How a Miami Gardens therapist turned her pandemic hobby into a catering business

Miami Herald

27-05-2025

After spending several years in college with a focus on social work, Syerra Donaldson never imagined she would be serving jerk chicken and lobster tails to customers from her North Miami Beach condo in December 2020.
But with more free time than ever during the pandemic, the trained therapist began cooking frequently in 2020 and posting her dishes on social media. That was the start of a major lifestyle change for Donaldson, who within a matter of months was selling platters of food out of her kitchen at all hours of the day, starting with the morning breakfast crowd and ending with hungry late-night customers.
Nearly five years later, Donaldson, 30, has parlayed her affinity for cooking into a catering company, EasyCookinWithSy, and a win on the Food Network show 'Supermarket Stakeout.' She recently placed third in the quarter finals of celebrity chef Carla Hall's Favorite Chef contest, competing against a formidable group of talented chefs from across the country.
'The competition was just there to teach me personal development,' Donaldson said. 'In the beginning I wasn't scared, but I was timid. Now my confidence is higher.'
As a teen growing up in Miami Gardens, Donaldson was raised by her great-grandparents and attended William H. Turner Technical Arts High School, graduating in 2012.
When she earned her graduate degree in social work in 2018, Donaldson researched where people with her academic background could earn the most money and have the lowest cost of living. Arizona was at the top of her list, and she moved there shortly thereafter to work as a therapist. Then, COVID hit.
'I'm getting bothered because I'm the type of person who can't sit down for too long,' Donaldson said of that time. 'The only thing that was open was Walmart.'
So Donaldson made a habit of going to Walmart and picking out new ingredients to work with. Cooking became a joyful activity, and she posted every meal she made for her and her roommate to social media. One friend even commissioned her to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
But while Donaldson was making a new life for herself in Arizona, a phone call from her great-grandfather changed her path. He was now in his 90s and wanted to see her again.
'Not thinking [anything] of it, I sold all my stuff and [told him], 'I'll move back home just for you,'' she said.
That December, Donaldson moved into her condo and let her social media followers know that she was back in Miami and selling meals with a unique combination of Jamaican, Cuban and American influences.
She was shocked by what happened next.
'I made $3,000 from pasta [one night], and I had to keep going back to the store and getting ingredients because it would not stop,' she said. 'Lines of cars were parked outside of my condo. … People started buying food by the boatload.'
Donaldson quickly made enough money to pay for her rent and cover her car note. Sometimes her late-night service would run into her breakfast hours that began at 5 a.m., and she went days without sleeping.
While Donaldson's emerging food business kept her busy, the hours were demanding and she realized that it was not her end goal.
'I wanted to do private dinners,' she said. 'I wanted to do weddings [and] big groups.' So in 2021, Donaldson started her catering business to set herself up for the next phase of her cooking career.
That same year, Donaldson found work as a contract therapist that she could build around her business's schedule, allowing her to continue working in her trained field while also exploring the new opportunity she had created for herself in food.
Life became more stable, but a man that she presumed was a scammer kept messaging her professional cooking page on Instagram and inviting her to appear on the Food Network. She rebuffed his repeated invitations before learning that he actually did work for Food Network and wanted her to appear on one of its shows.
'He ended up finding my personal page, and he ended up writing to me on there,' she said. 'He asked, 'Do you think it's a joke now?''
In December 2022, Donaldson lost her great-grandfather, who was 95 when he died. Donaldson was saddened by the loss but took solace in the fact that he had always called her 'a star.' His words must have been prescient: One month later, Donaldson was cast in an episode of the Food Network show 'Supermarket Stakeout' and flew to California for the taping.
Initially, Donaldson was taken aback by the conversations she could hear the other contestants having. Everyone else had been to culinary school except for her, and some even owned restaurants.
'I couldn't relate,' she said. 'They're talking about terminology from culinary school, and I was just sitting there.'
The show's challenge was to 'buy' entire grocery carts of food from regular supermarket patrons, sight unseen, and use the contents to make dishes. Donaldson and the other participants were given $500 to use for four courses of food.
To her surprise, Donaldson won the competition and $10,000.
'After the show aired, there was definitely an increase in my business,' she said. 'People started hitting me up left and right.'
Donaldson attributes some of her cooking's popularity to her focus on wellness. Through trial and error and extensive research, she's learned how to create food that tastes good without large amounts of ingredients like salt and sugar.
'I started making recipes where it's the same things that people like, but healthier ingredients,' she said.
Had she won the Favorite Chef competition she recently competed in, she planned to use the $25,000 prize to open a so-called 'ghost' kitchen to run a takeout and delivery business.
But after Donaldson learned that she hadn't advanced, she was contacted by an unexpected fan: the mother of a man she'd dated 10 years ago. The woman owned a Miami Gardens facility with a kitchen and offered up the space to Donaldson.
'I haven't spoken to her in about 10 years, and she came out of nowhere,' she said. 'She gifted me the kitchen, and now I just pay the overhead or mortgage.'
In addition to food service from her new ghost kitchen in Miami Gardens, Donaldson plans to start selling her homemade spice blends at local events and farmer's markets. She also continues to work as a therapist and is studying to receive her doctoral degree in social work and leadership administration from the University of Kentucky in 2026.
When she started cooking, it was something that she did because she was good at it. Now, she sees it as an opportunity to help others and make moments in their life that much better.
'We are made to be creators,' she said. 'Create, and create things that are needed for people.'