dark Rum. Spread the mousse mix evenly 1/4" thick on the first layer. Sprinkle with some of the pineapple. Top with next cake layer and again, spread with mousse then pineapple. Continue with each layer. The layers of the cake and mousse should be the same height. Coat the sides and top well with the mousse mix. Sprinkle toasted coconut over the finished cake. Cut into 8 pieces and serve at room temperature.
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