GAME CHANGER: Houston Chef LaToya Larkin’s Black Girl Tamales becoming a national thing of beauty
Andre Johnson 
She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard; She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. (Proverbs 31:16-17 NIV)
CHANGING THE GAME
DALLAS — Just after 1 o’clock CST in the afternoon on Thursday, Chef LaToya Larkin wasted little time hastening to her Facebook timeline, where she made what was seemingly a much-anticipated announced.
Said Larkin in a post before her more than 4,900 social media followers: “It’s official I own EVERY and ALL rights to the Creative Fusion Tamale Concept of Black Girl Tamales. It’s time to hit up my graphic designer so she can add @TM to my images. I’m positively building the brand and showing y’all how to BOSS up if you still scared.”
Say this about Larkin: She certainly isn’t scared in any way, shape or form, particularly when it comes to sharing with the masses how she has been blessed mightily to be the face of Black Girl Tamales, her Houston-based creative fusion tamale product line that, in her own words, “has taken off.”
“It’s hot right now and what’s going to take me to the top,” Larkin told Making Headline News this week.
MORE ON CHEF LARKIN: https://www.facebook.com/NotEnoughThymePCS/
A longtime chef and culinary instructor whose two-way career spans a combined 30 years, Larkin — to her credit — has steadfastly gone to great lengths to take cooking tamales to a whole new level.
“There are many (people) doing tamales, but there’s nobody is doing what I’m doing with this creative fusion twist on tamales,” Larkin says without hesitation, yet with pure confidence.
Interestingly, Larkin, 39, is owner and CEO of Not Enough Thyme Personal Chef Services, her rising culinary endeavor she established in 2006.
“Personal chef services are one of the best ways for busy families and professionals to ensure that they are consuming healthy, delicious, and affordable meals,” said a spokesperson for Larkin’s Not Enough Thyme Personal Chef Services in a detailed introduction of this venture on its Facebook business page. “A personal chef comes to your home on a scheduled date every week and prepares multiple meals for your family. Each meal is labeled and stored in your refrigerator or freezer. Heating directions and a nutritional index are provided and your kitchen is left in an immaculate condition.”
In addition to providing top-notch personal chef services, Larkin’s Not Enough Thyme Personal Chef Services has become a fixture for customarily offering personalized menus, dinner for two, catering, and cooking classes, among other entities.
Still, in an immeasurable business professional stint that spans 15 years, Larkin’s Black Girl Tamales undoubtedly has proven to be her company’s biggest game changer.
Amongst the notable reasons Larkin’s featured venture is savoring a considerable amount of success is that Black Girl Tamales is starting to acquire more of a national presence, a trend that has greatly enhanced her remarkably brilliant culinary mechanics.
“(My products have been shipped to) many places, and the best is yet to come,” Larkin said. “(I’ve established) Partnerships with other chefs in other cities, franchise partnership opportunities in other cities with other chefs, and shipping within the state of Texas and nationwide.”
All of which are massive signs of things to come for Larkin, a native of Jasper, Texas who holds an undergraduate degree in Culinary Management and an MBA in Nonprofit Management.
Aside from having erected what has become a nationally-acclaimed tamale empire, Larkin is the CEO of what is known as Divah Chef Apparel-T-Shirt And Apron, her rising clothing line that is comprised of an a variety of catchy phrases for the “kitchen hustler,” whether for the male or female.
“One of my favorite phrases is, ‘While you were debating if my food taste as good as it looked, I SOLD it’ or ‘Slow Feet Don’t Eat,’” Larkin said. “Both meaning that I do not hold food unless I choose to and will convince no one who’s in a debate about my skills in the kitchen because my clients already know what it’s hitting for.”
Also, Larkin is the mastermind behind It’s Thyme 4a Change, her Houston-based nonprofit organization she emphasizes “is dear to me,” because it serves as an extension to her Culinary Program Coordinator and Instructor endeavor for a local Houston-area school district.
“We work with at-risk youth to plant the seed of positivity of culinary,” Larkin said of her nonprofit organization. “As we know, we lose many of our youth on the streets, and they get caught up in the system. We’re here to exemplify that you can do positive things with food and make a great honest living because, regardless of anything in life, people love good food.”
RAISING THE BAR
Not to mention a beloved, big-hearted Texas chef whose immeasurable culinary skills are steadily generating a national presence.
As for her mission for having been blessed to function mightily in her element, Larkin said:
“To remember where I have been and where I will go through, maintaining positive relationships, being worthy of the respect and admiration of family, friends and business associates. By choosing the ethical way while making a personal commitment to honesty and integrity; find peacefulness within myself by looking inward while using my heart to guide my dreams and desires, and my mind to pursue knowledge, balancing all of my obligations.
“My mission is to make a difference in the lives of others by sharing my life experiences and knowledge of my struggles,” Larkin continued. “I want to be happy and be part of making other people happy. I will do this by working continuously to learn and understand my client’s needs and all factors affecting them with my personal development from my basic values and virtues. My mission is to guide you in discovering who you are and to inspire you to reach your full potential.”
For more information about Houston Businesswoman Chef LaToya Larkin, MBA, CCE “Chefdivah,” to inquire about her services, a public appearance or speaking engagement, connect with her via social media at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NotEnoughThymePCS/. Also, send email to: Email: blackgirltamales@gmail.com.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: If you are an entrepreneur, business owner, producer, author, athlete, musician, barber, life coach, motivational speaker, cosmetologist, tax preparer, model, or pastor/minister who is seeking exposure and would like to share your story with an in-depth news feature, call Reporter Andre Johnson at 901-690-6587 or Facebook message him under “Andre T. Johnson” for details.
Andre Johnson is the award-winning Founder and Publisher for Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former staff reporter of sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, Johnson covers the NBA Southwest Division from Dallas, Texas. To reach Johnson, send email to makingheadlinenews@gmail.com or to memphisgraduate@yahoo.com. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist or Instagram at @makingheadlinenews.
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