HOW IT ALL BEGAN IN 1986
Michael Joseph Maenza, known to his friends as "Mr. Mudbug," was born in the city of New Orleans. In the culinary world, Michael has encompassed the roles of warehouse manager, marketer, business owner, rig captain, cook, restaurant owner & operator, company executive and manufacturing entrepreneur.
He received his first culinary understanding while cooking with his mother and grandmother at 10 years of age. From this point food was in his heart. While attending Holy Cross High School, which is where he graduated, he then began working with his father in the produce business at age 16. He used to deliver produce to important restaurateurs like Ms. Ruth Fertel of Ruth's Chris Steak House. His hobby was, and still is, golf. He went on to receive a golf scholarship attended UNO and graduated from Loyola University with a degree in Marketing. It turns out that food continued to remain a part of his heart so he continued working with his father in the produce business. It was during this time he found an interest in a crawfish peeling plant. While at the plant he found something that really caught his eye, an abandoned piece of portable cookware. It was a rusty old trailer with a boiling pot hooked onto it. Suddenly Michael was in the crawfish business and catering his first crawfish boil in a parking lot for approximately 800-1,000 guests.
Within five months of that unforeseen development, he was dressed in a red jumpsuit and white shrimp boots catering Cajun-style seafood boils full-time and named his company Mr. Mudbug. From this event there were four bookings, which grew to him catering 20 events his first year in business as Mr. Mudbug, Inc. This developed into 1,000 or more parties each year.
He has a mission statement that he continues to believe in: In order to continue to enjoy what we do, we are committed to successfully maintaining complete customer satisfaction and exceptional food quality by utilizing our creativity, knowledge, professionalism and experience that we have gained since 1986.
Back then he opened up a whole new meaning to the words "on-site catering." He was extremely creative with his pioneering, mobile boiling rigs and the way he marketed his company. What he had to offer was something everyone wanted, and that was someone to come to their location dressed like a professional Cajun cook and boil delicious crawfish. He is extremely creative when it comes to "getting it done," and definitely continues to achieve this intended goal to please customers. His accomplishments are demonstrated with his ability to turn his small catering company into a thriving production more than 20 years later. He has also created the name Twelve Seasons Catering which is used for weddings and more upscale events. His ideas are endless in the growth of Mr. Mudbug, Inc., and the growth has given him exposure and opportunities to many different entities in the culinary world (to see our King Creole Website click on www.kingcreolefoods.com).
…and continuing strong!!