Life & Work with Leo Hudson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leo Hudson.

Hi Leo, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story strangely started in the insurance industry. I got a job with an insurance company when I graduated from college with the intention of “figuring out what I really wanted to do” and switching careers. That didn’t work because I ended up staying in insurance for 14 years, however each night after work my Zen time came when I got to create something new in the kitchen.

Insurance claims can be a soul-crushing job so in my downtime, I would think of what new dish I could make and how I could make it unique from every other recipe out there. It helped me keep a positive vibe throughout the day and gave me something to look forward to. 2020 brought about a lot of changes including being laid off from my insurance job. I took being unemployed for the first time in 14 years as an opportunity and used money from my severance pay, my savings, an investor, plus a Kickstarter campaign to fund a residential kitchen in a commercial building. The overhead for a full-on restaurant was too expensive so I created plans to build a kitchen that could be used for teaching, team building, and friendly cooking competitions. After going back and forth with the city on the architectural plans, construction is ready to begin in the upcoming weeks and I will finally be able to live the dream of sharing my culinary knowledge as a career.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road here has been anything but smooth. I spoke with a mentor who has a similar business in Florida and she told me the biggest thing to remember is “be flexible”. I’ve kept that in mind when dealing with delays. The space I rented is a completely empty floor plan with no sinks, no ovens, no hoods, and an electrical panel that needs to be updated so city approval was needed for construction.

The reviewer I was assigned from the City of Mesa tried to insist that I was creating a restaurant vs a test kitchen. A restaurant requires items like a $15,000 underground grease trap and a $20,000 commercial hood. All things I didn’t need as my classes would only be for 12 people a night vs a restaurant which serves up to 200. Not to mention I couldn’t afford $35,000 worth of restaurant equipment. Each time the reviewer flagged my plans for missing an unnecessary item, I would respond right away. The reviewer’s timetable to look at each response was 18 business days not including Fridays because they are on a 4×10 schedule. With these ridiculous timetables, I sailed past my anticipated opening day still dealing with the city.

Once the nightmare of dealing with the city was over, I met with my contractor who informed me he was scheduled to get two hernias removed that week and would be out of commission for two weeks. I figured what’s two weeks when I’ve been waiting five months already. When my contractor was healed and ready to go, his plumber unfortunately had a death in the family and would be gone another week. By this time, I had learned to roll with the punches because at least I was moving forward.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love cooking because it’s like a combination of art and science. I love creating meals that not only look visually appealing but they taste as good as they look. I use a lot of colors in my meals to make them pop, but I’ve also studied the chemical compositions of ingredients to discover how I can make the meal taste delicious through science! For example, did you know that baking powder promotes crisping? Want crispy wings? Add a little baking powder in the flour dredge.

My specialties are wide and varied. My classes include different themes like Vegan Night, Bourbon Kitchen, Surf and Turf, Asian Fusion, The Bacon Chronicles and many more. There are so many possibilities of food combinations that once I’ve conquered one dish, I write my methods down and move to the next. If I see something that could make a dish even better, I go back and try it out because nothing is ever the best it can be.

Although I love all of the meals I create, while waiting on the city to approve my construction plans, I ran a meal prep business to make ends meet. 100% of my clients said their favorite meal was my grilled chicken curry ramen. This ramen is so good my clients requested it every week during the summer… in Arizona. Hot noodle soup is not the best way to beat the heat, so you know you did something right when the low that week is 98 degrees and ramen is on the menu for 20 people.

Throughout this whole journey, I’ve been most proud of the fact that I gained expertise without going to culinary school. The whole concept of my class is that you don’t have to go to culinary school to be a chef. You just have to have a curious mind for food. We have to eat every day so why not have fun with it? My goal for people who come to my class is, instead of buying a TV dinner they buy fresh produce and protein and create something delicious while having fun. I want to teach everyone how to transform stressful cooking into stress reduction cooking.

Chef Leo Tonight’s Test Kitchen is different from other cooking classes because it’s not uptight. I don’t bark at people like Gordon Ramsey. There are no mistakes, just happy accidents. We’re not all making the same boring dish and it’s meant to be fun. I highly encourage everyone to meet someone new at the classes and I want everyone to leave with new friends and an appreciation for the art of cooking.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Throughout my journey, good luck has been disguised as bad luck. I had a brief moment of panic when I was laid off from my insurance job and thought to myself “This is just my luck”. Thinking back on this, I would not have started my business had I not been laid off so it was more of a blessing in disguise. There are sometimes when luck smiles upon you but you don’t realize it until after the fact. Leaving insurance took my stress from 120% down to around 50%. I didn’t grind my teeth in my sleep anymore, I lost 16 pounds and my creativity got a shot of adrenaline.

Earlier I mentioned the delays I’ve experienced through this process. That also seemed like bad luck at the time, but I spent that time forming relationships with other local businesses to assist me in my journey. Once I’m at the point of opening, I have plans to work with several non-profits as well as several tap houses in Mesa and Scottsdale. They have assisted in getting the word out on my business and increasing the hype which wouldn’t have happened had delays not occurred.

What I’ve learned is luck can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. If you can’t see the big picture over the immediate problem then it’s easy to get down on yourself and claim you have “bad luck”. As long as you look at every problem as an opportunity, your luck can change.

Contact Info:

• Email: ChefLeoTonight@gmail.com
• Website: ChefLeoTonight.com
• Instagram: @ChefLeoTonight and @LeoHudsonCooks

Image Credits
Cheryl Jensen Frankie Anderson