About

My name is Mellisa Kay, and this little corner of the internet is the place where all my love for cooking, family stories, Southern food comfort, and kitchen adventures finally found a home.

Some people say every good dish has a story behind it. I believe that too, mostly because the recipes I cook today carry years of memories from my childhood, my home, and the people who taught me how to stir, taste, and trust my hands.

Cooking has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up in the Southern part of the country, where food is more than flavor. Food is how we talk to each other without saying a word. Food is how we show care, how we comfort, how we celebrate, and sometimes how we keep the peace when everyone gets loud and opinionated around the table.

In a way, the South raises you with its food. And I’m grateful for that every single day.

Growing Up in a Southern Kitchen

Before I ever held a pen, I held a wooden spoon. Before I could multiply numbers, I was already measuring flour the old way—by scooping, tapping, and listening to my grandmother say, “Just a little more, baby, until it feels right.” Southern cooking doesn’t always follow strict rules, at least in my family. It’s a mix of memory, instinct, and a whole lot of love.

My earliest memories take place in warm kitchens with windows steamed up from pots of something simmering. My grandmother had a way of turning simple ingredients into something that could fix almost any problem.

My mother was the same way, always moving from the stove to the counter, always humming, always tasting, always handing me something to try even when I didn’t ask.

They taught me to cook long before I knew it was going to shape my adult life. It wasn’t a formal kind of teaching. No one sat down with recipe cards or told me to study anything. I learned by watching, helping, and messing up a lot.

I learned that food tastes better when you’re patient, and sometimes it tastes even better when you’re not. I learned that you don’t need fancy tools. Most of the time, a single pan and a good spoon can carry you through almost anything.

The Heart of My Cooking

Some people ask me what my style is. I never know how to answer it neatly. My cooking is a mix of the South I grew up in, the lessons passed down by the women who raised me, the chaos of raising four kids, and the curiosity that makes me love trying things from different restaurants and turning them into something we can enjoy at home.

I like food that feels real. Food that fills the house with smells before anyone even sees what’s cooking. Food that tastes like someone cared enough to try. I’m not the type who aims to perfect every little detail. I focus on flavor, comfort, and making dishes that feel familiar even when you’re trying something new.

How Copycat Cooking Became Part of My Life

With four kids, eating out as a family can turn into a small math problem once you add everything up. And even before that, I always found myself tasting restaurant dishes and thinking, “I bet I can make something like this at home.”

That curiosity became a challenge. A fun one. I’d try something at a restaurant, go home, and start experimenting until I got close enough—or in some cases, even better. Over time, I collected notebooks full of attempts. Some good. Some questionable. Some funny enough that my kids still tease me about them.

Those notebooks became the early version of the recipes that eventually grew into this website.

Life as a Wife and Mom

I’m happily married to a hardworking local business owner. He’s the kind of man who can fix almost anything, except maybe a sinking cake—that one I still have to handle.

He supports everything I do, even when he walks into the kitchen and sees pots, pans, bowls, and a mess that looks like a food hurricane passed by. He’s used to it by now.

Mellisa Kay with Her Kids Captured by her husband

Our four kids keep life interesting. They are loud, loving, silly, opinionated, and full of personality. They also keep my kitchen honest.

Kids don’t fake reactions. If a dish is great, I know it. If it’s not, I hear it right away. Their honesty made me better at cooking, because feeding a family of six means learning what works and what doesn’t, fast.

They each have their favorite dishes, and sometimes I think their favorites change just so they can fight over it. But the kitchen is the heart of our home.

It’s the place where they tell me about their day, where they hover while I cook, where they try to taste things before they’re ready, and where we share small moments that I hold onto long after the dishes are washed and put away.

Why I Started RecipeAsk

For years, cooking was something I did for my family and friends. It was something that lived in my home and in the memories of those who ate at my table.

I never planned to make a website or share things online. But as time went on, more people asked for my recipes. They wanted to know how I got certain flavors or how I made something taste like a restaurant dish without actually going to the restaurant.

People asked so often that I finally realized there might be more folks out there who want these recipes too. Not fancy dishes.

Not overly complicated ones. But meals you can make in a regular kitchen, with regular tools, while handling regular life.

So I began writing everything down in a way that made sense for others. Slowly, RecipeAsk.com came to life. I built it to be a place where home cooks can find comfort in cooking again, where recipes actually work, and where everything feels friendly, simple, and real.

What You’ll Find Here

RecipeAsk is not a site made for perfection. It’s a site made for real people.

You’ll find:

I want readers to feel like they’re learning from a friend, not an expert who talks above their heads. I want home cooks to feel confident instead of overwhelmed. Most of all, I want this to be a place that brings joy back into cooking.

Cooking Through the Years

Cooking has seen me through so many phases of life. As a young girl, it was my way to spend time with the women in my family.

As a teenager, it became the skill that brought my friends over and kept them around. As a young woman starting a family, cooking turned into a way to bring everyone together in one warm place, even on the hardest days.

Now, as a wife and mother to four kids, cooking is my anchor. It keeps me steady. It keeps our home connected. No matter how wild the day gets, I know that once dinner hits the table, everyone slows down for a moment.

We share stories, laughter, and sometimes little arguments over the last biscuit. But that’s family, and I wouldn’t trade any of it.

The Influence of My Grandmother and Mother

Two women shaped the way I cook more than anyone else. My grandmother cooked like she breathed. Natural. Effortless. Her kitchen was always warm, always busy, always full of something that smelled like it came from heaven itself.

She believed food could solve almost anything. And even if that wasn’t always true, she made you feel like it was.

My mother carried those traditions forward. She taught me the kind of patience that only comes from cooking the same dish a hundred times until it feels just right.

She taught me to taste everything, adjust as I go, and never panic when something burns, boils over, or acts stubborn. Cooking with her was like being part of a secret world where everything had a lesson attached to it.

Their influence is in every recipe I publish. Their voices guide me even when the kitchen gets chaotic.

Why I Still Love Cooking After All These Years

Cooking gives me peace. It gives me joy. It pulls my family together, even on days when we’re all pulled in different directions. Food has a way of reminding people where home is. And for me, the kitchen is that place.

I love the look on someone’s face when they take the first bite of a dish that reminds them of something they haven’t tasted in years. I love recreating flavors from restaurants and watching my kids try to guess which dish inspired it. I love how every recipe holds a memory, whether it’s from a holiday, a late-night craving, or a spontaneous decision to try something new.

What I Hope You Gain from RecipeAsk

I hope you find recipes here that make your table feel full.
I hope you feel confident enough to try something new.
I hope the stories remind you of your own memories.
I hope the dishes bring people closer in your home the same way they do in mine.

More than anything, I hope this site becomes a place you return to whenever you want something comforting, simple, tasty, and made with care.

A Final Note from Me to You

I’m not a chef. I’m a home cook who loves sharing what she knows. I’m a Southern woman raised by strong cooks who believed food was one of the best gifts you could offer someone. I’m a wife who still cooks late-night meals with my husband teasing me about using “every pan in the house again.” I’m a mother of four sweet, wild kids who keep me busy, keep me laughing, and keep me humble in the kitchen.

RecipeAsk exists because of them and because of you—anyone who loves food enough to keep searching for the next great recipe. Thank you for being here, for reading my words, and for trying the dishes I share with you.