Anyone strolling through Olney Farmers and Artists Market on Sunday is likely to do a double take passing by the stall of La Table du Chateau catering company when they eye a croque monsieur ham, Gruyere cheese and bechamel sandwich on thick slices of toasted brioche ($13.25) coming out of the oven. The lure is irresistible, and so is the payoff—the crunch of the toast, the buttery goodness of the rich sauce, the gooeyness of the cheese. (Make it a croque madame with a fried egg add-on.)
Derwood residents Max and Iqra Zelenkov (he’s 34, she’s 31) started their business during the pandemic. Max had been working as a service director for a Potomac car dealership but toying with the idea of turning his side gig—catering—into a full-time one. He made the switch, forming an LLC, creating a website and naming the business La Table du Chateau. “We believe the table is the center of community, a place where you sit down with those who matter and share a meal,” explains Iqra, whose family moved to Arlington from Faisalabad, Pakistan, when she was 6 months old. “And your home is your castle.”
Max and his mother moved to the U.S. from Vladimir, Russia, in 2000 when she married a man from Derwood. Max attended Shady Grove Middle School, Magruder High School and Montgomery College, studying automotive technology. His passion, however, was cooking, and he gained knowledge by helping at frequent family parties and holiday events, his stepbrother Cody doing the bartending. Iqra’s best friend was good friends with Cody, and she met Max at a party at the brothers’ house when she was 22. “It was love at first sight!” says Max. The two married in 2018. Now they’re building their business together, with Iqra handling the publicity. (She is a marketing director for American University.)
La Table du Chateau’s first big job was an Olney bridal shower in the beginning of 2023, and things snowballed quickly after that into corporate events, farmers markets (the Zelenkovs do the Maple Lawn Farmers Market in Fulton on Saturdays), virtual and in-person cooking lessons, private chef services and a line of “Max’s Pantry” spice and tea blends available for purchase online or at the farmers markets.
Other delectables at the farmers market include a croissant stuffed with almond-spiked chicken salad ($12.75) in which the unexpected addition of orange zest adds brightness and tang (they halve the croissants vertically, make two pockets, and stuff the salad into them); an egg-and-cheese croissant ($12.75); caprese baguettes ($12); and lemony madeleines (three for $6.75). While partaking, sip on refreshing iced tea ($4.75) made with their Cardinal Mazarin blend, which mingles dried apricots, marigold petals and chamomile flowers, or lemonade that’s freshly pressed, then lightly carbonated, lightly perfumed with lavender ($4.75). Don’t miss the croissant bread pudding bars ($8.75)!
This story appears in the January/February issue of Bethesda Magazine.