Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroll Lee.
Hi Caroll, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart. I was never good at being an employee or giving my all to a job unless it resonated with my own passions. While I enjoyed my previous career in fashion and e-commerce at Gucci Group and various branding agencies in SF and NYC, selling luxury items online wasn’t fulfilling my true potential. I knew I had more to offer the world.
The motivation to start my own business struck while I was pregnant. I realized I didn’t want to miss out on the precious first years of my daughter’s life due to a traditional 9-to-5 job. Throughout my pregnancy, my focus shifted towards nourishment, always thinking about my next meal and making sure it was healthy for both myself and my baby. This led me on a mission to educate myself about the best foods for her growing body.
After the birth of my daughter, I took a break from work to focus on caring for her. Stepping away from my career allowed me to realize my true calling: helping busy people fuel their best lives through the power of food as medicine. Whether they were working professionals, parents, or both, I wanted to offer an easy way to eat well and thrive. I decided to deepen my knowledge and pursued nutrition studies to become a holistic health coach specializing in functional medicine. The clients in my practice began asking if I could help them reach their wellness goals by providing the meals they wanted to eat (but had no time to cook), and Provenance Meals was born!
It’s rewarding to see how much the food industry has caught up with Provenance’s values over the last decade, offering diet-specific delivery kits with gluten-free, plant-based, and anti-inflammatory options. However, there’s still much progress to be made. As I age and my own health needs evolve, I’m increasingly passionate about eating for longevity and preventing disease, and I bring that passion and the latest nutrition science into our menus. I truly believe that what we eat every day is at the foundation of our long-term health, and am gratified to help people experience how good they can look and feel with Provenance Meals.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As they say, you don’t learn anything from success and everything from failure. Building a dream business is inherently challenging, but that’s also what makes it rewarding. Of course, there have been struggles – financial worries, employee drama, equipment breakdowns (always at the worst possible time!), initially set against the backdrop of New York City, where the pace can be relentless. Add to that the challenges of the pandemic with skyrocketing costs of gas, labor, and food, and it’s been a journey for sure.
Instead of being frustrated, I’ve embraced the title of Chief Firefighter, putting out fires big and small so I can continue to forge ahead. The challenges keep me on my toes and prevent complacency. For me, the heart of entrepreneurship lies in problem-solving and daring to dream big – it’s what drives me and ultimately brings me satisfaction.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Provenance is a premium, prepared meal delivery service that helps busy people eat clean with nutrient-dense, ready-to-eat meals delivered to your doorstep. All of our meals are individually portioned, made with whole food ingredients, and 100% free of inflammatory triggers such as gluten, dairy, and refined sugar.
At Provenance, we know that eating in a way that nourishes your body – that actually helps you thrive and not just survive – is not easy in the current food climate, where everyone is too busy and food corporations are not offering the things we need to be well.
We’ve created a clean food oasis in what’s in many ways a food desert filled with ultra-processed foods that lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic disease. We’re protecting our clients and helping them age better by creating meals that are made from scratch out of real food, using only the most nutritious and highest-quality ingredients. What we provide shouldn’t be so difficult to get, but in our modern food landscape, it is.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
Many cherished memories from my childhood revolve around cooking and sharing meals with my family. I have vivid recollections of helping my mom prepare hors d’oeuvres for big parties she and my dad hosted for friends and colleagues in the 70s. She would create a huge spread of dumplings, shrimp toast, mini meatballs in mushroom caps, and bacon horseradish cream cheese stuffed cherry tomatoes. I can still picture the colorful cellophane on the fancy toothpicks that I was allowed to insert in each precious canape, resisting the urge to pop them in my mouth and placing them carefully on their platters.
Even when not whipping up party food, my mother was an exceptional cook. Every evening, she would prepare delicious homemade Korean meals and try her hand at cooking American ones as well. Having immigrated from South Korea in the late 1960s, she courageously tackled the task of learning to speak English and learning to cook the foods of her new home in the US.
One of the primary ways my mother expressed her love for us was through her cooking. Her homemade Korean dishes that were as healthy as they were delicious left a lasting sense of love and well-being. It’s this profound connection to food and the emotions it evokes that drives my business. It’s my goal to share that same feeling of love and care with as many people as possible. Cooking a meal for someone isn’t just about providing sustenance; it’s a loving gesture that can have positive ramifications on their quality of life.
Pricing:
- Weekly Meal Delivery, starting at $12.99 per meal – Make your health a priority every day of the week by eating an array of nutrient-dense meals delivered straight to your door. Select meals to fit your own unique dietary preferences and individual schedule. All meals are 100% free of gluten, dairy, refined sugar.
- Provenance Detox, $320 – The Provenance Detox is a 6-day cleanse that gently detoxifies your body while flooding it with nutrients, supporting your gut health, and improving overall health and wellbeing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.provenancemeals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/provenancemeals
Image Credits
Caroll Lee
Pascal Shirley
Provenance Meals
