Food has been the cornerstone of Tayla’s home and family life. With her gran being South Indian, she describes how watching her in the kitchen was like watching a scientist in their laboratory. The assortment of flavors and her ability to make something delicious out of almost nothing was what got her hooked. In 2019, she was finishing off a 6-month contract working for a global tech company. At work, she would often tell her colleagues what she had cooked the night before or tell them about meals she had made over the weekend. It was then that her colleague and very good friend, Mpumi suggested she start a food page on Instagram, where she could visually share her meals. VERY HESTITANTLY, she did. Another colleague Collin, gave her the name TaylaMadeFood, not knowing that her passion was being branded at that very moment.

“I finished off at the company in mid-July of 2019 and knowing how ‘rough’ job-hunting was going to be, I made TaylaMadeFood my little boredom buster, while I looked for a full-time job. I did a ton of research on food styling and food photography and used my last salary to purchase an assortment of equipment to help me start this project. What initially was just supposed to be a side project to keep me sane, has now become my business, passion, and entire life. In terms of scaling my food business, I want to go into full-time food styling and eventually professional food photography. I want to start hosting my own dinner parties, aimed at bringing black creatives together around a dinner table. I’d also like to publish a recipe book and hopefully do more brand partnerships.”