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

Tere, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

My grandma taught me “if you can’t smell it, then you can’t taste it; you gotta gotta put love in that pot!” I received that and carried that mindset with me with every meal effort. When my passion brought me to cooking for people other than my fam I wanted to convey that love while also creating interest. My Secret Recipe is love and you taste it with each bite!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up in a small town. Without all of the bells and whistles of city life my favorite memories are around family time preparing and enjoying made from scratch meals. My mom, dad, grandma, family friends all seemed to actually enjoy preparing meals; actually singing or humming during preparation. Those memories truly molded me! Upon becoming a parent I wanted to recreate those memories for my family and create fun times around homemade meals. I began tweaking recipes and making healthier versions or gourmet versions of family favorites with much success. As my children grew and I encouraged them to reach for their dreams they encouraged me to follow my own advice and I began My Secret Recipe Personal Chef & Culinary Services. I chose the Personal Chef profession because I knew I still wanted to be available for my family while following my passion to cook. I started cooking in client homes, this led to catering. As my client base grew I felt the need to hone my skills and obtained my personal chef certificate and then went on to receive my degree in Culinary Arts.. I have been able to expand my service to teaching Kitchen Skills classes while maintaining my Meals To Go weekly menu as well as catered events up to 250 guests. I have worked with celebrities and was the first chef to be featured on the front page of The Cover magazine.! I am beyond humbled for these privileges; but I am most honored to still be cooking for families after 12 years and a pandemic! The kitchen is my lab; my happy place. I can cook for hours and simply lose track of time perfecting, creating something that resembles American comfort food but with the My Secret Recipe’s twist on it. My goal is to provide families with home cooked meals even if they are too busy to cook it themselves. One taste and my secret is out the bag!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

My clients are my work family! I still communicate with my very first client family. When cooking for someone you have to get to know them and aside from their food interests you are a part of their lives weekly. I am a true southern girl and hospitality is easy for me. I reach out to my clients when I have a new menu item or just to touch bases with them from time to time. They appreciate my genuine sincerity and reward My Secret Recipe with orders and referrals! On occasions when I am booked and clients call me for an upcoming event, I have attempted to refer to other competent chefs that I network with and on most occasions they prefer to see when I will have availability to cover the event myself.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I have a big personality and have been described as High Energy so keeping my team morale is mostly just contagious energy. I have an amazing group who have been with me for years and are very efficient in getting the job done. I am a firm believer in effective communication so it is important to keep my team informed of their responsibilities and expectations prior to each event, this ensures we are all on the same page and results in smooth event logistics. I compensate my team well and give them their props one on one as well as a group. I am open to receive their feedback on ways I can improve as well and this helps My Secret Recipe to grow and thrive as a unit.

Contact Info:

• Website: Mysecretrecipepcs.com
• Instagram: Mysecretrecipepcs
• Facebook: My Secret Recipe
• Linkedin: Mysecretrecipe

Image Credits
Adrienne Edwards