Tamara Taylor’s golden-brown biscuits turned gold in more ways than one. They turned into a lucrative new job when she no longer could operate her hair salon and other businesses.
“I had a bypass in 2019,” says Taylor, owner of Tam’s Homemade Biscuits. “After that, I was really not able to go back to real estate, hair business, and the cosmetology business.”
She had to find another way to make money. “Food stamps ran out. I was in the trenches.” Baking biscuits was a no-brainer. She’d been making biscuits for 45 years with her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and sisters. “I had different experiences from so many different elders in my family.”
Making biscuits also was therapeutic. “Rolling up biscuits kind of helped my arms and all.”
Tam’s Homemade Biscuits is a combination of Taylor’s techniques and the way her relatives made biscuits.
Whether it was biscuits or regular, sweet, or crackling cornbread, bread was ever-present in her family’s household. “Bread was a highlight of our family,” Taylor says, adding, “On any given day, with the grandparents, kids, parents, you could have any one of the different types of bread.”
She developed her biscuit technique about 30 years ago when her children were growing up. “Salmon and biscuits” was a regular Sunday morning breakfast.
The “love” she puts into making her biscuits is what sets them apart, Taylor says. “If you have a passion for something, you’re going to do your best to make it the best you can make it. I have a passion for feeding people.
“It’s not just the filling of the belly I want. I want to fill the soul. I want you to feel warm when you eat my food.”
As for her biscuits, she says, “My biscuits are dense, but not heavy. You’re going to get a wholesome piece of bread. But it’s going to be light, soft, fluffy, and a little flaky. I put a delicious dot of butter on top.”
Instead of posting on social media, Taylor began selling her biscuits through referrals. She’d been baking biscuits for birthdays, graduations, or baby showers for years. “Wherever an event was going on, Tamara would be there fixing somebody some food.”
She also cooked while she and her husband, Terrance, were the owners of T’s Shear Elegance salon for about 20 years. “I’d be cooking and styling hair. We would serve food in the break room.”
Taylor, who now is on all social media outlets, including tamshomemadebiscuits on Facebook, first went online in 2021. “Now I make and sell about 1,000 biscuits a week,” she says.
She makes about 10 different types of biscuits in addition to her original biscuits. She bakes dessert biscuits with real fruit, cheese biscuits with different types of cheese, banana nut biscuits, and bourbon butter biscuits with “real bourbon liquor.”
She also makes her own butter creams with fruit, which can be used as a glaze or jam on her biscuits.
Taylor eventually branched off into making soups, including her tomato basil and her chicken Alfredo pot pie soup, aka CAPPS. “We have beef stew, broccoli cheese, potato soup, and ‘All N Broth’ — it’s got all your vegetables. All your peppers, onions, garlic, carrots.”
“Sometimes I do a bone-in broth where I mix a ham bone, chicken, or turkey part in it,” she adds.
Taylor also makes side dishes, including her greens, and desserts, which include peach cobbler and lemon pie, as well as a selection of prepared meals called Tam’s Healthy Habits — portion-controlled meals on the lighter side.
She currently sells her biscuits and other items every Saturday at the Agricenter Farmers Market. She also sets up the first Saturday of the month at Lightfoot Farm in Millington, Tennessee.
As for future plans, Taylor plans to open a brick-and-mortar cafe, where she can prepare her cuisine and customers can either dine in or get a “Tam’s to go.”
Yes, Taylor will be serving her biscuits at Thanksgiving dinner. And her biscuit dressing will also be on the table. “It’s similar to making a cornbread dressing, but I use my own biscuits in it.”