From Salon Chair To Catering Empire

A wood stove, a hot plate, and a room full of doll babies: that’s where Vea Ella Gee culinary story begins, and it carries her from a bustling beauty salon to a beloved catering business that’s fed weddings, offices, and whole communities. We sit down during Women’s History Month to trace a life built on family recipes, bold pivots, and the kind of grit that turns passion into a plan.

We start with the heirloom flavors that shaped her craft—pound cake so iconic it was eulogized, sweet potato pies, collard greens,  cabbages and the Saturday night lessons that stitched technique to memory. Then we follow the unexpected bridge from salon chair to serving table: clients tasting samples, asking for breakfast with their blowouts, and eventually trusting Vea Ella to style the bride and cook the reception. As demand swelled, she made the tough call to go full-time into catering, proving that service, timing, and care translate across industries when you listen to your customers.

The conversation turns practical and generous. Vea Ella shares hard-won small business advice: report your income, pay into Social Security, and set up your own benefits because independence doesn’t come with a safety net. Don’t cling to clients; treat them with abundance. Learn from one unhappy review without forgetting the ten who loved their meal. And when life hits hard, keep a center; she worked through grief with grace, honoring her mother’s legacy of help and hospitality.

Finally, we look ahead. Vea Ella is building a frozen food line—biscuits and yeast rolls ready to bake, donuts you can “rise and fry” a smart, scalable step that keeps soul food close to home ovens while easing the wear and tear of large events. She still offers small group lunches with 24-hour notice and stays reachable on Facebook under Appetite Delight or her name. If you’ve got connections in grocery or distribution, we’d love your guidance as she takes this next leap.

If this story fed your spirit, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find Native Drums. Your support helps us spotlight women whose work keeps our communities strong.

Transcript

Welcome And Women In Business

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello everyone and welcome to Native Drums. I'm Jocelia Williams, your host for today. And you know, this month of March is Women's History Month. And so uh in this segment, we will be talking about women in business. And uh as the month progresses, we will have different um uh career career women to come and um and talk and be our guest on the show. But today I have with me a dear friend, a longtime child, childhood friend. Our grandmothers were really good friends, and it's Viella G. Hello, Viella. Hi, how you doing? I'm great, I'm great. Welcome to Native Drums. Thank you. Now, V, oh now, where am I going to begin? She has had a successful beauty salon business, and um, because she used to do my hair, and I had everyone else's hair all over. That's exactly right. And I mean she was fantastic, she's fantastic with hair. But then she decided that she was going to go into the canoeing business. She started cooking cakes first, right? Yes, I did. Yeah. She started cooking cakes first. I remember it all. And then she began to um go into the canoeing business and do more than just cakes, just to begin to serve people in the community. So, V number one, where'd you learn to? I know we learned how to do all that cooking, but let's tell our audience, uh, our viewers, how you learned to cook all those wonderful dishes that you did.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

When I first started, um, I I think I was just like a maybe around about 12 years old, and my grandmother raised me from a baby. And so she would always cook out a big meal on Saturday nights, and she had the wood stove. And so she would um give me my doll babies and say, you know, you can go in your room and play, but I wouldn't. I would sit by the stove and I would watch her cook until I fall asleep. I don't even know when she would put me in the bed. And so then I kept asking her, and I guess the passion was there, and I was I want to do it, I want to do it, I want to cook. So she finally bought me a hot plate and put me in a corner in the room. And she said, because you know, wood back then, you know, you had to burn wood. That's right. And she so she bought me a hot plate, and she bought me, I think it was like them smoked sausages. And um, she said, You can go in that corner and play all you want with those sausages. And so that's how it started. And then my mom would go to work, and my dad would go to work, and I would wait till she go to work, and I would jump up out the bed at my mama's house, and I would go in there and I would try to cook what I see her cook from cakes to trying to cook everything. And so finally my mama said, if I don't teach this girl how to cook, she's gonna mess up all my food. We ain't gonna have no food. And so once she s um took me inside and taught me how to cook, you know, the bases like rice and and grits, you know, something simple like that. So finally, by the time I was 13, my mom totally left the kitchen and I was left to cook meals for everybody from then on. And she thought if she leave me in there, I would get tired and say, Well, I don't want to do it anymore, but that never happened. So my mom never, very seldom cooked. After I turned to the age of 13, I did our if they invite the preacher, I did the dinner. Oh, at the age of 13. At the age of 13.

Heirloom Recipes And Soul Food Roots

SPEAKER_00 3:38

My goodness, my goodness. Well, you know, we often talk about the special dishes and recipes that our grandmothers or our mothers cooked and that they have left for us. Some people have retrieved the recipes, some have not. So in your case, are there some recipes that your grandmother let Miss Meanna? It's Meanna James, everyone, we know Miss Meanna James, and that was um the eldest grandmother who raised her. Are there any recipes um that you may have uh received from her or that you remember her mixing different uh dishes?

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Her fruitcakes and her pound cake was was like, I mean, that everybody always would order. Because I remember at her funeral, Reverend Kent preached about her pound cake. And so I have do have the recipe to her um pound cake and sweet potato pies and the collard greens, how she would cook those and the cabbages, and then um just just you know, simple stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

That soul food.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Soul food, right.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

That soul food. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

When you said collard greens again, that was some of her favorite.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Well, that's awesome that you have um been able to keep those recipes because like I said, some of us have lost that.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Have have really lost that. Now, you said your mom, she said if she done teach you some stuff, she was gonna so what kinds of recipes or different things that she has done that you remember that you're able to um keep and utilize and beneficial be beneficial to you today?

Family Traditions And Community Cookouts

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Well, my daddy's mama was like a great cook. And so when my mom and my dad married, my mom lived in the house with them. Okay. You know, a lot of times when you got married, you stayed with the so she was a great cook and taught my mom like a lot of different like cobblers and like coconut pies, um, a lot of recipes. In my in the William family, all of my grandparents was like great cooks. And so it I think it just kind of came down in the generation because in our family, the boys and the girls have a passion for cooking and can cook. So they they got the guys' grill, and sometimes we'll throw a a cookout and we'll do the sides and the guys do the meats. But um, and I think that came from out of on on um the Williams side. Right. Because my grandmother, they say, used to cook uh have a big cookout every year around my daddy's birthday, and she would invite all the Effingham. Oh, they called it Sedland. What? They called the Effingham area said. Said Land. Yeah. And um, did they ever tell you why they called it that? I never knew why. Okay. And they would all have, she would have a big cookout, and everybody would look forward to that.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

It was like a community event.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Community event, yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Oh, awesome. Well, um, your girls, your girls, because you have all girls. Five five girls. Five girls. Wow. I know your husband was all these ladies in the house. Um when it comes to cooking, so they have inherited that that they don't have the passion.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Oh, I see the passion in some of my grandchildren. Okay. I have a grandson, uh, he came down Monday, and then one afternoon I taught him how to do donuts and cinnamon rolls. He went back to Charlotte and maybe a couple hours long enough for it to rise and everything. His mom had to take him straight to the grocery store. And he sent me pictures and they were perfect. The donuts, cinnamon rolls, he did a wonderful job. And he's cook he's cooking at his house about all the time now, too.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Oh, well, that's great. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah, he's by the age I was.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

So it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

I see it more in the grands. And I have one daughter that um I think it's inner, it's just got to come out. You know how some of them. Has to be cultivated. Yeah, cultivated a little bit. Me, it's just a passion. I couldn't get my mama couldn't get me out of the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Well, you know, these 21st century women don't do a lot of cooking. So uh that may have a little something to do with it when it comes to the country. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

So it's really two grandsons. One one can cook vegan real good.

unknown 8:12

Ah.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Oh, how nice. I know. And you know, it's something about a man cooking. It's something a little bit different when a man cooks. I don't know what it is, you know, that chef.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

They always say that. Even when I was doing hair, they say a man can do hair better than a lady. And they always say men cook better than women.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Well, men do, yeah, man. I've never had a gentleman do my hair, I don't think. Maybe once when I was at Benedict, I think. But um, look, you do a magnificent job. So uh are you doing hair at all?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

I have, I have, I'm doing a little. You know, you got some just want your hand. Some people think that um I have growing hands. So I'll have, I know one lady call me, she said, if you can just comb my hair. She said, just I just need your hands in my hair. So they believe that.

From Salon To Full-Time Catering

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Well, yeah, well, God bless blesses the works of our hands. So He has anointed your hands for that. And so I believe. I believe it. Oh my goodness. So now how long have you been, now how long have you been in the hair business, in the beauty business?

SPEAKER_01 9:19

We did, I did hair. I had a beauty shop we had. I know it was up there, at least about 10 girls in there at one time. And um that was, I think we I did hair over about 30 years. But the whole time when I was doing hair, you know, I would bring like little samples of food, and the workers started eating it, and then you know how people they see something, they were like, Can I taste that? So he got to a point where my clients would book their hair appointment and ask me to bring breakfast at the same time. So then I want I got to the point where on a Saturday I would just set a buffet up in there. I would get up real early. I mean, because it don't take me long to um put out a meal. I mean, that's what it's just simple for me. And they could just go to the buffet and eat and then come get the hair done. I've had some where I did the um hair for their wedding and then cook the food for the reception. I've done that. A one-stop shop. One-stop. But that was why I went in, probably end up going into the cooking full time because um they the cooking started overtaking.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Oh, right. There was a need for it.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah, they wanted cakes. They wanted, and I was like, you can't you can't do both. Yeah. Yeah. Not not full-time. So I'm basically about a full-time caterer now.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

And I'll do just a few hairs, because I have some people, if the hair have a problem, then they they're gonna want me to do it for a little while and then get back on track.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Right, right. So you in the hair business for 30 years, and so the catering began to take over, the cooking began to take over. So how long have you been? Catering, maybe about 25. Wow. That's have you um decided to have a 25th anniversary or anything? Or you haven't thought about that? I hadn't even thought about it.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Just planted the seed. Always doing something for somebody else's special case.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Have one of those big cookouts like your grandmother used to have.

Hard Days, Big Jobs, And Resilience

SPEAKER_01 11:19

I know. And then have your grandsons come and help. You know, I had buried my mama um that day and that evening I had a rehearsal dinner. Oh my god. It was already on the book. Um Lyris James was still living in. And so she left the funeral early and got it because I had everything in place, and she helped got everything together. And it wasn't that many, but it was I still went and did. I couldn't, it wasn't nothing I could do for mom. Yeah, she was over in Glory Lane. Yeah, so I went and did the rehearsal dinner. So when the people came back to the house, I was gone. But you know, my brothers and stuff was there.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

And then I guess that helped you to, you know, work through.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

And she that was what she would want me to do. When while she was here, she helped me out with the catering. I know I had one big job that um she helped me wash chicken and beef because it was an event for uh a big business and it was about a thousand people. And it was on the outside, and we had so much chicken and and beef to the wash, and my mama said she thought she was gonna fly. She always wanted to help, but she said that broker. She still helped after that, though.

Business Advice For Young Entrepreneurs

SPEAKER_00 12:33

She was a wonderful woman. She thought she was gonna fly. I can hear her saying that now. I really can. Oh my goodness. Well, Viela, with you um having been in business for 30 years with your beauty shop and 25 years in catering, you what can you say to a young lady who is thinking about or who wants to launch her business? Uh-huh. What can you say to her um uh some that would be beneficial to her as she begins her journey in business?

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Well, in the beauty shop business, what I tell everyone is to make sure you have benefits and because it's it's it's fast, quick money. But when you become to the age where you get ready to draw your social security, you don't have anything put in if you had not uh put your biker in. So you won't get a check.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

There's people that did hair and did hair and didn't re didn't report it, and so when they got to the age where they couldn't do hair anymore, then there wasn't nothing coming in from the government because you didn't put anything in. My goodness. So I tell all of them to try to get insurance, try to get some kind of retirement plan because that's something that you're gonna have to do yourself.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Oh right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

And I and in the um in the in any of the business, try not to get upset if somebody like like if we had somebody in the shopping, like with ten girls, somebody gonna see something that another stylist do. But it's okay for them to go to that other stylist without you being upset with that stylist, because it's at the end of the day, it's their money. You have a right to um go to whoever you want to. And so I always told them don't be upset because everybody this the clients are the shop clients. And they're not personally your clients. And they are don't be upset with them because you may do the same thing. You don't go to the same grocery store all the time. You don't go to the same restaurant all the time. That's true. And the same thing in their food business, um, God didn't please everybody. And so you're not gonna please everybody. And and one thing that he said that is so true, God could not heal nobody in his own hometown.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

He couldn't heal them. Yeah, yeah, they said what good has come out of Nazareth?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yeah, they didn't say nothing good has come out of Nazareth.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Right. So that that don't let that put you down. Don't let that make you think that you can't succeed.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

That's right.

Launching A Frozen Food Line

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Because there my like one of my daughters, she said, don't get upset if you got one satisfied, I mean, you got one client that's very s unsatisfied, and you got ten that's satisfied. See, a lot of people tend to dwell on that one, you know, because it's gonna upset you, that's naturally. But um, you got ten people that was happy and then you got one that's dissatisfied. Don't you know, yeah, you're gonna try to find out what's wrong and change it, but don't let that get you down. Don't let it knock your esteem down.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

That's right, that's right. Just take it for what it is and utilize whatever the problem was and utilize it.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

I'll try to do it over.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

I'll try to do it better the next time.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Right, right. Because everybody has felt failed short.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Amen. Amen. So now, one last thing, when it comes to appetite delight, right? Yes. Yes, yes. When it comes to appetite delight, you are um just all over the place cooking, you okay, you cook dinners on certain days. Give us your your um your schedules for the week and and um and what is available to our viewers um during the week um when it comes to appetite delight.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Sometime if I'm not real busy with um, you know, catering events, then I'll do dinners on Sunday. Because during COVID, I did dinners the whole time. And it it was just like a floor of people. And so um then when COVID was over with, then um, you know, I went back to just doing the catering.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Right.

Ordering, Delivery, And Turnaround

SPEAKER_01 16:45

And so now I'm trying to, and you know, the older you get, you know, the wear and tear on your body. So I'm trying to launch a frozen food line now. Really? Yeah, because I can do biscuits and um you can buy them frozen, bake them yourself. I can do yeast rolls and you can bake them yourself. Either I can bake them and you can put them in the frozen section, and when you take them out, they still as if you just baked them. So I'm gonna try to get um some frozen a frozen food line now. Awesome. In the grocery stores. I'm gonna try to get them in the grocery stores. That's my plan. Um, doing my homework now to figure out what I need to do and who I need to talk to. Right. So I can get a frozen line started.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Well, if any viewers know who Viola needs to talk to or what she needs to do, um, call us here at Native Drums and let us get her, you get you in contact with her so she can And my donuts. And her donuts, so she can get all of those wonderful products in the grocery stores. I can see them now. We we're calling it, we're calling it right now. We're acclaiming it. We declare a decree uh that that frozen food will be in the stores, in the grocery store near you. Oh wow, that's awesome. That's awesome. And so, um, and like for lunch or however, if someone calls you, you know, like something.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

If they have at least um five to ten people that need um lunch and they don't want to go out, we'll deliver it. Uh either, you know, they can come pick it up. But um, I've had people that have um called me like that morning and say, I don't feel like I want to cook when I get off. And would you prepare this? Well, I'm I'm there. So if as long as I have 24-hour notice, I can do it.

Closing Thoughts And How To Reach Viella

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Okay. Yeah. Awesome, awesome. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Well, V, you have just been really enlightening. You really have uh when it comes to business. Now, especially what you said about getting the benefits for young people, because they don't really think about that. Right. You know, they yeah, that's not really thought about that. You need to make sure that you um put into that social security because you know, uh at 6570, 7580, you don't want to you may still not want to um do hair or or or work in that business. Yeah, right. You may not be able to do that, and at least you know that you have that social security coming in. Mm-hmm. That's great. Well, is there anything else that you have to expound upon before we leave our list, our uncle said listeners with the radio, our viewers?

SPEAKER_01 19:27

No, that's about it. I'm just gonna try to launch that line and hope everybody will try to go buy some of those biscuits.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

They don't have to um mix them up. I'll mix them for you. You just go to the store biome and just put them in the oven and bake them. The doughnuts, they can be frozen, you rise them and fry them. Rise them and fry.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Rise them and fry. I love it. That's your slogan right there. Rise them and frown. That's it. Oh, that's wonderful, that's wonderful. So is there uh where you want to let our viewers know how they can get in contact with you if they need your services?

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Um, I'm on Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

You're on Facebook? I am. So is Appetite Delight on Facebook?

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Appetite Delight or either my name under my name.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

V Logy. On Facebook. Great, great. Leave me a message. All right. Thanks, V, for coming by and uh sharing with us on this woman's history segment. Uh, it has been really great. Thank you so much. All right, thank you. All right, everyone, thank you so much for watching. And like I said, this month uh we will be celebrating women. And so make sure you tune in at six o'clock every evening here on YouTube with Native Drums. Thank you so much for watching.