Taylor Mead decided not to sign up for a meal plan while in college and cooked her own healthy meals instead. And she developed spice blends that made quick work of preparing dishes from many different cuisines.
Her first post-college job was running the farm-to-school lunch program at Grant Park Cooperative Preschool, where she was “preparing meals using my spice blends for 75 kids a day and for the parents who would come into the classrooms and eat lunch, too,” she said. “The parents told me, ‘You’re really good at cooking. I’d buy your food.’”
After four years of cooking at the school, Mead began Atlanta-based Better Off Fed in 2018, at first doing catering and meal preparation, along with selling her eight spice blends and cinnamon vanilla granola.
That includes her “haus” blend — a mix of paprika, onion and garlic powders, pink salt and pepper — along with a barbecue dry rub, Greek, chili, taco, yellow curry and ranch. Mead also has a mix she calls Spicy Faerie, featuring garlic, parsley, edible flowers, crushed red pepper, pink salt and oregano.
Taco seasoning is her consistent bestseller. The second most popular blend is the Chili Chili Bang Bang seasoning. “We use it in our sweet potato chili we sample at farmers markets,” Mead said. “People are shocked the chili is meatless. It can be hard to convince people to try a plant-based diet, but when they taste this chili, they are blown away because of all the flavor that comes from that blend.”
Credit: Brandon Amato
Credit: Brandon Amato
She said the blend that people find most surprising is her Thai-inspired yellow curry mix. “I love this blend,” she said. “People get so nervous when it comes to making curry at home. There are so many spices and so many kinds of curry seasoning. It’s so easy to mix mine with a can of coconut milk and add whatever vegetables are in season and include a protein like chicken or chickpeas.”
Mead wishes more people would try her ranch seasoning, a blend of powdered onion, granulated garlic, parsley, dill chives, pink salt and pepper. “When people buy commercial ranch dressing seasoning mix,” she said, “they’re getting a lot of filler like dry buttermilk powder, along with ingredients whose names you can’t pronounce. My mix is all flavor, with no filler.”
Mead no longer does catering or meal prep as part of Better Off Fed because she has a full-time job as the educational chef for Community Farmers Markets, scheduling demonstrations and sample tastings for four of its local farmers markets and seven MARTA Markets pop-up farm stands. She also conducts market demonstrations herself.
Once a month, she goes into local retirement homes to demonstrate a recipe and serve lunch to the residents. She regularly goes into schools for story time and taste tests, and a recent grant from Drawdown Georgia allows CFM to promote plant-based eating, using surplus market produce in such dishes as sweet potato chili or kale salad that can be sold at the MARTA farm stands.
“Commuters can buy fresh food at the farm stand and sample these plant-based dishes made from recipes we develop in our test kitchen,” Mead said.
Credit: Brandon Amato
Credit: Brandon Amato
In the midst of all that, she still devotes one day a week to mixing up her spice blends and making granola. A pandemic sourdough project was so successful that she also hopes to begin selling bread soon. “Working with sourdough is amazing,” Mead said. “With a little bit of time management, I can provide a massive amount of food for myself, my husband and our community.”
This fall, she’s experimenting with sourdough focaccia topped with the last of the season’s okra and peppers and is looking forward to adding pestos made from fall greens.
Coming soon to her line of seasoning blends is pumpkin spice, a sweet mix with a bit of cayenne. And after her recent honeymoon in Provence, she’s considering adding an herbes de Provence blend as well. A recipe book also is in the works.
Sign up for the AJC Food and Dining Newsletter
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on X and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
