Brown is at home in the kitchen

Nyla Brown is the owner. Photo courtesy: C’era Pace

Nyla Brown is a culinary arts student who attends Keiser University.

Brown, a Jacksonville native, comes from a family of seven. She is the eldest sister.

She concluded that cooking is her niche and that it would be her moneymaker. She originally came to Tallahassee to attend Florida A&M University, but quickly realized that wasn’t her future.

Brown opened her food catering business, Monae Meals, in 2021 and since then has been building and building. She has been catering to events such as parties, baby showers and more.

Brown’s love for cooking is what inspired her to open her own business. Cooking is something that brings her peace of mind. Everybody has something that brings them peace and cooking a big dish brings that to her. She loves the smiles she gets from people loving her food.

A favorite customer of Monae Meals said she loves Brown’s food.

“Nyla’s food is really good,” Daniel Pineda said.

Nyla Brown serving her Cajun three-meat pasta. Photo courtesy: C’era Pace

Brown said she is attending culinary school with the goal of becoming a private chef. Brown would like to have her own successful business where she is the private chef, hosting parties and events with her special dishes.

One of her main challenges is a life-long habit of putting things off.

“A challenge I have right now would be procrastinating,” Brown said. “It’s something that I work on daily.”

One of her favorite dishes to make is Cajun three-meat pasta. It is a creamy spicy dish that contains chicken, sausage and shrimp. Brown made this dish when she did her first gig and had she received numerous compliments on the dish.

One of Brown’s closest friends, Marquise Taylor, said that he loves her cooking and can’t wait to see her five-star restaurant. When asked how she raises the funding for her business; she says she likes to go out to parks or areas where people traffic the most and hand out samples. If they like it, they are more than welcome to tip.

But when she is not doing that Brown goes to work and invests in herself. When she raises enough money, Brown is going to open a food truck so that she can make a better profit and from that will be her start but not the end of her becoming a private chef.