Yolanda Latimer - Chef & Creator/Owner of Londa's Laboratory

Embark on a heartfelt culinary journey with the indomitable Chef Londa, also known to many as Yolanda Latimer. She shares her inspiring story of how "Londa's Laboratory" came to be amidst the challenges of the pandemic, creating a haven of flavors while ensuring the safety of her immunocompromised daughter. Through her childhood memories of cooking alongside her father and grandmother, Chef Londa sows the seeds of passion that blossom into a venture of catering, virtual cooking classes, and a warm curbside service that embraces the power of authentic community.

Nestled within the comforting clatter of pots and pans, Chef Londa finds solace and a creative outlet that speaks to the soul. As a single mother, she highlights the importance of mental clarity provided by a clean and organized environment, revealing how her dedication to this sanctuary allows her to juggle the many roles life throws her way. Food is more than sustenance; it's the thread that weaves through social gatherings, connecting us over shared meals and moments. Chef Londa's culinary schooling further ignites her understanding of food's cultural significance, bringing forth an array of flavors that pay homage to diverse backgrounds.

Chef Londa's tale is one of personal evolution and the embracement of new dreams in the face of adversity. With aspirations of operating a food truck and hosting dynamic pop-up events, she demonstrates an unwavering spirit for connecting with others through her love of food. In our conversation, she offers an empowering message: to trust in your abilities, pursue your deepest desires, and to never let fear overshadow the pursuit of growth and success. Her story is a delicious reminder that every trial can be a stepping stone to fulfilling your delectable dreams.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

So my name is Yolanda Latimer, aka Chef Londa. My business is the name of Londa's Laboratory and I offer catering online cooking classes for friends, family, kids that are eight and above, girls nights, couples nights, and also I do a curbside.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Okay, you do it all. I love that. Can you tell me your story a little bit about how you got started and just all the journeys that you've gone through? Well, sure.

Speaker 1: 1:02

So I started my business back in 2020 when the world kind of like got stood up on its axis. I was actually just taking pictures of the food that I was cooking. My daughter Savannah who is now six years old, but she at the time was two she's immunocompromised. She had chronic lung disease, so the COVID was actually. She was high risk for that, and so I was doing the best I could to minimize risk to her, and one of the decisions that I made was to not do any outside food. In that decision, I was cooking every day from home.

Speaker 1: 1:42

I was, you know, sanitizing groceries out on the porch and bringing them in. Like it was a whole process, but I was documenting it because I love to document things. That's like one of my favorite things Some of my times, like my kids hate it, but it's what I do, um, and so I was taking pictures of every dish that I made, just to have something to look back. You know, cause Facebook has those memories and I wanted to make sure that they came up. So I was doing that and in doing that, uh, some of my friends and family said, maybe you should do like a blog, and I'm like no thanks, I have enough. I have three kids and I have a full time job, like I'm good on doing anything else or adding anything extra to my plate.

Speaker 1: 2:21

But as time went on, I was contemplating it but not really sure about it. I was like I don't think, I mean, this is just too much for me. And one morning, which during my mama time, which was before the kids my mama time is before the kids sit up and the kids go to bed so I was up early and I was watching the documentary of Michelle Obama becoming and it was so inspired and, you know, had a lot of inspiration. I was so inspired by watching the things that she did and overcame from her childhood into adulthood and obviously as the first lady, um, so I was in tears and immediately after I finished watching that, I went on wixcom and created my logo, um, and that's how I decided to start my business, by just creating the logo and then making an Instagram page and a Facebook page, and that's really how it started that is incredible.

Speaker 2: 3:14

I love that you like finished watching the podcast. Yes, immediately, because I said if I don't, yeah so if I don't?

Speaker 1: 3:20

it was a documentary, so if I didn't, I felt for myself that if I didn't do it right, then I wasn't. It was like it's either now or never, basically Because I know myself and I'll say oh, I'm going to do it, and then I don't do it. So I was like I'm going to actually do this because I think maybe I should, you know, jump out there and see what happens. So that's what I did.

Speaker 2: 3:38

You went straight on to creating your logo, so I'm so proud of you for that I did. Thank you, yeah, of course. And then can you tell me how you market yourself out there, like how you are getting clients to find out about your services?

Speaker 1: 3:58

services. So mostly through social media and posts that I make, I try to hear most recently kind of have a theme today where it's man Crush Mondays, but really it's not the traditional way of man Crush Mondays, it's more of me highlighting a friend of mine that's a male that also has a small business. So I've been doing that, highlighting other small business owners. Same thing for Women Crush Wednesday Do the same thing, you know, reaching out and highlighting some of my friends and also co-workers that I've worked with personally that I decided that I think they should be highlighted and be given their flowers and in doing that it kind of also helps market because they share the post and then they're like, oh, who's this person that is highlighting? You know somebody that I know, and it kind of just goes on from there.

Speaker 1: 4:39

Um, a lot of my clients have been from word of mouth and which is always still first, the very first thing to marketing is word of mouth. It doesn't matter how much technology that we get, it's still the old school word of mouth. Um is is the best. So I do. I don't run ads or anything like that on social media because I also have a full life, so it's mostly friends and family, and you know I work in a space during my full-time job that I also am able to market myself, and I've gotten a lot of support from my coworkers and colleagues that I work with on a daily basis, which I really appreciate, and they also support me and recommend me across. You know their networks as well, so it has worked pretty well for me.

Speaker 2: 5:30

I love that. Thanks for sharing that. And then can you tell me a little bit about how cooking like? Is that something you've always loved to do as a child growing up, or how did that did it come about? From your experience with your daughter and trying to keep her safe?

Speaker 1: 5:58

was 11 years old, um, I learned from my grandmother, um, and my father actually, um, if you can believe that is because my father was the chef in our house. My mother never had to cook, so their agreement was that she would clean up after him. He would cook, she would clean. So that was their their agreement. Um, she only ever cooked if he was like sick, and that was rare, rare um, only ever cooked if he was like sick, and that was rare, rare um occasions. So, um, I learned from him, but my dad was not, uh, he didn't have a lot of charisma with his, with his cooking, so I learned more from watching him than I did. Uh, actually him teaching me. But my grandmother, she actually taught me because you know she's, she was a little bit of more of a nurturing type of teaching and the first thing I learned to cook I learned to cook and fry chicken was the first thing I learned how to do and season. So I learned how to season and fry chicken. That was literally the first thing that I learned how to do. So I've been seasoning meat and frying chicken since I was a little girl and it's really the kitchen is my happy place.

Speaker 1: 6:53

I know, sometimes people like to clean. If they're upset or like if they, you know, kind of just to get themselves out of a mood, they like turn on some music and they clean. That's definitely not my forte. I have cleaners, so they clean. For me. That is a gift that I gave to myself three years ago, when I moved to my most recent home is that I was like, hey, I need to take something off of my plate and it's better to have your space around you clean and then you can think better, you can operate better in that space. So that's something that I had to come to my conclusion on my own, to do that, because I was putting so much on my plate as a single mom.

Speaker 1: 7:31

So the cooking, though, that's my sanctuary, the kitchen is my sanctuary. So I put on music, but I, that's my, that's my sanctuary, the kitchen is my sanctuary. So I put on music, but I'm in the kitchen. Or I have a glass of wine, I'm in the kitchen. I am, you know, thinking of new beverages to make or a recipe to create. It's all in the kitchen. And I do love the way that houses are now set up, where they have the open floor plan, um, and I do love the way that houses are now set up where they have the open floor plan. So, like I'm not to myself, I can still interact with my kids, um, and it's not closed off, and I'm still, you know, I'm watching TV with them or I'm, um, you know, we're doing homework, but I'm still being able to cook. So that is, that has afforded me a nice, uh, flexibility when it comes to that.

Speaker 2: 8:13

Amazing. I love that flexibility when it comes to that Amazing. I love that I know. Cooking is kind of like your escape, your safe space. What do you like to do outside of that?

Speaker 1: 8:23

Eat. So the thing is is that I have never been a clubber. I've been a mom since I was 22. And even before that, where my friends would go out and they would hang out and they're like let's go. I'm like, I'm a homebody, I need. All I need is my uh, frigerators, refrigerator stocked, um, and something to watch on TV, netflix or whatever, and I can not go anywhere. So when I do go, it is also to eat, so it is to a brunch or it's to a happy hour, it's to a dinner or a lounge. Through and through it's food, it's food, making it, experiencing it.

Speaker 2: 9:00

I love that. It really is your passion.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Yes, it's wine tasting, it has to do with food or beverages, gotcha. So that's really what I like to do is then go out to eat. If I'm not making it myself and just hanging out with my girlfriends or my family and or my kids when it, when I'm taking a break out of being in the kitchen myself and letting someone else take care of that piece of it, it really is. There's so much that you can do when you're cooking and that's kind of like a cultural conversation.

Speaker 1: 9:35

I recently graduated from culinary school two months ago Congratulations, thank you and one of the classes that I took was world cuisines, and every week we were in a different country making their cuisines and it was phenomenal. Like that was my favorite class out of all the classes that I had taken, but not like that was my favorite class out of all the classes that I had taken, because it's like the communication of like I can marry this flavor profile with this flavor profile and it's from a different culture and it's from a different you know how you can the history behind how things came to be and how things are associated with different cultures. So that has been fascinating to me as well. So, like the history behind food, rather than kind of like how it tastes and how you make it, the technique and all of that, but also the history, um. So I love the fact that food brings people together in all aspects, um, and it's just, it's, it's my favorite. I don't know anything else outside of that, so, oh my gosh, no, I love that.

Speaker 2: 10:32

That's like your passion and you found it and you're just thriving and doing you. Yeah, that's so important. Sometimes it can be a little bit hard for people to figure that out, so I mean it took me a long time.

Speaker 1: 10:42

I mean I am. Doesn't it take us all a long time? Yeah, I mean, there's those lucky people who know that. Know right away. Yeah, it took me, like until COVID hit. Honestly, and I think COVID was, although it has some negative connotations attached to it. Of course, lots of people experience some very awful, god-awful things. That was.

Speaker 1: 11:11

One of the positive silver linings in me is that I found something that I'm obviously passionate about that I have been, because I've never really cooked for people outside of my family and friends, so that was something that took me outside of my comfort zone as well, opening up myself for criticism and you know everyone, knowing who I am, where I, where I came from, because that's how I connect with my and their stories, so you can relate and it makes people, it makes them feel comfortable and OK with you. Know sharing with you as well. So that's another way that I connect with my followers and my, the people that really show me support. There's people that I've never met that support, have never eaten one morsel of my food, but they support me like none other and I really, really appreciate that. And that's all because I share my journey. I shared my culinary journey from the beginning to the end. I walk across the stage this October, so I'm super excited about that.

Speaker 2: 12:15

Yay, I'm excited for you.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Good Graduation is in Colorado, which I've never been, so I'm excited to see the scenery. I know that the food scene is amazing there, too been, so I'm excited to see the scenery. I know that the food scene is amazing there too, so I'm excited for that. Um, I have a chef that was that was here that I met, that moved to Colorado, so I'm excited to see her and like where she is and you know who. I also got, um, um, a lot of tips from her as well before she left, so kind of like a little mentor yes, she was, yes, she was, and then um, where do you see yourself in five years like with your business?

Speaker 1: 12:46

Oh, my goodness, when do I see myself? So I have wanted to have a food truck. So I definitely have already made the decision that I do not want to brick and mortar, although my family and friends feel that that's the direction I should be going in. I'm like, no, thank you. I did my externship um at a farm and fork, which is a farm to table um restaurant, which I worked under chef Jorge Chicas, who is amazing and he uh trained with um uh chef Jose Andreas um, which is familiar. Yes, he has, he has some, he has some restaurants in DC um that are tapas restaurants that he has in DC. Haleo is one of them, I think, saterina, if I'm not pronouncing it correctly, but those are the two restaurants that he has in DC.

Speaker 1: 13:34

But my witnessing of, like how the stress level, like when you have good days, bad days, and it's a lot of risk that you put into when you have a brick and mortar and I just the life that I have had with the stress levels thus far, I'm like I'm okay with doing that, with skipping that part of entrepreneurship, but I would like to have a food truck and then also doing pop-up at different people's restaurants and doing that Like I think that would be awesome so I could travel and I can go other places and I don't have to be stagnant and staying in one place. Um, I love the DMV area, but I'm not from here. I'm from upstate New York. Um, yes, I'm from Rochester, new York, where Wegmans originates. So that was actually my first.

Speaker 1: 14:17

Yes, yes, so I am very partial and biased to Wegmans for sure. So it's my first job and I really love that. They have done an amazing job with how they are. I mean, we call it the Wegmans experience. It's not even like a grocery store, it's like an experience. Their produce is always fresh, like all of their stuff. Even the store brand stuff is sometimes better than the bigger the, the, the brand names, so, um, so, yeah, so I have coming from upstate New York.

Speaker 1: 14:49

I left there in 2005 and I came down here, um, with my eldest son, who was four and he's now 22. Um, yeah, so having that, um, that switch and change of scenery, change of location and atmosphere and all of that that fed into where I am today, definitely will see myself in the mini stage of life. So not secondary, because I don't want to be totally done with the corporate world. I still want to kind of have that going on because I still have kids that want to possibly go to college, um, so definitely need to have the income to do that, to do that. But I, it's still my passion and so I think in five years I will be on a grander, uh, grander scale. I'll have a team, um, probably, uh, maybe from maybe five to 10 people by that time, so that I can do things and have a team behind me, so it's not all on my shoulders. So that's where I really see myself building a team, having a food truck and having and doing pop-ups and different restaurants all over the country.

Speaker 2: 15:57

So that's fine, I love that you have like an idea of, like you know where you want to go yeah, it's a blueprint.

Speaker 1: 16:02

You always want to have a blueprint of what you think you want to do. God always, in my experience, has plans for you that you don't even know anything about. So I'm very strong in my faith and I allow I've been in being obedient because I was pushing aside this whole entrepreneurship and becoming a chef and all of that to the, to the back, and it kept coming to the front, and that was him saying I need you to be obedient to what I am giving you. You have the skillset. You have um all of the things that lots of people wish that they did have, so you need to utilize it before I take it from you. So that's the way I saw it, um, and that's the way I view my life as it is now, where you use what is given to you Um, cause people really do have God given talent that you cannot teach. You cannot um buy it's, it's, it's, it's was given to you and you just gifts that are given to you. You don't want to misuse them or not use them at all.

Speaker 2: 17:01

So and then, and then. I've got a couple more questions here for you. What is your favorite food to cook and like? What is your specialty that you're like? You know what I got this.

Speaker 1: 17:10

Yeah, so that everybody asked me that, and so my favorite, my favorite food to cook is steak. I'm a steak and potatoes girl. I have always been that way. I mean, I look like that, um, because I love to make steak in different ways um, in the oven, on the, on the, on the grill, on the stove, um, just steak is amazing now.

Speaker 1: 17:32

But if you're not a meat person or if you, um, just don't like steak, even if you're a meat person, um, I, fish is like my secondary thing. Fish, anything, anything, seafood is a big thing for me. But as far as my specialty goes, I really don't have one like. I have kind of ambidextrous when it comes to food. So I, whatever I set my mind to, I just I make it like I have a client that I've been doing Robidon meals for for the past three weeks and I have made soups that I have never made before lentil soups, like Greek soup. I've made this sweet potato and kale kind of just like flavor profiles that I want to put together. That, I think, is something that's hearty and and after you know, fasting for X amount of hours would be not make you sick where it's too greasy or too. You know what I mean. So it's been nice having to to to research that and and come out with you know something that my client would like.

Speaker 2: 18:36

So I love that.

Speaker 1: 18:38

Like you really do have a talent there, if you can like do that Cause I know some people are like I can't do this, but you like go yeah so what I do honestly, is that I have a million things going on all the time because I have three kids and it's I'm busy, um, and I have a full-time job, but when it is time for me to focus on my food stuff, it's like it's like. It's like watching your favorite show binge watching it. You like, you get into and you can't let it go. That's what happens when I start and I sit down to think about how I want to plan a menu or what I want to cook or if I want to create something, and I get in that space and it's like the best place to be in. It's like euphoria for me. So that's how I feel. That's why I know that it took all of this for me to get to this place, because I really do love being in the kitchen.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Like some people are like I can't I mean I, but I hate going to the grocery store, like that's. The thing I hate doing is shopping for everything. But I love prepping, I love cooking everything, I love all the smells that come from, especially on onions and garlic, like those are my favorite things to cook with. So, yeah, and then finding different onions and different pieces of garlic um, I have a. I have an influencer that I follow, darius cooks, and he is in bali right now and he showed a bulb of garlic that is none other than I've ever seen before and I was obsessed, you know. I mean it's like now I have to go over there so I can and get that garlic.

Speaker 2: 20:01

Yeah, that is something like the fact that you're just like this undiscovered garlic or this rare garlic.

Speaker 1: 20:08

I need to cook with it. Yes, yes, yes, and I had. Actually, when I was doing my externship, we were cooking with black garlic, which I had never had before. It's sweet, it's so good and that we're using it to um, we had it with, uh, making the squid ink, kind of like a little bit of a sauce that we had with octopus, a grilled octopus, um, so, yeah, that black garlic was. You can eat it by itself, because that's how like sweet it's, like. It's got a nice like sweet, it's around here somewhere.

Speaker 2: 20:36

Yeah, you can get it in a jar yeah, you can get it in a jar.

Speaker 1: 20:38

It's like it's, it's. It's nothing like I've ever tasted before. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:42

It's on my bucket list for food, yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:44

Try it out. Try it out.

Speaker 2: 20:46

And now my last question is if you could leave our listeners with one message anything that's in your heart or that you want to just get out into the world, what would that message be?

Speaker 1: 20:56

Listen to yourself, listen to what that little voice that says you can do X, y, z and don't let the self-doubt creep in.

Speaker 1: 21:07

I actually made a post actually this morning and it's that's why I'm saying it now, cause it's still fresh on my mind about how evil self-doubt is, um, and how you can let that creep in and it takes over all of the things that you have created for yourself, or all the good things that you have done, and you start, if you start to doubt yourself, you start to discount all of the positive things that you've done, or even if it's not, uh, you know, astronomical or anything really big, it's still something you have done, and in a positive and progressive way.

Speaker 1: 21:35

So for you to let self-doubt creep in and you're really doing yourself a disadvantage. So I would just say, um, you know, listen to yourself, listen to your inner dreams and your ambitions and your aspirations and follow that Um, because at the end, like you, either either you're going to, you're going to fail or you're going to succeed, but at least you try it and you're not letting like, oh, I can't, because if you say you can't do it, then you can't do it and you won't do it. You know what I mean. So it's a lot of mind over matter as well. But, yeah, I would just say that you need to listen to yourself and in your dreams and follow the path that your inner self is telling you to do.

Speaker 2: 22:14

Absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. It was a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 22:18

It was a pleasure, and thank you so much for having me, of course.