Cleveland, OH- Claude Booker rarely does things the conventional way. A high school football star, he surprised his peers by taking home economics his senior year of high school and declined a university football scholarship to attend Johnson and Wales University’s College of Culinary Arts.
To the Spartanburg , SC native culinary arts seemed a more natural course of study, as he had spent his childhood around people passionate about cooking. In fact his parents would caution him not to cook while they were gone. “They said we’d get a whooping if we were caught cooking!”
That sense of comfort and purpose has served him well in Northeast Ohio as his company, Simply Southern Sides, has been growing dramatically and has just been named one of the chosen catering companies for the Republican National Convention. Booker is genuinely excited at the opportunity and declined suggestions to provide standard midwestern items to convention-goers because he felt his niche was southern-flavored cuisine.
He will be providing snacks and buffet meals to patrons at Progressive Field, and knows that his offerings will stand out because of their uniqueness and distinctive seasonings that mark their Louisiana roots.
After finishing school at the Charleston branch of Johnson and Wales, he was the first African-American student to be selected as a teaching assistant at the main campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Having grown up in the South, he was delighted to experience different people and cultures in New England. He smiles when describing that for the first time he was able to differentiate between nationalities because they were “just white folks” to the aspiring chef while he was growing up.
Once he had graduated he found work at Quincy’s Steak House in Atlanta where he met the owner, Jerry Richardson who was astonished at the young man’s deftness in carving ice sculptures for the Sunday buffets at the restaurant. Now known as “The Iceman” due to an admiring newspaper article, Booker was whisked on Richardson’s private jet to new restaurant openings so he could carve ice sculptures for the buffet lines.
He met his wife and business partner Crystal, a Cleveland native, while in Atlanta though she declined to give him her number the first time they met. Subsequently he worked for several food distribution companies before relocating to northeast Ohio at Crystal’s request. While here he opened and managed a restaurant which led him to the need for distinctive southern cuisine to serve the burgeoning food service business.
Not long after moving to Cleveland, Claude met RPCC Chairman Rob Frost at a dinner and was heartened by the welcoming attitude and support he received from RPCC leaders and members. Finding that his natural fiscal conservatism as a small business owner was valued in the local party, he has become a regular at Republican functions and feels he has found his political home.
Claude and Crystal have expanded the business to serve prepackaged meals to the military and mobile food providers as well as a custom catering business that caught the eye and taste buds of the organizers of the Republican National Convention.
Proud of the progress his company has made, he strives to live the wisdom of his favorite poet, Edgar Guest: Fine counsel is often confusing, example’s always clear.
Meet Claude in this short video about being selected as a caterer for the RNC Convention: Meet “Booker”
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