Daily Inspiration: Meet Camille Durr

Today we’d like to introduce you to Camille Durr.

Hi Camille, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was born and raised in Saint Louis. I come from a big family where food was always celebrated. From my uncle teaching me the ways of grilling to my grandpa’s famous fish fries in Hannibal, Missouri to my grandma teaching me how to make bolognese sauce. I’ve always been drawn to cooking since I was tall enough to see over the counter. Fast forward to my last two years of high school, where I attended South Technical Highschool enrolled in the Culinary program.

This is when I was certain that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I competed in both team and individual culinary competitions where I placed almost every time even placing the first two times. My instructors from this class supported my dreams and still do even now that I graduated almost six years ago. They just told me this year, I’ll be inducted in their “Wall of Fame” this year and I’m so honored. After I graduated high school, I enrolled at UMSL for a Business Management degree. Here is where I got the idea to start my own small business. At 21, in my second year of college, I started up Camille’s Catering page on Facebook. It didn’t start as much besides me just baking goods in my spare time.

It stayed like this for a long time because I wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted to go with this quite yet. Fast forward again to the beginning of the pandemic. This is when I finished college and really started to focus on my business and it started to take off. This is also when I found my love for pies. I’ve always loved the science behind doughs and I worked very hard to perfect my pie crust recipe. I had a logo made by my good friend and my dad helped me legitimize my business. My parents have been a great support to my business. My mom is always there to help me when I’m having a stressful week and is constantly finding me new tools to cook with.

I feel lucky I have a strong support system I can fall back on and that I have a passion that I can make a living off of. I am a one-woman show and am super driven to continue to push for success and learn from my failures. One thing that being in this industry has taught me the most is you’re going to fail a lot but it’s the best way to learn how to do it better next time. Never get discouraged.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The cooking is the easy part. Social media, interpersonal relationship, and networking has been the hardest for me. I suffer from Anxiety disorder and I get very anxious talking to people. I had to learn here so I could sell my goods and have success. I had to learn quickly how to open up and build these connections so I could continue to grow.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a chef at Louie on De Mun as well as the chef and owner of my own small business, Camille’s Catering STL LLC. I am known for my pies and I take a lot of pride in my pie crust and designs I’ve been able to achieve with my dough. Each pie crust design is like my own work of art.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
This is when my business took off. People wanted to support local businesses and loved that I offered delivery since a lot of people were quarantining or staying safe. I was able to stay really busy and build connections with people online and stay safe with contactless deliveries and pick-ups.

Pricing:

• Pies range from $25-$30

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @camillescateringstl
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/camillescatering/

Image Credits
Kevin Sailor and Juwan Rice