Nicole and her mom Pam during a Facebook live cooking show.
Today we’re interviewing Nicole Talbott of P.S. Flavor!™ Artisanal Spice Blends, one of our High Quality Organics Express customers. P.S. Flavor!™ is an innovative spice company located in Orlando, Florida that delivers you custom artisanal spice blends. But it doesn’t stop there. This mother-daughter duo team brings you monthly Facebook cooking shows that give you live action cooking demonstrations for you to watch at home and follow along in your own kitchen.
Who is P.S. Flavor!™ ?
P.S. Flavor!™ is an artisanal spice blending company owned and operated by Culinary Nutritionist Pam Smith, RDN, and her daughter, Nicole Talbott. Beginning with just 3 spice blends in 2013, there are now 15 flavors for home chefs and restaurants to choose from, each one custom-designed by Pam Smith with optimal flavor and whole-body wellness in mind. Once the blend recipes and ingredients are perfected, Nicole and a small team of “Spice Girls” put their gloves on and hand-blend small batches of each flavor, and then bottle, label, and package them in-house to send directly to customers. The goal is to get the freshest of the fresh into home and restaurant kitchens – knowing that fresh spices make for even better meals, greater satisfaction, and the most nutritive value with each bite.
What is your mission and what do you offer?
P.S. Flavor!™ blends empower customers to make delicious and nutritious meals – with consistent results every time. We know that people eat food they like, and people who eat well, live well! P.S. Flavor!™ offers bags, shaker jars, and cooking kits filled with spice blends to home chefs, and Food Service-sized bulk containers to restaurants.
P.S. Flavor!™ doesn’t just provide their customers with spice blends, though, it is our goal to teach customers how to use them – with ease – to make meals they are proud to serve. To do this, we have created a Facebook community called the P.S. Flavor!™ Cooking Club where anyone and everyone can come together for their culinary journey. Monthly recipes (including wine pairings, grocery lists, and prep sheets) are posted and then cooked by Chef Pam on Facebook Live, taking the guess-work out of cooking, teaching kitchen hacks all along the way, and equipping home chefs with skills to create their own restaurant-quality meals from the comfort of their own kitchen! Check it out at facebook.com/groups/psflavorclub
Facebook Live Cooking - Follow along while you cook your own meal!
What is your favorite thing about working with your mom?
Besides getting to spend my days with my favorite person in the whole world, the best thing about working with my mom is being able to share with others what I have had growing up. I talk to women and men all the time who feel like they simply “missed the boat” when it comes to cooking. They feel like no one taught them, they don’t know where to start, and the idea of making a delicious and nutritious meal seems overwhelming. I felt overwhelmed by cooking before we started the spice blend line – not because I didn’t grow up with an amazing mentor, but because I had too many fails with meals I would try to make on my own. Once I started putting together my mom’s flavors that I could just shake or rub on my food, I realized that with these blends and a few foundational cooking skills, I could so easily make a meal for my family that we would all love! It changed everything for me!! As P.S. Flavor!™ started growing and more and more people started using them, it was like a wave of new proud home chefs started popping up all over! It brings us so much joy when people post a meal they’re excited about, and it all starts with just having the right tools.
What is the best recipe you or your mom have developed?
Oh my -- what a hard question! First, let me say that all of the recipe developing is my mom. Her creativity and skill never cease to amaze me. I’ve watched her develop full-flavor nutritious menu items for restaurants, theme parks, catering events, and hotels for decades. She’s the master! My role is to lead the blending, bottling, and getting the flavors into home and restaurant kitchens. Plus, eating the food – to make sure it’s good, of course! :) So I get to sign off on all of our recipes before we publish them… meaning I love them all! One of my favorite recipes to piece together, though, was the Smokey Southern Oven Fried Chicken over Buttermilk Caesar Salad with homemade croutons and Deviled eggs; this was a nostalgia dish for me! When I was 5 years old, my mom wrote a kids’ cookbook called Come Cook with Me – it was designed with kids as the chefs and adults as the helpers. My sister and I loved cooking out of it, and one of our favorite meals to make was called “Crunchy Chicken.” At a very young age, we even got to go on The Today Show to make this meal with my mom as her kid chefs. It was an experience that I’ll never forget. So when Mom decided to do a spin-off of Crunchy Chicken using P.S. Flavor!™, I couldn’t have been more excited – or more pleased with the results. It’s a fantastic meal!
P.S. Flavor!™ - Crunchy Chicken
Please tell us a favorite story working together.
When I was 13 years old, my mom started hosting all of the culinary demonstrations at Disney World’s Epcot International Food & Wine Festival – and has hosted all 23 years since! Year after year, I would go to the Festival to watch her be the host and emcee for world-renowned chefs from around the globe as they cooked their favorite meals. She is the voice of the crowd – asking questions, and keeping the live on-stage cooking demonstrations going while the chefs cook. Fast forward 20 years when I was given the opportunity to be my mom’s host as she was the celebrity chef cooking. Introducing her to the crowd, bringing her onstage, and interacting with her as she cooked for the 120 people in the audience was such a special moment for us both. Tears may have been shed, and rightfully so. J For as proud as I am of her, she says the same of me, and we are so honored to be on this journey together.
What are some of your customer feedbacks that have really made an impression on you?
There are two reasons we still do P.S. Flavor!™ Spice Blends… 1. I don’t think either of us can cook without them anymore! And 2. Customer testimonials! Here are just a couple of the ones that have touched our hearts and reminded us that this is so much more than about the food:
“These classes have been amazing to me. Not only have I learned a lot, but you ladies make feel like cooking with my Mom and sister. I don't get to do that anymore because they have both passed away. The dishes are delicious and I have been able to convert them to vegan very easily. Thanks again for starting the classes and continuing them.”
“My daughter has anaphylactic food allergies and is in love with the Adobo seasoning! It’s safe for her and she adds it to chicken, chips, and her rice for new flavors! Thank you for providing something fun and new for my daughter who has a very limited diet!”
(A husband about his wife) “She is an amazing cook now! I’ve cooked since I was a child and learned from classes and other chefs. I taught her a lot of the basics when we became a couple. We both learned some new tricks from F&W over the years, that helped refine skills for both of us quite a bit, but the P.S. Flavor Club last year really gave her the skills, technique and confidence. I think if you asked her she would list you guys as the biggest influence in her cooking journey so far! Even I, who have had many great teachers and many, many, many years of practice, would say that I’ve become a significantly better cook since being involved.”
P.S. Flavor! Citrus Chicken
What is your favorite High Quality Organics Express Ingredient?
Hands down, it’s the Smoked Paprika! This is our not-so-secret ingredient in almost every one of our blends, and one we worked the hardest to get. When we started P.S. Flavor!™ in 2013, we tried to find an organic smoked paprika, but had no luck. They just didn’t taste “smoky” enough. We learned of the very strict smoking processes that must be followed for a Smoked Paprika to be organic, and after trying a half dozen organic smoked paprikas, we finally resigned ourselves to believe we could not get a good, high flavor, organic version. Even non-organic, it is not easy to get a robust smoked paprika. We tried about a dozen different ones before settling on one – as we were looking for a bright color in addition to depth of flavor. When HQO started offering Smoked Paprika, and HQO Express was willing to get it to us in the 5 lb. bags, we jumped on it and never looked back. It gives every bit of the flavor, smokiness, and color we sought after from day one – plus, being organic, we were able to bring the majority of our blends up to being made with 100% organic ingredients. Our blends wouldn’t be what they are without HQO and the quality they are able to supply us with to make each one. We are consistently thankful to HQO and believe they are a huge reason why we – and our customers – have found such success with P.S. Flavor!™ spice blends.
How can we learn more about you?
Shop: www.psflavor.com
Instagram: @pamsmithflavor
Facebook Page: facebook.com/psflavor
Facebook P.S. Flavor!™ Cooking Club: facebook.com/groups/psflavorclub
Facebook My P.S. Flavor!™ group: facebook.com/groups/mypsflavor
Or just get in touch with us! Write Nicole directly at nicole@pamsmith.com or call 407-734-1013. We love talking to our customers! Note: all Food Service requests should go directly through Nicole – she’ll get your restaurant all set up!
