From food stands to Food Network: Family-owned restaurant brings new flair to Midtown

Sauté Kingz by Chef Count, a local catering restaurant owned by Count Thomas James Foreman and Jessica Foreman, opened its doors in February 2022 hoping to offer the area an unparalleled range of fresh flavors.

Following a number of pandemic-related setbacks, Sauté Kingz is now making its name known and keeping the community fed with both its catering restaurant and food trailer, serving an eclectic menu of diverse flavors from across the globe.

The eatery boasts a mouth-watering menu of “international soul food”— creations the foodie family tells me were cultivated from a place of pure passion and culinary creativity — with seafood, pasta and poultry plates ranging in Greek, Caribbean and Italian influence.

Menu at Sauté Kingz

“We touch on a little bit of the classics from each ethnicity that we're cooking, and we run with that — maybe add a little fusion to it. And we like our quality to be at a certain point, and so you have to put in a little more, because sometimes those shortcuts take so much away from the food," Count said, priding himself on the eatery's ever-growing menu of scratch-made, boldly flavored and thoughtfully presented dishes.

The eatery’s expansive, cook-to-order food truck menu includes the Laguna teriyaki rice bowl — signature coconut rice tossed with broccoli, zucchini, squash, onion and your choice of chicken ($12), shrimp ($15) or steak ($15); the Eat my Pita! — chicken ($12), shrimp ($15) or steak ($15), layered with fresh spinach and tomatoes, peppers, onions and a homemade, creamy remoulade on Greek pita bread; and pasta — fettucine and choice of homemade Alfredo, scampi or Rasta jerk, tossed with broccoli, zucchini, squash, onions and choice of chicken ($12), shrimp ($15), steak ($15) or lobster ($20).

The extended restaurant menu includes the fried or grilled salmon or cod ($18); the three lollipop lamb chop ($27); and the Oxtail Rasta, as well as the Jesshuan Balla parlor ice cream — homemade sweets made by the duo’s youngest son — featuring strawberry red wine sorbet ($7) and banana pudding ice cream ($7) — made with a vanilla wafer crunch and banana bread caramel sauce.

Path to success

Count tells me he's experimented his "whole life" in the kitchen — a place that seemed to rescue the accomplished chef from his troubled past as a young adult. After time in juvenile detention, jail and prison, Count, originally from New York City, went on to make a name for himself throughout the industry, even landing a spot on season 15 of the Food Network’s hit series, "The Great Food Truck Race."

“Coming from such a low point as far as what you have, what you’re capable of and how society looks at you from having that type of past, you know — I went from juvenile to Food Network; that’s an accomplishment. It takes you changing the person that you are — and a lot of hard work and effort — and feeling like you deserve something.”

After stints at Don Pablo's and Disney's Planet Hollywood, the pair in 2008 decided to put their dreams and recipes to the test with their own roadside pop-ups. Known then as “the Daytona Pasta Man,” Count and Jessica maintained the pop-ups every weekend for nearly eight years.

The duo eventually signed the lease to their current restaurant in 2020, and following more than a year of pandemic setbacks, later opened the doors to Sauté Kingz in April 2021 — which the family decorated, renovated and sourced equipment for entirely on their own.

From pop-ups to Food Network

After years of writing in and sharing their story, the duo eventually secured a spot on season 15 of the Food Network’s "The Great Food Truck Race" — a series in which various food truck teams attempt to outsell one another and compete for a $50,000 prize.

Although they were eliminated in the second episode, the pair described the experience as their first organic taste of the food truck business — one that taught them about their own capabilities as entrepreneurs.

“We learned that you know, put us in any situation and we’re —” Jessica began.

“We’re no joke,” Count said.

Following the show, Sauté Kingz started its first food trailer in 2022 and continues to cater across Florida, with plans to hopefully go national.

Customers can keep up with the food trailer and menu by visiting Sauté Kingz Facebook, Instagram or website.

Sauté Kingz is located at 200 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Daytona Beach and opens at 3 p.m. Friday - Saturday unless away catering. The restaurant offers limited dine-in seating, take-out and by-appointment catering. For information, call 386-597-3860 or visit sautekingz.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Saute Kingz brings international soul food to Daytona Beach