We caught up with the brilliant and insightful E’moni Tool-Lammie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

E’moni , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I came from a family of cooks but my mom was my biggest inspiration. When I started working as a cook at the Waffle House in Atlanta I loved making people smile when I served them fast forward I just started getting into a lot of cooking shows trying to learn new recipes and techniques. In 2018/2019 I started to get more serious then 2019 Nikki Soulful Eats was born. I started making food for people in my neighborhood who missed down-south cooking then I started making seasoning and sauces then in 2022 I started to add Sweets and Treats : cookies cakes muffins etc to my list of products. I try to come up with ideas that maybe most wouldn’t think of for an example chips ahoy Bundt crumble cake. During the pandemic I was able to focus on growing my business and build a pretty decent clientele; it’s hard at times because I haven’t been able to grow as much as I want or buy my own place but one day you will see me in stores and t.v 

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am from Brooklyn N.Y Married with 2 beautiful kids

I currently live in Delhi N.Y and my business is catering as well as selling food products like seasonings and sauces. My passion to cook started to grow in 2016 and it really took off in 2019.

I started Nikki Soulful Eats in 2019 (using my late mothers and my middle Nicole as the base to the name) she loved baking and cooking so I wanted to continue on with that legacy as my own to honor her.

I am most proud to say that even though I am small business owner I still have people who trust me to cater for them. My products are my babies from my seasonings to my sauces. The flavors I have created are different from a lot of products on the market especially my popular I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT YAM SAUCE a lot of people love it because it reminds them of candy yams and thanksgiving.’

My catering I try to make it family friendly to where it feels like Sunday dinner everyday; I merge my southern and Caribbean backgrounds to create alot of my meals. My slogan is FOOD STRAIGHT OUT OF MAMAS KITCHEN ;you always leave full and happy

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I did and still am. My business is still very much small and I work from my home with help from another local business in town.
I started making weekly meals before getting into catering. Every Friday I had customers preorder food and I made it for them to pick up on Saturdays from there I started catering small events and then started making and selling my own products. I’m still working on making a bigger name for myself and growing my business

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I saved up money and still am

I currently work as a maintenance worker to help fund my business as well as my family it’s hard but it is all worth it!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Nikkisoulful
• Facebook: Nikki Soulful Eats
• Other: TikTok: Chefmamanikki