Vegan comfort food extraordinaire
After transitioning to a plant-based diet 6 years ago, Chef Adyre Mason saw a gap in the market for helping people go vegan. So she created The Veggie, a vegan meal prep, catering, and restaurant in Huntsville, AL. This is not your ordinary vegan culinary. This is comfort vegan food from breakfast to your late night snack. Crabless cakes, Caribbean steak burger, bbq tofu bowls, chikn scrambled burrito, jackfruit chili cheese and spice pasta, sweet potato muffins, rosemary lemonade, cinnamon rolls, dark chocolate brownies, and a whole lot more.
Chef Adyre, who was an engineer for 10 years before starting The Veggie, took a huge leap and cashed in her 401(k) to start her business and three years later her investment has already paid off. Her cinnamon rolls are shipped nationwide, she’s won numerous food awards (including 2019 1st Place Winner for Indie Green Fest – Plant-based burger competition) and has provided chef services for celebrities like singer Anthony Hamilton and The Voice Winner Chris Blue. This is only the beginning for The Veggie. Get ready world…the help you need to go vegan, or at least try it sometimes, is here!
Read more about Chef Adyre Mason in episode 24.
1. How long have you been vegan and was it hard to transition?
I’ve been vegan for almost 6 years. I grew up eating meat. However, when I was around 10 years old I developed an allergy to beef. So the last time I had a hamburger or a steak or anything like that was when I was 10 years old. Then because of that I kind of thought well if I’m not going to eat beef I kind of don’t want to eat pork either. Growing up and into adulthood I primarily ate chicken, fish, and turkey. I feel like it wasn’t quite as tough as it is for some people that have to come off everything. I was already used to having a restricted diet, but I took my time which is the difference I notice from a lot of people when they jump to a new diet; even if it’s not vegan. I took a year and a half to transition to going fully vegan. I went from eating chicken, fish, and turkey to going pescatarian (eating just seafood) and then after awhile it felt like I was still eating meat. It’s like my body just naturally said ok we’re ready to move to the next stage. So I moved on to being vegetarian. I just didn’t want to give up dairy, especially cheese. But it had gotten so bad that I was actually seeing a gastrointestinal specialist and I was getting a prescription just to be able to really get through my meals. He was finally just like look we can keep doing this prescription if that’s what you want, but I think your body is telling you it wants something else. So reluctantly I finally, after about 7/8 months of being vegetarian I finally went vegan. Because I made the transition slowly it was easier. Even though I did miss some things, it was easier to stick to it because it didn’t feel like I made this major decision all at once that I felt overwhelmed by. I recommend that anyone else do the same if they want to stick to it. I always recommend for people to just start with your refrigerator door. The refrigerator door is usually where we have condiments like butter, jelly, ketchup, mustard, and mayo. Start with replacing that stuff because those are the things that are so subtle that it’s not a huge change when you start replacing these products. If you get ketchup that’s vegan friendly it’s not going to taste that different from regular ketchup. There’s great mayo substitutes now, and butter substitutes that taste even better than dairy butter.
2. Before becoming a chef you worked as a software engineer and have a Master’s in engineering from George Washington University. What was it like, mentally and financially, transitioning from your job to start a new career?
I love this question because it’s definitely a transition. I think especially for women of color that will read this interview they will identify with the fact that many of us place a lot of value in the titles that we hold. As black women, a lot of times we’re fighting to get into positions, we’re fighting to be recognized amongst our peers. We usually have more education than the person next to us just to be recognized at the same level, but once we finally get that degree or title we put a lot of stock in it and a lot of our self worth can be tied to that. I realized how much of mine was tied to that once I really decided I was going to move forward to quit my job. I totally had some moments before I left where I was like ok but you don’t get to say that you’re a lead weapons systems engineer anymore. You don’t get to say you manage a $20 million contract anymore. Those are things that you’ve been able to say when you walked into rooms and spaces, especially with people that don’t look like you, so they respect you and they recognize you. Now you’re just going to be Adyre on your own merit, your own talent, on what you can produce with your own hands and ideas and that’s it. Are you comfortable with that? Looking myself in the mirror like that, so raw, it was scary but I had to have that conversation with myself to make sure I believed I would succeed. I think sometimes we can jump into things, maybe we were pressured by our parents, family, friends circle and we feel like we have to be what they want us to be but we don’t even really believe that that’s for us. We don’t even really have confidence in ourselves because maybe it’s not where we’re really supposed to be. It was a big mental transition just to make sure that I recognized that I still had value even without this big title and that I was going to add more value to my name by excelling in a place where I felt I was meant to be. You have to stop avoiding fear because you’re going to be scared when you leave, after you leave, and during the process of running your business. I’ve been doing this full-time for three years and there are still days I wake up and I’m like oh my god, girl you really work for yourself. Like you’ve got to make all this money to keep the business going, to keep the lights on, to pay your employees, taxes all that’s on you. It’s scary sometimes when you realize that, but it’s overcome by the fact that you know you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
I think the mental and financial go hand-in-hand too because I worked my way up for years. I was overseeing contracts, had my master’s degree, and making six figures and I knew that by leaving my job I was essentially starting over after 30. I had taken the time to build this career, I had been an engineer for 10 years but I was literally going to start from the bottom. Because of that, I had to be realistic about where I was spending my money, I did a huge deep dive into my finances probably about six months before I quit. Any bill that was nonessential like a credit card I paid off because I didn’t want anything I didn’t need hanging over my head once I had all this responsibility on my shoulders. So from a practical sense I just reevaluated what was absolutely necessary because as a business owner everything is coming out of one pot of money. The money to pay yourself, the money to pay your employees, the money to pay taxes, to buy supplies you know whatever your business is it’s all coming out of one pot. So you have to be a good steward of the money that’s coming in. I chose to become my only investor so I did not get any investment money. I chose to fully take a chance on myself and cashed out my 401(k) and that was my investment money. There was a big practical component of streamlining my expenses and then being a smart money manager once the business kicked off. I will admit that that 401(k) money went very fast. It was a big wake up call that if you’re not getting out there and making sure your product is being seen or people know about your services you will not make the money that you need to keep going. Even though you do it for the passion and love it’s still a business. We’ve got to make the money to keep going. I’m proud of myself that I did not rack up any investor debt onto my business. I know people who have started their business like me and I know people who started their business with a big investment and I can tell you that a lot of those people who started their business with an investment of $50,000 or $100,000 they are stressed because they have to worry about running the business and paying the investor back even when the money is not coming in the way it needs to be. Sometimes they can’t pay themselves because they have to pay the investor. So there’s a lot of pros and cons to getting loans and getting money upfront and there’s value to building it yourself. You have to be smart about whatever you’re doing. Realistically some people have more options than others whether it’s because they have great purchasing power through good credit and etc. I think however you get your money to start you have to be smart about managing it because it will go fast. I have no regrets!
3. What health benefits will people get from transitioning to veganism or replacing some of their traditional products to vegan products?
Of course everyone’s body and makeup is different and that is one huge thing for people who are going vegan. I would really recommend to go see your physician and find out where your body is right now. Find out what your cholesterol is, your blood pressure, find out where all your essential levels are right now so that you can make smart decisions in changing your eating habits. For instance, I have naturally low blood pressure. Even before I was vegan I had to make sure I had adequate salt and fluid intake. Because I knew that about myself before I went vegan, I knew it was something to watch and that my body needs it to function properly. That’s why it’s so important to know where you are. I’ve experienced major benefits from going vegan. I had inflammation in my joints and it would cause me a lot of pain. I was able to get off that medication within three months of going vegan. I also had high cholesterol. It was so high that the doctor gave me a timeframe to get it down or I was going to have to go on medication. Even before I went vegan, just in the vegetarian phase, I was able to get my cholesterol down and then it completely went down to normal levels once I went vegan. I also had really bad adult acne so I used to wear a lot of makeup to cover that up. I would get lots of breakouts – a really cystic type of acne – that just naturally started to fade away as I cut out the dairy products. Then after cutting out dairy products I was able to come off of the stomach medication because I wasn’t having any more gastrointestinal issues to take medication for. Because of how differently I was eating and because my body wasn’t having as much trouble processing food I immediately had so much more energy and I didn’t feel sluggish. I felt like I was eating for energy and I was ready to go which is the opposite of how most people feel when they eat.
4. What’s the biggest misconception people have about vegan food?
A lot of people feel like when they go vegan they’re going to get skinny right away. For some people that’s a problem and for some people that’s a benefit. A lot of women don’t want to lose their curves or their shapes and then there’s some people that say I need to lose this weight and if I go vegan I’ll immediately lose 30 lbs. Just like with any other diet when you eat a lot of sugar, a lot of processed foods it’s harder for you to lose weight. You can do the same thing as a vegan. You can eat a lot of vegan sweets, a lot of processed vegan meats, and frozen dinners and you’d be getting so much sugar and so much sodium and probably eating too many calories in a day that you won’t really see a change in your weight. You have to balance it still. You’re not going to immediately get skinny, but one thing I noticed myself is that not only am I a little smaller than I used to be but also my weight sits differently. I feel like I’m just as shapely, if not a little bit more, than before I was vegan. I know a lot of curvy vegans. So it’s totally possible to maintain your shape while also making balance, and your overall health, a priority.
5. The Veggie sells prepared meals, alkaline lemonade, smoothies, crabless cakes, pasta pans, a Caribbean steak burger, jackfruit chikn salad, and more. How do you create your menu?
Most of our clients eat with us weekly. We try to balance what they eat throughout the week and what they eat throughout the day. So throughout the week we try to make sure that we give them a good balance of calories, carbs, and protein. A hindrance for many people who try to meal prep is getting bored. Myself, I’ve always been a foodie. Before I went vegan if it was something to try I tried it. I love food so I’ve had shark, eel and all types of stuff because I wanted to have the experience of just trying the food. I wanted to bring that into my vegan lifestyle as well and I wanted to give people variety. I hated seeing all these meal prep companies giving you seven of the same dish because anybody would get tired after three or four days of eating the same thing. So I wanted to provide people with a variety that they felt like they were getting something new and exciting throughout the week and it didn’t get monotonous. If somebody, hypothetically, was going to eat our food all day they would find it would be balanced meals all throughout the day and across the week. I also wanted to create a few items on my menu that really spoke to where my business is right now. Some items specifically appeal to the south such as the jackfruit chikn salad, which is one of my top sellers.
We publish our menus about a month ahead so people can see what’s offered, get excited about it, and plan to eat healthy. Every week we offer three breakfasts, three lunches, and three dinners to choose from and you can combine those how you want. We have a variety of packages if you’re a person who just wants to try it out we have the 24 Hour Vegan, which is when you go vegan for a day. If you’re a person who primarily needs to replace their lunch during the work week we have a package called the Lunch Bunch that gives you meals and healthy drinks for the work week. We also have your traditional 3, 5, and 7 day packages where you get breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All our drinks are made from alkaline water and we fresh squeeze all of our citrus and we only use organic hibiscus and organic roses when we make our lemonades. All of our smoothies are infused with organic sea moss gel. We try to put some little things in there where people can’t really taste, but it gives them an added health benefit.
6. You’ve been featured in tons of print publications and on media outlets talking about The Veggie. What’s it like getting recognition for something you took a leap to do?
For the most part it’s been amazing. As far as how it makes me feel it’s just like a different sense of pride. It’s not the same sense of pride I had on my job where I was making things happen for other people. Probably the biggest example of that is right before I left my job, maybe about a year or so before, I saved my program $60 million dollars and for that $60 million dollars that I saved for that army program I got a $300 bonus, an award at the Pentagon, and I think my annual raise was somewhere around maybe $3,600. That was such a huge example to me of realizing I’m never going to fully pull my value out of this place because I’m doing all of this for somebody else. For somebody else’s pockets, for somebody else’s bottom line, for somebody else’s initiatives. So to now be doing all of this and it just feed back into my company it’s just a different sense of pride. It also – for me not being a professionally trained chef but being a student and studying technique – makes me feel that I’m earning my keep in this space. So I’m doing the work whether it’s research or learning new things, to earn my place here it feels like I’m doing that. It’s a great feeling.
7. How did you get your business off the ground and what advice would you give to new entrepreneurs?
First, I did write a very detailed business plan. In true engineer form I have a 51 page business plan with graphs and charts. I actually used a tool which I think is really valuable for people who want to write a business plan. It’s called LivePlan. They have a free version of it, but if you want the full benefit of publishing facts, figures, graphs, and charts it’s a monthly service fee but after you submit your business plan and get it done you can cancel the service. I used that service to help me because it allowed me to put in numbers, it allowed me to put in a number of employees to see how many hours we’d work. It allowed me to track expenses and my projected revenue. So I saw realistically what it would take to make certain amounts of money. Because of that, it gave me a better picture of how I needed to hustle honestly. LivePlan was great because it really walks you through every step of the business plan so before you write a section it gives you instruction and an example of how to write it.
The second thing is…. I had a mentor that told me some years ago, and it’s something that I carry with me, where you’re working right now is not where you’ll always be. He said until you figure out what that is or until you get there focus on filling your basket. Essentially he said your basket is you and what you possess. The experiences you have in life, the jobs you have, the experiences you had in school, the experiences you’ve had as a customer, or whatever it might be these are all things you can glean valuable data from. So, for example he said, let’s say your job puts you in charge of a project; and for me that was a big deal because around the time that my job promoted me is when I started thinking about quitting. So I was like oh my god I’m finally getting all of what I felt I should be getting and now I’m thinking about transitioning into a new career. So I was really nervous about getting more responsibility and what that would mean, but my mentor told me to take what you can from it and fill your basket. Learn how to manage people and put that in your basket for when you’re running a business. Learn how to deal with conflict and put that in your basket for when you have to deal with conflict management as an employer. He gave me a different way of looking at what I was going through and where I was as tools for where I was going. I think that’s so important for entrepreneurs because a lot of times by the time people are ready to make that leap they are so drained and just trying to make it through each day. That’s how I was. I was tired of going there, I didn’t want to do any reports, I didn’t want to go to meetings, I didn’t want to do any of that stuff but when I started changing my perspective I realized I could get more out of my job then just a paycheck. I realized it was really equipping me to run a business and once I started changing my perspective I started looking at my experiences, even the difficult ones, at the job a little bit differently. I saw it as a set up so that I would know how to deal with this later or that I don’t make somebody else feel like this later. Make sure that you pull everything out of it that you can that will help you for where you’re going. Change your perspective and focus on filling your basket.
8. Where do you see The Veggie in 5 years?
My goal is for us to be a leader in vegan convenience service. One way we’ve already started to do that is by initiating the first base of our business which is the meal prep and catering. We want to equip plant-based consumers with more options and to make sure they’re not getting left out of the conversation. If someone’s having an event and they weren’t planning on catering to plant-based consumers we want to be thought of as an option so that they can make sure that plant-based people at their events, parties, or workplaces can actually enjoy the food and be part of the conversation. In addition to that, I want to create spaces for quick food service that doesn’t taste like fast food. This was the core of the concept my mom and I had together. So my goal, in time, is to create quick service locations where you can come in and grab prepackaged meals and drinks out of our cooler and even limited hot service options. Fast on the go service, but with healthy, tasty food that people actually want to eat.
9. How has COVID-19 affected your business and what are you doing to combat it?
We have had a very uncharacteristic year for our business. Right now we’re actually ahead in sales from where we were last year. We’ve only done two events this year so because of COVID I knew that I was going to have to increase my core business. A lot of my revenue from the last two years came from festivals, pop-ups, events, and traveling to various cities in the southeast. Since we already had a local delivery business model it really just became about honing in on and increasing that side of the business.
We focused on making more of the food available for delivery that people would’ve usually gotten at markets and events like our pasta pans, burgers, chikn salad, and top selling black eyed peas salad. Most importantly we were able to adjust our options, prices, and even delivery days based on how people spent with us last year. That’s an important note for entrepreneurs to really make sure you have a good tracking and reporting system because you have to look back at what people are buying and what they’re not buying to make sure you’re spending your money in the right places and attracting the max amount of customers. We realized if we made some adjustments and got the word out a little bit more about the meal prep we could easily increase our volume. So this year we’ve seen our online ordering increase by two and a half times than what it was last year. In part because of the pandemic, but like I said because we honed in on what people were buying and we made small adjustments that resulted in a major impact.
10. You’ve recently started shipping your delicious cinnamon rolls. How has that been going and do you plan to expand your shipping items in the near future?
Cinnamon roll shipping has been going great. We wanted to start out small. I’ve found that I can apply a lot of the principles from my time as an engineer to my business and because of that, I don’t mind starting small and building efficiently. Over the two years that we’ve been making cinnamon rolls they’ve been one of our most requested items locally and when we travel. Due to demand and since it was fairly easy to standardize the packaging, we wanted to start with this one product.
Prior to that we took the time to test out packaging, test out shipping to people that we knew to find out how the product looked when it arrived, if our care instructions worked, etc. We do plan to expand our shipping eventually as we work this same process with other products. By the end of the year, we hope to be shipping more of our a la carte products like our crabless cakes, burgers, and then eventually our prepared meals.
We’re trying to scale smart and most importantly making sure that as we grow, whether it’s through shipping or the eventual realization of our quick service spaces, that we only send out quality food that’s safe for everyone to eat. I also hope to be a part of changing how people view vegan food and to make it more accessible to everyone.
