From Losing His Home to 'SuperChef'

Darnell Ferguson grew up in a two-parent household and attended college. He knew he wanted a cooking career while at vocational school, inspired by cooking shows to dream of owning a restaurant, and he studied culinary arts at Sullivan University in Kentucky, where he earned an associate's degree. Black Enterprise reports that he was one of two Black students chosen to be part of a 2008 Olympic team in Beijing, China.

He struggled to make a living from cooking and, in his own words as reported by Black Enterprise, decided to sell drugs to make money. He had trouble paying his bills, was arrested multiple times and, by one account, eight times, and he lost everything, including his home. He ended up unemployed and homeless. The reports do not give dates for these years, or how long he was without a home. He has recalled that after the last time he was locked up he realised he was becoming the kind of person he did not want to be.

After his release he worked in restaurants, but conflict led to him losing a job, linked in one report to fallout from his past legal problems and his temper. He spent a year out of work pursuing a restaurant of his own, and a planned investor deal fell apart at the last minute. He then asked a friend to let him lease space in the friend's restaurant at set hours so that he could serve breakfast. Those pop-up hours proved popular, and other restaurant owners began asking him to run pop-ups at their places.

With the help of another investor, he opened his own restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2015, when he was 28. He later opened three more restaurants in Ohio and Kentucky and appeared on national television, including a morning show in 2019. He has said that the journey is the success.