Q and A with Annie, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
“We know that if it isn’t pleasurable, we aren’t going to stick with it.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I’m passionate about helping people through food. My biggest joy in life is creating a combination of clean and healthy, festive, and flavorful cuisine that nourishes both the human body and spirit.
I love being a part of someone’s special event. Great food with amazing service is my goal for every client. I come to where you are, bring groceries, cook, serve, and clean up on the way out the door, allowing you to give your loved ones the gift of time. I get joy from watching people enjoy dishes that they initially thought they wouldn’t.
After years of following and learning fad diets riddled with destructive information, I could see the damage it was doing to my own body. This prompted me to research what an actual healthy diet looked like. The last 15+ years, I burnt up my library card reading information on everything that I could on all types of different eating regimes and scientific studies, and eventually, it clicked to me.
If whole food, plant-based eating has the highest number of people worldwide living without assistance well into their 90’s and into their 100’s, then there had to be something there. As I studied, I learned dishes everywhere and from anyone who was willing to teach me. I joke with my friends that “I cooked with your grandma.”
As I thought of how the groups of people worldwide that still lived by the diets of their ancestors it became to clear to me. A diet full of rich, vibrant fruits and vegetables and natural, lean protein was the way people ate 100’s of years ago, before processed food or “easy foods” were available became my mission.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: Growing up, I was raised on and off by my grandma, who was not only an amazing person but also an amazing cook! She let me cook with her from a young age. There is a story they would tell me growing up that when I was four or five, my mother’s blood sugar started to get to low. I got the idea to make her an egg sandwich while scrambling the eggs I decided to put popcorn kernels in the eggs, because I love popcorn so why not. My mom used to tell me that if I ever wrote a cookbook that the title should be “Popcorn & Eggs.” It is in my business plan to write a cookbook with that exact title. My grandma raised me with her passion to help people and to care for humanity.
I am a military brat. I grew up a little of everywhere and nowhere. I spent a lot of my early childhood with my grandparents on a farm in Burlington, North Carolina, and the rest of my time traveling. I moved back as a teenager to remain in North Carolina until the beginning of this year, when I moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to open Kiss Creations Personal Chef.
Kiss Creations Personal Chef has been my passion project for over half of my life. I continue to study, listen to information, and research healthy living because there are a few pieces of the puzzle that come together to reach the goal of a healthy life and it is my mission. One piece of the puzzle is the fact that if it doesn’t taste good, then it won’t work. We know that if it isn’t pleasurable, we aren’t going to stick with it. For myself, I began to take old recipes that my grandma had made and removed some of the ingredients that lacked a nutritional base and replaced them with nutrient-dense foods. I played around with different styles, different techniques, different concepts, creating new ways to give the comfort of people’s favorite home-style meals and cultural favorites, while also creating my own personal style along the way.
Another piece of the puzzle is physical activity. I personally love lifting weights, walking, running, hiking, anything I can do outdoors invigorates me, but that’s my personal story. Taking a 30 minute walk every day on top of your regular schedule can work miracles for both your physical and mental health, get outside and garden, play with your kids, whatever it is that brings you joy and gets you moving.
The other piece is taking care of your mental health, having people around you that inspire you, care for you, and treat you well. Everyone deserves this in their world and if you don’t have it, listen to these words, babe…everyone deserves these things in their world, that means you! Back in North Carolina I would cook for friends, dinner parties, making food for charity events and my favorite event, Girl Parties, learning along the way how much fun it is to take care of people who take care of everyone else.
At the beginning of this year, I decided to move to Myrtle Beach to assist people in their journey with healthy living. I have met some amazing women who have inspired me to fight for my dreams and help where we can. With this ongoing crisis that we are facing as humanity, being a personal chef that comes to your home to cook meals isn’t the most popular service at the moment. In my first week and a half, I did a dig into my business what was working and what I needed to improve on. I formulated a plan of action around these lists and what I needed to do after this horrible crisis that we are in finally ends concerning my business. I’m also a state-licensed life insurance broker, so I am lucky that has still been an avenue to financially survive this crisis and reopen. I believe we should all help where we can throughout our communities during these times. Everyone is going through their own thing right now, so let’s be kind towards ourselves and each other.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Something valuable I have learned in my life that I would like to share is that you are worth so much. Never let anyone make you feel like you don’t deserve to be completely healthy in mind, body, and spirit. As women, if we stand together lifting each other up as we journey through this life we have been given, there isn’t anything that we can’t accomplish.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism to me is the idea that whatever it is that makes you feel powerful and like a female should be supported by society. It is also the fact that, as women, we shouldn’t have to fight to be given the same rights and equal pay as our male counterparts. We shouldn’t have to be twice as good as the man standing beside us for the same pay. Feminism to me is this idea that women should support other women throughout our journey and understanding that our paths aren’t all going to be the same. Women are powerful beings, and if we would stand together, there is absolutely nothing we can’t create.
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