By Sara Perez Webber
When Keith Lord launched Strateje Fourteen in January 2020—just weeks before the pandemic shuttered the events industry—he knew one thing for certain. After decades running high-volume restaurants and catering operations, he was ready to “give back and teach others.”
Lord’s “strategy”—a word he stylized in his company’s name—was to take his hard-earned knowledge and pass it on to the next generation of caterers. He knew how to orchestrate 50 events a week, plate 10,000 meals and scale a kitchen to support three dozen functions in a single day. Now he was going to help younger chefs and operators master the same complexities.
Connecting Caterers to the Right Support Teams
Today, Strateje Fourteen parachutes into catering kitchens across the U.S. to troubleshoot operations, support high-stakes events, restructure teams, systemize workflows and bridge leadership gaps. Lord calls himself a “connector”—someone who brings not only deep expertise, but also the ability to assemble the right support team. That could mean bringing in two seasoned culinary pros or deploying 50 trained specialists within days.
“You can throw me into any kitchen, and I can tell you what’s going on, which is super-helpful from an ownership perspective,” he says.
Building a Business Around Operational Rescue
Lord’s assignments range from one-time event support to long-term overhauls of culinary departments. About half of his clients bring him in for a single challenge; the other half call again whenever new obstacles arise. Many are young chefs facing steep learning curves in a high-pressure business.
He’s helped shepherd chef transitions, reorganized struggling kitchens and stepped in during emergency leadership changes. In one recent project, Lord restructured a catering department and onboarded a new chef after it became clear the previous leader wasn’t the right fit. “That company may never need me again, which is fabulous,” he says.
Strateje Fourteen has grown almost entirely through word of mouth—a testament to Lord’s industry relationships. Much of his network stems from nearly two decades of involvement with Catersource. At the 2026 conference, Lord will be speaking about how culinary and sales can work together, and will judge the DICED live culinary competition.
A Career Built on Curiosity and Momentum
Raised in a French-Canadian household in Los Angeles, Lord grew up cooking from scratch—picking produce at local farms, flipping omelets as a child, and absorbing culinary sensibilities from his parents. “We didn’t have any processed food at the house,” he says. “My mom would work three days a week so we could eat out three nights a week.” One memorable weekend, Lord’s parents pulled the kids out of school on Friday so they could use his father’s flight benefits (he worked for an airline) to travel to Maine to eat lobster.
While Lord started out in the music business, he found his true calling while working at a restaurant. After the chef was suddenly fired, Lord volunteered to step into the kitchen. His first task was shelling shrimp. “I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me—you make money doing this?’” he says with a laugh. “From there, I became the chef at every restaurant I worked in.”
Lord eventually attended the New England Culinary Institute. After stints in Hawaii and the San Francisco Bay area, often working with marquee chefs, he accepted a job at 20th Century Fox Studios. There, he ran restaurants, childcare center foodservice and production-related events—sometimes 50 in a week.
Finding a Home in the Catering Industry
From there, Lord returned briefly to restaurant operations before accepting a job at a catering company in San Diego. “It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m home.’” For 10 years, he worked for H Events—which included Festivities Catering, the Picnic People, drop-off and kosher catering divisions, and restaurants. Then he joined The Wild Thyme Company, another San Diego catering and events firm, as director of operations and culinary.
By late 2019, Lord felt ready for something new, and Strateje Fourteen was born.
Helping Smaller Staffs Rise to the Occasion
Through his firm, Lord has seen first-hand how catering companies are doing more with less after COVID forced many to restructure.
That shift—combined with today’s tight margins—means mistakes are costlier than ever. “In the economy we’re in, you can’t afford to take risks or make mistakes,” Lord says, adding that bringing in his experienced team helps companies eliminate those risks.
Among the challenges he sees most often:
- Leadership gaps among rising culinary talent who need more mentorship
- Operational inefficiencies as companies grow faster than their systems
- Anxiety around taking on large events—especially when the sales team says “yes” before the culinary team knows how to execute
Lord encourages companies to embrace those big opportunities. “Tell sales to take the call,” he says. “Even if they hang up and think, ‘Oh no—now what?’ Then call me, and I’ll help you get to the end.”
