Meet Daisy Austin | Vegan Personal Chef

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daisy Austin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daisy, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I am from Bakersfield, an agricultural town about two hours north of Los Angeles. I grew up in a close-knit religious home where my two sisters and I were homeschooled through high school. Although we did not have a lot of money growing up, our lives were rich with fun memories together. My mom was a highly creative woman who could turn anything into an adventure, including chores. Some of my favorite memories from childhood are playing music together, having birthday parties for our cats, roller-skating around our neighborhood, and going camping in our 1970s Winnebago motorhome.

I became a vegetarian at age nine when my mom prayed and thanked God for the sweet cow that gave its life so that our family could have dinner. Being the only vegetarian in the family I became interested in cooking at an early age. I enjoyed watching Martha Stewart Living in between school subjects and became intrigued by her cooking. A few times I printed out her recipes and experimented with them. A 9 year old making checkerboard cookies on her own doesn’t always work, but it was a fun start! I sometimes feel like I missed out on some aspects of childhood, especially pop culture, but my unique upbringing gave me the skills and creativity to become who I am today.

What should our readers know about your business?
I started my business in Santa Cruz, California back in 2011 when I stumbled upon personal chef Jesse Miner’s website. I wanted to know more about being a personal chef, so I emailed him to ask him some questions. With some encouragement from Jesse and my family, and some bravery on my part, I started my business. I specialize in two main services – weekly meal prep and cooking for small parties. A lot of people think that if I’m not cooking, I’m not working, but that is quite the opposite. I spend a large amount of time every week on administrative tasks such as creating extensive, customized menus based on the season, my clients’ taste preferences, and any sensitivities/allergies they might have. When I am not working, I spend a lot of time grocery shopping at different ethnic grocery stores around LA, researching new recipe ideas, and my favorite of all, experimenting in the kitchen. I just love to have a podcast on and to zen out in the while creating new dishes. My most recent set of kitchen experiments is using agar agar, an algae-based gelatin substitute, to create all sorts of fun-shaped fruit based dishes.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2016, and decided to take some time off from being in the kitchen. I worked in administration in two animal emergency rooms and it definitely took a toll on me. Working in the vet industry can be extremely stressful, depressing, emotionally draining, and exhausting. After thinking long and hard about it, I started my business back up again in 2019 and never looked back.

When I was in Northern California, I cooked for many tech executives, while down here in LA, I cook for a different crowd – mostly busy professionals, celebrities, and families.

To get where I am today, I have overcome many hurdles in both my personal and business life. To be a chef, you have to learn to be very adaptable. Just like when dramatic events unfold in cooking shows on TV, they happen in real life too! You injure yourself, a dish catches on fire, you show up to a client’s home to prep for a party and the client tells you about severe nut allergies right before serving a nut-heavy menu (true recent story), and the list goes on. Being a naturally anxious person, these incidents used to send me into a panic, but through many years of tests in the kitchen, I have gotten better at staying calm.

What I want the world to know about my brand is that eating more home-cooked plant-based meals can significantly improve your life. You don’t have to be vegan to eat more plants! Meal prepping can be very time consuming (especially if you’re spending most of the day chopping veggies), so consider hiring a professional. All of those expensive deliveries from UberEats and Doordash can add up quickly, so sometimes my clients actually save money by hiring me. I get a lot of satisfaction expressing my creativity through cooking, and I love the added benefit of it improving my clients’ lives.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Whenever friends are visiting LA from out of town, I love to take them to Thai Town in Hollywood. The Thai food is authentic, affordable, but the best part is getting dessert from Bhan Kanom Thai! Their grilled sticky rice with taro wrapped in banana leaf is to die for, as well as the pangchi.

I live in Koreatown so boba is always a must, as well as spending a relaxing day at the authentic Korean spa, Wi Spa.

For my friends who are vegan, the all-vegan grocery store, Besties Vegan Paradise is a necessity. They have all sorts of gourmet cheeses (the cave-aged truffle brie from Rebel Cheese is my favorite) and you can take your vegan goods to Griffith Park and walk to the Griffith Observatory and have a picnic and take photos with the Hollywood sign. Or better yet, you can take your picnic to the Hollywood Bowl and see the LA Philharmonic perform while eating your picnic goods.

For my active friends, I love taking them to the bike path at Santa Monica/Venice beach and roller skating/blading into the sunset.

For my quirky/creative friends, I love taking them to The Bunny Museum in Altadena – the museum has over 35K bunny-themed items to view that will make you laugh, smile, and maybe a little weirded out!

There are so many fun things to do in LA- you can always go see landmarks, go to street fairs, farmers markets, not to mention events/concerts/shows happening every night.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mom is one of my biggest fans, and she is definitely my biggest inspiration. When my parents divorced in high school, my mom put herself through school full-time, pursuing her bachelor’s and master’s degree in special education while also working full-time, taking care of my sisters, my granny, multiple foster children, and me. She is a constant source of inspiration to me and has instilled in me some of my core values, such as a strong sense of gratitude for everything I have today. She also taught me a strong sense of diligence when it comes to working. If I didn’t have her as my inspiration, I don’t know if my business would even exist today.

Website: www.freshpickeddaisy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshpickeddaisy/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daisy-lynn-austin-17561252

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/fresh-picked-daisy-vegan-personal-chef-los-angeles-4