Southern Blends By Chef Mel

Restaurant, Breakfast restaurant, Delivery service in Los Angeles, CA

Address

1864 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90007

Phone

(310) 482-9707

Website

food.orders.co

About Southern Blends By Chef Mel

Southern Blends By Chef Mel is a Black-owned and woman-owned soul food business based in Los Angeles, run by Chef Melodi Harrison. Born and raised in Inglewood, California, Chef Mel is a traditionally trained culinary professional who holds an Associate of Science in Culinary Arts from the Art Institute of Las Vegas and brings more than fifteen years of experience as a personal chef and professional caterer. Operating as a ghost kitchen, Southern Blends offers soul food for delivery and pickup across Los Angeles, alongside catering, private dining, nutrition consulting, and travel chef services for clients who want a personal chef on the road. The menu leans into comfort-food classics done with care, with standout dishes including her mac and cheese and crispy fried chicken, both of which have earned the business a devoted local following as a soul food destination in the city. Chef Mel's approach blends formal culinary training with the home cooking she grew up with, resulting in food that feels both polished and deeply personal. Her guiding philosophy, captured in her own words as I can give you the recipes, but the sauce ain't gone taste the same, speaks to the value she places on technique, seasoning, and the intangible touch that comes from years of practice. Whether she is preparing a private dinner, catering an event, or filling delivery orders through her ghost kitchen, Chef Mel positions herself as a chef who brings Southern soul food traditions to a modern, on-demand format, serving Los Angeles diners who want home-style cooking without the wait of a sit-down restaurant.

Chef Mel's path to running her own soul food business began at age five in her grandmother's kitchen in Inglewood, California, where she started out helping prepare vegetables before eventually learning to cook full meals alongside her family. Cooking became a constant thread through her life, even as she pursued other paths for a time. A period of personal challenges eventually reignited her passion for the kitchen, and she made the decision to relocate to Las Vegas to pursue formal culinary training at the Art Institute of Las Vegas, earning an Associate of Science in Culinary Arts. There, she combined that professional education with the traditional cooking knowledge passed down through her family, shaping a style that blends technique with heritage. After graduating, Chef Mel supported herself by cooking and delivering food to her personal network while balancing work and school, a grassroots hustle that became the true foundation of her business. That early experience of cooking for people she knew, one order at a time, grew into Southern Blends By Chef Mel, now a Black-owned and woman-owned ghost kitchen offering soul food delivery, catering, private dining, and travel chef services throughout Los Angeles. Her tagline, that she can give you the recipes but the sauce won't taste the same, reflects the pride she takes in the personal history baked into every dish, tracing back to those early days beside her grandmother.

Services

• 10 PCS Wings & Fries — $10.99
• Blackened Shrimp — $16.50
• Blue Cheese Sauce — $0.75
• Cajun Sauce — $2.00
• Fried Catfish & Fries — $10.99
• Half Fried Catfish & Half Wings — $17.50
• Hot Sauce — $0.50
• Oxtail Mac & Cheese Eggrolls — $22.50
• Ranch Sauce — $0.75
• Red Velvet Supreme — $8.50
• Rice — $5.50
• Spring water — $3.50
• Strawberry Cheesecake Churros — $7.50
• Tartar Sauce — $0.50

Photos