Consider the mushroom.
Daishu McGriff did. She’s owner of Shroomlicious Meals, where she sells her strictly-made-with-mushrooms cuisine.
Her love of cooking began in her hometown of Gordon, Alabama. Her dad, mom, and grandmother, who helped raise her, cooked.
“I grew up in a neighborhood full of kids all the same age as me,” says McGriff, 32. “All my family. All my cousins. Probably 15 of us lived on the same street. My summers were amazing growing up. We would have a moment where we’d all go back home and we’d cook. Make it and bring it under the tree and sit and eat it.”
She often made ramen dishes. “We would put cheese in our ramen with sliced ham and broccoli and stuff like that.”
McGriff majored in business management — and also worked in the cafeteria — at Auburn University at Montgomery. She became the full-time marketing manager at the university after she graduated.
After she took a marketing manager job in Florence, Alabama, McGriff learned that her father, with whom she was very close, had leukemia. He died in 2018.
That same year, McGriff moved to Memphis to be marketing director for the University of Memphis dining services.
McGriff was making money with her new career, but she still “felt a void.” She began going to a therapist, who told her she needed to “pour” her emotions into something. “So, I started cooking.”
She began documenting her journey to become more health conscious in her cooking. “I decided to leave meat alone. Eat more plants.”
McGriff shared her e-book, Plant Forward Living, in which she encouraged people to “eat more plant-based food or plants,” online. “I was sharing on TikTok when I realized I was really into plant-based food, but I didn’t like tofu or tempeh or seitan. I didn’t like having it as a meat option.”
She discovered oyster mushrooms online. “Whenever you’re frying it, it reminds you of meat. I started looking up how people were cooking with them. Looking up recipes and making up my own. One day I made a collard greens wrap with oyster mushrooms.”
She posted the dish on TikTok. “I woke up the next day with a ton of followers.”
McGriff began learning about other mushrooms. She began buying different varieties, including lion’s mane, golden oysters, and maitake, from a local mushroom farm.
She made videos of her mushroom dishes. “I kept growing on social media. Like crazy. And I started getting the opportunity to do meals.”
And, she adds, “People on Instagram started referring to me as ‘The Mushroom Queen.’”
McGriff began a meal prep service after her physical trainer asked her to cook for her and her clients.
Cynthia Daniels then asked her to participate in the first Memphis Vegan Festival. Daniels also promoted McGriff on her own social media pages.
McGriff’s business began to, well, mushroom. She cooked burgers, tacos, and Philly cheesesteaks — all made with mushrooms — at the festival. McGriff then moved into OtherFoods Kitchen to do her meal prep.
She began selling her mushroom fare at various festivals in and out of Memphis, as well as her mushroom drinks, including lion’s mane dragon fruit lemonade and chaga peach tea.
Last year, she held her first dinner, A Night in Shroomtopia, in Memphis. “It’s a seven-course meal. And every course focuses on mushrooms.”
People traveled from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D. C., to attend the $175-a-ticket event, she says.
McGriff took the event on the road. Last year, in addition to Memphis, they traveled to Chicago, Brooklyn, and Atlanta. “We did different menus.” And she’s already booked cities for her 2024 Shroomlicious dinners.
Steve Cantor, who, along with his wife Karen Lebovitz, owns OtherFoods Kitchen, asked her to be the first to open a restaurant at their recently-opened second OtherFoods Kitchen location at 394 North Watkins Street. McGriff is now open Wednesdays through Sundays at the new location. “Long term, the idea is to franchise, but more so farm to table. We want to be able to grow our mushrooms on site.”
And McGriff wants to one day provide mushroom-growing kits, which she’ll call “Grow Mushrooms With Me.”
