From building a dream restaurant, to having that dream go up in smoke, Chef Darnell Ferguson of Super Chefs is sharing the story of how he and his business will prevail, through the fire.

When I found out I would be attending a wedding in Louisville, KY, I knew it’d be the perfect opportunity to reach out to Darnell Ferguson, of Super Chefs – a super hero themed restaurant known for their breakfast. The Ohio native caught with up me on a cold Saturday morning for breakfast, and to spill the beans on everything that’s been going on with him since the fire.

For those of who don’t know, Super Chefs was destroyed after an overnight fire back in January, leaving nothing but their recipe book, and memories of the eatery Ferguson opened just last July.

And while many people would think the best route to take to fill-in the time is to do pop-ups and other events, Ferguson is using this time to make himself and his team stronger.

SOAB: Have you been presented with cooking opportunities?

DF: Yes. Non-stop. But what happens is, you get so many people that wanna invest in us, that it almost becomes too much. Right now, I’ve been in the habit of saying ‘no.’ I just wanna wait until we open. It gives me time to focus on the business side. Things we weren’t doing right, and we know we can do better. It gives us more time to focus on how we can make our restaurant when we re-open, the best restaurant ever.

And beyond restaurant business, this time out of the kitchen has given Chef Ferguson and his crew and opportunities to reach out to the community. As a matter of fact, Ferguson had just met up with me after a speaking engagement at Louisville’s Central High School.

SOAB: What do you ultimately want to come out of Super Chefs?

DF: I wanna prostitute this food thing and use it and use it and use it and get the most out of it. Our whole goal is to show kids it’s all about how you deal with adversity. How you deal with the failures, how you deal with things when you don’t get opportunities, how you deal when it takes longer than you thought to get to the place you’re trying to get to. Those are the things you have to prepare the kids for.

And now that the smoke has cleared figuratively, and literally, Ferguson reveals to me what’s in store for the future of Super Chefs. Including whether or not it will be in the same spot.

SOAB: Do you think about building at the same location?

DF: We think about it all the time. But the process of doing it (isn’t easy) Right now with the attention and the media getting so big, we don’t want to go too long with having a restaurant open. We opened last year on July 9th, and our goal is to re-open this year on July 9th.

Ferguson will intro a new concept as well, that a promised I wouldn’t share. Just know it will be pretty damn dope. But what else would you expect from a Super Chef?

From trying his delicious food, to receiving some food for thought, after getting to know Chef Ferguson, there’s no doubt this fire was a minor setback, and a set-up – for something great!