Plant-Based Chef Shayla on Cooking for Tabitha Brown and an NBA Champion Dream Client

Shayla Netty, also known professionally as Chef Shayla MD., is a plant-based chef and doctor in North Carolina. The “Peach State” native has a personal reason for why she began cooking healthy meals to “reverse health conditions.” With her warm smile and delightful personality, Chef Shayla shares that she recently cooked for Tabitha Brown, and how a four-time NBA Champion and his wife are among her dream clients. All the while, we sampled one of her plant-based treats that would satisfy anyone’s sweet tooth, whether vegan or not. Read more about what Chef Shayla cooks up in conversation in this down-home kitchen interview.

I’m going to have to copy that whole bio, joked Chef Shayla at our introduction of her. That was way better than what I would have written. Thank you for making me sound good.

Chef Shayla is making her favorite treat, Peanut Butter Pecan Stuffed Dates (Dipped in Dark Chocolate). She says she loves sharing the recipe with clients she cooks for who ask for a “go-to dish that’s really quick and easy” to make. Adding that she has a “bit of a sweet tooth, especially late at night.”

I Cooked for Tabitha Brown and She Told People to Book Me

Wearing a striped apron over a black t-shirt that displays her name, she stands at her kitchen table in front of a large wooden cutting board and small white bowls filled with food ingredients, taking us step by step through how to prepare the recipe as she shares her chef journey.

“It’s for my daughter. I have a seven-year-old,” says Chef Shayla when we asked her the reason for becoming a plant-based chef. “I was pregnant with her and at around the 21-week stage of my pregnancy, I got an ultrasound that diagnosed her with a chronic heart condition that required her to have three open-heart surgeries. Her first was at two days old, her second at three 3-months old, and her third was at three years old. She’s doing wonderful now, but that made me take a step back from how I thought about medicine as a doctor and even how I thought about health as a person. I had to cook differently for my daughter (and her heart), and that led me down my own path of figuring out there’s so much more to prevention than just talking to people and telling them what to do,” she says while shuffling the bowls in the order of her presentation. “I had to actually live it out in my life, for my daughter, and that led me to cooking differently for myself, my whole family, and for my friends. People kept saying, ‘Man, this tastes so good; you should cook for others.’ So, I started doing cooking classes in the community through my non-profit, and I realized I liked it even more than doing the classes every now and then. I wanted to see if I could make this a business. And people decided to let me cook for them,” laughs Chef Shayla as she demonstrates how to fill the fruit (Dates) with peanut butter before she inserts it onto a skewer and dips it into the melted vegan chocolate. (*Use coconut oil so that the chocolate is not so thick.) Chef Shayla then sprinkles on chopped pecans, though you can use any nut of your choice for plant-based protein and a serving of healthy fat.

“There’s a verse in the bible,” Chef Shayla says, that describes the moment she felt cooking for Tabitha Brown. Taken from Ephesians 3:20– God says, I’ll do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ever ask. “I didn’t expect any of that. I just expected that I would be able to bring food to Tabitha and her team and maybe get to meet her, so when I heard from her team that she was recording a (food review) video upstairs after I delivered the food and briefly talked with her, I responded, “Oh, Okay that’s cool,” shares Chef Shayla while resting the palms of her hands on her kitchen table recalling the story. “Then my phone starts blowing up as I’m cleaning up, and people I haven’t talked to in years are like,” Oh, my gosh! And I’m like, “What’s happening? And then I checked Instagram, and for a whole week, I couldn’t open the app because it was DMs after DMs from all these followers and messages, and I really couldn’t keep up. It was overwhelming in a good way and such a blessing.” Chef Shayla shared she met Tabitha several times before as a fan, but that when she met her that day, “It was amazing because she remembered me and said she had been looking for me to get my food again because I had delivered some to her before. Her energy is so positive and authentic. And it’s almost like when she’s looking at you, she’s really paying attention. Everything I could have dreamed of it being, it was that, and it gave me more of a fire to serve other people, and it’s opened up so many doors. I would say too many doors, and I have to be careful of the doors that open,” says Chef Shayla with laughter. “It’s a lot to vet, but I thank God. It’s a blessing, and I’ve told Tabitha the same. I’ve told her ‘thank you’ many times, and she’s just so humble and gracious. She’s a special person. God is definitely using her to bless others, and I’m just so grateful. I wake up every day and ask, like, did that really happen, and then I go on Instagram and I’m like yeah” (laugh).

What I like most is not the food it’s the connection that I build with people

“What I tell people, “A wholefood plant-based diet has the power to give you all of the vitamins, proteins, and healthy fats you need, says Chef Shayla, explaining the benefits of the food she prepares for clients, who some struggle with diabetes, high blood pressure, and high Cholesterol. Something she likes to point out is that her recipes contain all of the nutrition and with flavor, and that she uses the term plant-based for her cooking because “you’re eating more fruits, vegetables, and legumes that help the body and help you feel good while again still having flavor because that’s important because you don’t want it to be bland because you can’t keep up with it” (the regimen of eating a plant-based diet). Chef Shayla says, her sweet snack is a “good combination of healthy, but tasting good too.”

“I’m in a big growth phase,” says Chef Shayla, for what’s next for her. “I’m cooking for more clients and more dinner parties, and maybe there’s a cookbook in the making. We’ll see. I keep getting so many comments on Instagram.”

Chef Shayla says this in regards to what she loves the most about what she does, “What I like most is not the food, it’s the connection that I build with people when I’m talking with them, either while I’m making the food or once they taste the food. I think it’s very special, and it’s more than just the taste, even with the nutrition it provides. That people trust you to make something (to cook) for them, that’s a very vulnerable state and so when my clients are eating the food I make and—they’re surprised that it tastes so good, it almost opens a doorway for people to share with me more about their struggles—their journey and that’s the thing that makes me keep doing it. I love hearing people’s stories and the transformation it brings.”

We asked Chef Shayla, ‘Who is her dream client besides Tabitha Brown?’ “I have someone, it’s actually a basketball player. I love the NBA!” she says. “Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry. And he’s from North Carolina, so you never know. His wife can cook, so I don’t know,” she laughs before our conversation ended, and she was on to the next to start dinner for her own family.

It has been a pleasure connecting with you, Chef Shayla.

“Thank you, guys, for reaching out and allowing me to be a part of your platform.”