We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lucy Sunflower . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lucy below.

Lucy , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?

When it comes to the Food and Beverage industry we face interesting issues that Corporate America is completely blind to. For one, food waste. Food waste in our business is a rampant problem. From normal problems like shelf life to dealing with issues like slow days: food waste is a problem. Internally we do things like staff meals, a shared meal with the staff to help reuse old food. Most Chefs would love to deliver food to houseless communities, communities in need across the spectrum. But there’s strict laws in place that don’t allow us to donate food daily. They tell us we could get sued for feeding people who are hungry. You could loose licensing and receive huge fines. Imagine that, Chefs are only allowed to feed people with money? Are we not, at our core, professionals, that cook food? But we’re constantly being told to only feed people at luxury prices.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Chef Lucy Sunflower, holistic vegan Chef that specializes in allergies, dietary and religious restrictive foods. I’m known for colorful plates, seasonal ingredients and creative aesthetic when it comes to vegan food. I’m a native of Washington DC (the dmv) but spent a lot of time in Key West, Florida. Currently I call Las Vegas my home, and love living in the desert.
Professionally I’ve cooked for high end luxury hotels, athletes, entertainers and artists.
My retail line Lost Vegas Tea and Spice House (lostvegastea.com) offers craft made teas, spices and fruit and vegetable chips. I create everything with seasonal ingredients for freshness. Some of the customers favorites are: Salted Caramel Apple Chips, Watermelon Chips, Garlic Lemon Pepper seasoning and The Aphrodite Tea (hibiscus and blood orange tea)
I come from a fine art and philosophy background that allows me to stretch the lines of creativity in my food. It’s always my goal to create nostalgic food that reminds people of their favorite childhood memory.
The most important thing to me is remind people you don’t have to be vegan or sick to enjoy vegetables. A lot of us have canned peas or boring salad on the brain when we thing if vegan food. And I’m quickly changing that.
I’m giving a new look to Vegan Chefs everywhere. I’m a Blerd. I’m weird. I’m a lover of life and experiences. I represent “the new nerds”, health focused creatives who just want to make the world more fun.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I love engaging daily with my social media audiences. That means handling the good and the bad followers. I try to remember that my social media audience are the ones who allow me to live my dreams daily so a certain level of patience is always needed. I utilize tools like text and email marketing to allow my customers closer access to me and my ideas.
Others platforms allow clients and customers to donate to you as you share and keep in touch with them.
As business owners we forget that people can see us more than ever before because of social media. And for me I love that. I love finding out more about my customers.
Even when some of the questions and comment seem odd or weird, I love that people feel very comfortable talking to me.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience comes to you in business when you least expect it. For me it came all crumbling down and I had to quickly get it all together.

My first big brick and mortar, my business partner was responsible for all the computer and accounts while I did all the cooking and ordering. He was like a God send. He enjoyed the thrill of food and beverage, and liked being out of the kitchen so the computer work was perfect for him. For almost a year we worked on this brick and mortar project, almost 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Right after we got the permits and approvals, my business partner went to California and committed an unspeakable crime, and will be in prison for the rest of his life.
I was lost. Not only dealing with the personal chaos of the event but on a professional level, I realized I didn’t even know where passwords were for accounts, I didn’t know how to operate any of the programs. He’d been responsible for everything. And was amazing at it!
I was able to use the systems he had in place, and had to teach myself everything from the beginning. At first I was so lost and upset. But it helped me understand every part of my business. It taught me to at the very least have a basic knowledge of all parts of business.

Contact Info:

• Website: Lostvegastea.com
• Instagram: @lostvegasforeverllc