Today we’d like to introduce you to Mackinnon Beaton.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Mackinnon. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Growing up as an only child, my mom did most of the cooking. When it came to cooking from my dad, he was not someone that was not known for playing a role in the kitchen. As soon as I got to high school, there was an abundant amount of respect that I had developed for my mom because she could make so many great dishes out of the ingredients that we had in the house – we did not have much to work with, yet somehow she made all these great dishes.
All I would watch on TV was Food Network, Bobby Flay, Emeril, and my favorite – Rachel Ray. I was obsessed with creativity and how people’s minds would work. For creatives to look at an ingredient and for them to know what that dish will be before it even hits the plate fascinated me. I started to cook any way I could with the ingredients that we had in the house. My dishes were not something to be proud of but I was trying. All through high school, all I thought about was food and cooking and the possibilities that could come from cooking.
Fast forward… Ten years later and I am heavily involved with cooking and I have not stopped since. My skill set is becoming much more developed and I am becoming much more confident with my skill set. My skill set, the hobby that I have stuck with has opened so many doors that I do not think that I would have been able to open on my own. Through cooking, a YouTube cooking tutorial page has emerged, friendships have been created and groomed over the years, a meal prep business is starting to take shape and new business ventures are in the beginning stages. All because I gave time to something that I really have enjoyed doing.
Has it been a smooth road?
A smooth road.. hardly.
With cooking, there have been so many ups and downs. From the time that I graduated high school and all through college, I was working a lot of hours throughout the year just so I could pay for school. There was a pocket of time that I did not see the value in me cooking and did not see it as a potential career path. Mostly because I felt that I was not creative enough or I felt that there was someone out there that was better than me so I decided to push it onto the back burner (pun intended).
I enjoyed it, but this was during a time that I was trying to find myself. It got to a point where I was becoming extremely lazy and finding every excuse to not be in the kitchen. I would continuously find myself eating out an absurd amount of times in a week. And I would constantly ask myself, “what else do I love just as much as cooking?” Nothing came to mind.
Fortunately, for me, my closest friends that composed my circle would always ask, “Why are you not cooking, if you really love it, then why are you not doing it?”
These were all thought-provoking questions that made me realize how much I really do love cooking. For how much work cooking involves, it is extremely rewarding and fulfilling, The fact that we [cooks] have the power to nourish people’s bodies and the ability to bring people together around a dinner table is a such a beautiful skill, why would I want to stop doing something like that?
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mack’s Meals story. Tell us more about the business.
I run a very small scale meal prep business. I prepare ready to eat meals for a small client base and my clients come from all walks of life. I have cooked for athletes, police officers, mothers, vegans, I do it all. My meals change on a week to week basis and they feature a protein alongside with a vegetable in various ways or a new way of highlighting that specific vegetable. For example: did you know that instead of using potatoes to make mashed potatoes, you can use cauliflower? Things like that! The reason I do this is because I know in our day to day, the average person is not eating enough vegetables. So that is where I step in.
Vegetables help keep our immune systems up and running, they supply vitamins and also help keep our blood pressure down. Plus, I also like to cook for others what I would enjoy eating.
I have been known for turning skeptics into believers when it comes to featuring a new ingredient. This is something that excites me. When someone reaches out to me saying something like, “I never liked salmon until now”. I feel like I have done my job.
I also challenge myself by trying to bend the barriers as to how far healthy food can go. Because I feel when people think of meal prep, they think of the typical boring chicken and brown rice. But why not jazz it up a bit and make food fun and just as healthy.
Customer relations is huge for me and I am extremely proud that I have gained so much trust within the relationships with my clients. I know that there is a certain amount of trust that they instill in me on a week to week basis and I do not take that lightly. Every week meals change, so I am constantly trying to make things new and exciting so that no one gets bored. That trust that I have developed is something I am very proud of.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
In the past 50 years, studies have shown that people are not cooking as much as they used to. People are now choosing to eat out more since that is the alternative. Delivery, take out, or dining out are all options that people resort to if they are choosing not to cook for themselves.
Food delivery businesses such as DoorDash, UberEats and GrubHub are just some examples of food delivery services that have made a boom in the last 5-10 years and they are continuing to grow. Along with food preparation companies such as Freshly and many more, these companies as well are also starting to pick up some steam because people do not want to cook at home anymore. I personally know so many people that see cooking as a chore and they do not want any part of the stress, the mess, and the cleanup.
However, with the way things are moving, I am optimistic that people will always make time to cook. And the time that we are living in, with the amount of foodservice businesses that are popping up, I think that there will be more options for people to enjoy, now more than ever. But I do not think that cooking in the home will ever come to a complete standstill.
Food delivery and food preparation companies are on the up and up and will continue to rise in the next 5-10 years because people like the options. People like the fact that they can have gourmet and ready to eat meals in a short amount of time. If people can save time and money, they will look for a way to do so.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 8053022576
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: macks.meals
- Facebook: macks.meals
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