Angela McKeller’s kitchen has always been her playground. Every Thursday her great – grandmother, Mom Buck, came over to play, teaching her great-granddaughter everything she knew about cooking. Now Angela’s built a foody empire with a book, podcast and blog full of recipes featuring meal ideas that are easy and affordable including her specialty – Eggs Benedict. Angela says that she’s to eggs benny like Bubba is to shrimp.
How do you describe your work? “With the economy the way it is, people’s two biggest concerns are mortgages and meals. They want to learn how to prepare their meals more affordably without sacrificing taste. I help people put passion on a plate and make it healthy and a family experience. Start change at home.”
ANGELA’S RECIPE FOR EGGS BENEDICT IS THIS WEEK’S PERK!
What three adjectives best describe you? “Kooky is definitely one because I’m so silly and I’m really out there marching to the beat of my own drum. I would say very creative. I love to write recipes. I love for people to ask me, `I used to eat this when I was a kid and I can’t find the recipe for it’. Then I come back with something that tastes just like they remembered. Upbeat. I’m very high energy. I always see the glass half full. I don’t believe in half empty or empty.”
Cats, dogs, birds … describe your pets? “I have a French bulldog and he is perfect for me. I’ve had him for almost 7 years. He’s a little clown who is so ridiculously silly. He puts on a show for anyone who walks in. He’s almost my doppelganger.”
Favorite season? “Springtime definitely. I love springtime because it’s a time of growth when everything starts to come around again and everything is mild. The temperature is even keeled. I really love the energy and growth of springtime.”
Name a city you’d love to visit. Why? “I’m going to be visiting Antwerp in October. I love it because I love the language. It’s so cute. I love the culture, the people are warm and welcoming. I love the food and there are different foods that you can’t get anywhere else, different kinds of chocolate and chocolate is number one on my list of foods. They have the diamond district and everyone knows diamonds are a girl’s best friend. You can get a little bit of everything really.”
What’s the best thing about being single? “The best thing is I think freedom. You can do whatever you want, see whatever you want to see, set your schedule. There is not limit to what you can’t do.”
Describe your ideal “Girls’ Night Out.” “It’s actually a girl’s night in. Being a chef, I love to cook and I love to have 6 to 8 of my best girlfriends come over and hang out and I write a menu and we crack open a bottle of wine. I’m all about the company. I put a lot of emphasis on the value of people.”
What’s the nicest thing a friend (or friends) have done for you? “My great grandmother passed away on May 5th of this year and just before it happened I got word but I wasn’t in a position to drive. So a friend of mine drove me 2 1/2 hours to Augusta and paid for everything along the way. I held my great grandmother’s hand and I told her you better save me the biggest mansion with the biggest kitchen in heaven and she mustered up the energy to say, I will. One of my best friends made that happen for me and I wouldn’t have had that experience without her.”
What do you do for “Angela” time? “It’s funny. My business is all about food and cooking and Angela time is getting in the kitchen and not using a recipe and throwing stuff together the way my great grandmother taught me to do. If I’m having a bad day, my kitchen is my playground. I get in the zone and I won’t even notice friends are talking to me. Cooking is kind of like mediation for me.”
What’s the best advice you ever received? “Julia Child always said never apologize for your cooking and my great grandmother added something to that and said, never apologize for who you are and I wake up every morning proud of who I am because she taught me that lesson very young.”
What quality do you admire most in a man? “There are so many on my list. I’m trying to think of the one I like the most. I would say strength of character, integrity because they’re kind of one in the same. Do what you say you’re going to do.”
What quality do you admire most in a woman? “Confidence. I think so many women are afraid their achievements won’t be seen as equal to that of a man or that they can’t run a business as well as a man would. I’ve seen a lot of young women that are extremely confident. I know a decade ago for me, I was thinking gosh I could never do that. I wish I’d been more confident when I was 21, 18, 14.”
Who are your real life heroes? “I have to say #1 is my great grandmother and we lovingly refer to her as Mom Buck. She really survived the odds. She was born in 1914 and her mother died in childbirth and her father ran off with the carnival. She had to go and live with her grandmother and she got taken by foster care because her grandparents were considered too poor and she only had a 6th grade education. Her grammar wasn’t perfect but she learned the financial side of the produce business she started with my great-grandfather and they survived the great depression. It’s no surprise that she lived to be 96, she was a fighter. I think that’s where I get it from.”
What is your guilty pleasure? “My guilty pleasure is chocolate. I’m horrible about chocolate. If I buy a box of chocolates they will be gone in one day.”
What is your biggest fear? “Spiders. That’s an easy one. Honestly I can spot a tiny spider from across the room and running into a spider web makes me pass out.”
If you could change one thing in your past, what would it be? “I would have been more patience. I had a lack of patience when I was younger and it was seen as intolerance. I think a lot of friendships that were lost could have been maintained. So I would say patience, which when you run your own business you have to figure that one out.”
Other than your own talents, what talent would you most like to have? “I wish I could sing. I really wish I could sing and my friends really wish I could sing too because it is awful for them whenever I turn on the radio. I sing anyway.”
What is your motto? Or what words do you live by? “Life is like a kitchen. There are endless possibilities. As long as you’ve got a well-stocked pantry you can make anything. Believe anything is possible and you will be able to make it happen.”
