S9 Ep67: What Makes Comfort Foods Comforting? Mac & Cheese Made Right with Myles Powell
"We always say our mac and cheese is like a break from the chaos. When things are crazy in your life, you just need a break. You don’t have to go off the deep end and eat a bowl of some boxed XYZ... I want to eliminate that ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ part after you eat." —Myles Powell
Comfort food isn’t just about taste—it’s about trust, memories, and feeling good from the inside out. Too often, the foods we love come with a side of guilt or mystery ingredients, but there’s a better way to enjoy the classics without compromise.
Myles Powell grew up cherishing family meals, only to find that most store-bought comfort foods fell short of those memories. Driven by a passion for real ingredients and honest business, he set out to reinvent mac and cheese and more, building a brand that puts people and purpose first.
Listen in for a no-nonsense look at building a clean-label food business, the real hurdles of funding and scaling, and how comfort food can be both nostalgic and nourishing. You’ll walk away with practical insights, inspiration, and a fresh perspective on what’s possible in your kitchen and beyond.
Connect with Myles:
Myles Powell is the founder of Myles Comfort Foods, a purpose-driven comfort food brand dedicated to clean-label, better-for-you classics. Inspired by family meals and a passion for real ingredients, Myles turned his love for authentic food into a business that puts transparency, quality, and emotional connection first. With experience in both self-funding and raising capital, he leads with resilience and a commitment to making comfort food that’s as honest as it is delicious.
Episode Highlights:
00:47 Better-For-You Mac&Cheese
05:31 Real Ingredients, Real Impact
08:27 The Challenges of Shipping Perishable Goods
10:35 Emotional Eating vs Food That Feels Good
13:26 Brand Values Over Product Hype
17:38 Funding the Dream, Learning to Pitch, and Handling Rejection
26:45 New Products on the Horizon
Tweets:
Tired of mystery ingredients in your favorite foods? This episode dives into clean comfort food, brand values, and the ups and downs of doing business the right way. Hit play for real talk as @justine.reichman interviews @mylescomfortfoods founder, Myles Powell. #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #CleanEating #ComfortFood #BusinessTips
Inspirational Quotes:
00:58 "Each founder has had a different journey, both in the way they get there, what they do when they are there, and then the pivot and the different challenges that come up that need to be taken." —Justine Reichman
01:13 "It's the things that are challenging, the failures that we make, that enable us to be the founders and innovators that we are today." —Justine Reichman
01:33 "The intention was always just to make food how food should be made, and how I ate as a kid." —Myles Powell
01:41 "The dinner table was, in the household, the best place. It's where all my most fond memories happened. I wanted to relive those memories through the food that I used to eat." —Myles Powell
04:22 "I approached this as I would approach any recipe in my kitchen. What ingredients am I going to use that people can read and understand? Nothing that's got five syllables. Whatever we make, it's got to be all natural. The consumer should be able to read the label so that they feel confident in the purchase." —Myles Powell
05:33 "It's really about the quality of the ingredients and recognizable ingredients that the body understands… We don't inject anything, we don't fortify anything. It is just exactly what it is." —Myles Powell
07:09 "On the direct-to-consumer side, you're battling against the cost of advertisements. You're battling against consumers being naturally scatterbrained online, which means it's hard to grab attention and keep it." —Myles Powell
10:55 "We always say our mac and cheese is like a break from the chaos. When things are crazy in your life, you just need a break. You don’t have to go off the deep end and eat a bowl of some boxed XYZ... I want to eliminate that ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ part after you eat." —Myles Powell
11:29 "It's achievable when we think about it as a better option, when we're not trying to create something that's going to be completely different, because then it just needs a new category." —Justine Reichman
13:35 "People now buy brands more than products. People buy products for the brand itself." —Myles Powell
15:35 "We leave off being genuine, being transparent. We're small fish in a big pond. This sector is run by conglomerates, and conglomerates spit out products left and right. So we need to stand on something that's true." —Myles Powell
16:43 “Having employees comes with more responsibilities. And being able to have contractors, you're able to be a little bit more scrappy and then become strategic about it as you grow.” —Justine Reichman
17:21 “The idea of bringing on such a large team, whether it's responsibility or cost, can be overwhelming and even a little intimidating and unnecessary.” —Justine Reichman
21:02 "You have to determine, what is it about this brand that someone's going to fall in love with and they're going to need it? You can't lean on taste, because taste is subjective. It's got to be something bigger than that." —Myles Powell
21:34 "Discover your why, because the industry is so tough. Really think through why you're doing this in the first place, because that's what's going to keep you going when you get the rejection and you get the bad news." —Myles Powell
21:51 "Find time for mental space. I know when I do focus on it, I feel like I'm more mentally clear, as opposed to go, go, go, go, go, and then you burn out by Wednesday." —Myles Powell
24:06 "Angel investors are going to invest more emotionally. They're going to invest in the company, but they're going to invest in you as a person too." —Myles Powell
26:03 "We want to really expand clean label food outside of retail." —Myles Powell
26:21 "Part of us is like, how can we turn that into more of an experience where someone's not just getting a five-pack mac and cheese? What else can we build into that where they're excited about the delivery?" —Myles Powell
Transcription:
Justine Reichman: Myles is here for Comfort Foods. And while this product, I believe, used to be direct to consumers, now it is not available direct to consumer, and you've changed the format of it. You've moved away from Etsy, and you've changed the whole structure. I'm excited to learn more about what you guys are doing, and share with our loyal listeners what Comfort Foods is, for those that are not familiar with it. It's mac and cheese.
So Myles, welcome.
Myles Powell: It's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited to tell you the story, the ups and downs, and really just have some fun.
Justine Reichman: I'm with you because I think every story is so unique, and each founder has had a different journey, both in the way they get there. What they do when they are there, and then sort of the pivot and the different challenges that come up that need to be taken. And I think it's important to share those things, because it's the things that are challenging, the failures that we make that enable us to be the founders and innovators that we are today. So first, just tell us a little bit about yourself. Why mac and cheese? And why a better for you mac and cheese?
Myles Powell: So it's funny when I first thought of this. The intention was always just to make food. How should food be made? And how I ate as a kid. And so for me growing up, the dinner table was like the place to be in the household, like the best place. It's where all my most fond memories were from setting the table to eating, to even just cleaning out by myself. All those small moments really had an impact. And so as I got older, I wanted to relive those memories through the food that I used to eat. And for us, comfort food was the best. It was southern inspired collard greens and chicken, and sweet potatoes, and mac and cheese was like a big part of that plate. But when I got older, I would look at what was considered mac and cheese in the market. I won't name names, but there's certain staples out there that I look at like, that's not mac and cheese.
Justine Reichman: So that leads you to--
Myles Powell: When I first launched this company, we started out making barbecue sauce even before the mac and cheese. It was fruit based barbecue sauce. It was very low in sugar, clean label. The intention was to inspire creativity through the sauces, because I would use these sauce pairings as a way to be very creative with recipe creation in my early 20s, just exploring the kitchen, exploring my own palate. Just really having a good time. And the sauces were launched on Etsy, and that was all direct to consumer. We were doing Farmers Market, winging it. Didn't know what I was doing. I was just shipping out bottles to people. And it got to a point where we were getting into retail, but very, very low key local retailers, and didn't know how to grow beyond that. But then it got to a point where I would go to Farmers Market's and I'm like, no one's buying barbecue sauce at 9:00am on a Tuesday. So I would sit there bored, and I would notice that people would buy things that they get either right on site, or go home and warm up. And that's when it clicked. And I went, I should make food that people can pair with my sauces, and mac and cheese, I would bring to the market. I paired it with my buffalo sauce, and it was a hit. People are like, I need this mac and cheese all the time. And that's why I pivoted to making the mac and cheese.
Justine Reichman: Wow. So tell me a little bit about this recipe. You don't have to give away any secrets. But I'm curious, as a clean label and better for you mac and cheese, what does that look like?
Myles Powell: It's funny. I always tell folks, hey, this is not a healthy mac and cheese because it's got cheese, it's got butter. But there are no ultra processed ingredients. I approached this as I would approach any recipe in my kitchen. What ingredients am I going to use that people can read and understand nothing that's got like five syllables? And that was how I dedicated this company to make, hey, whatever we make, it's got to be all natural. The consumer should be able to read the label and go, I know every single thing on here, and they feel confident in the purchase. And because of that, it's actually high in protein, which is crazy. We didn't go out saying, oh, we want to make a high protein mac and cheese. No, we just said, we want to make a mac and cheese like we'd make it at home. As a result, 24 grams of protein in a serving,
Justine Reichman: That's amazing. What an aha moment to not even realize that that is something, A, that people could be looking for. People want that kind of information so that they can make a better choice. But I think it's interesting that you were talking about that, that it's healthy for you. But I do want to acknowledge that it's better for you than the alternative, and so I think that's important to focus on.
Myles Powell: And it's really about the quality, the ingredients, and recognizable ingredients, exactly that the body understands. And I think we've fallen victim over the past few years to a lot of food items showcasing all of these features, maybe like this fiber and this, which is great. The problem is underneath all the features that are a bunch of foreign ingredients, and your body doesn't know how to handle those. So we don't inject anything, we don't fortify anything.
Justine Reichman: Let's go back for a minute because you said that you were originally selling on Etsy, and you transitioned from Etsy to retail. What was that decision making process like? What was the journey like for that? And why?
Myles Powell: We always had an end goal of getting into retail. But Etsy was at the time, the thing I knew how to do, right? I spent so much time, I had nightmares wrapping bottles of barbecue sauce with bubble wrap, putting it in the box and shipping it out> And then hearing that the bottle broke and shipped in. And we did that for years. And so when I was gonna transition to mac and cheese, I knew shipping frozen was gonna be very hard and very expensive. We tried various solutions, but nothing was economically possible for the consumer. Retail was always the end game, and I just didn't know how complicated retail was. So on the direct to consumer side, you're battling against the cost of advertisements. You're battling against consumers being naturally scatterbrained online, which means it's hard to grab your attention and keep it. But now, your challenges in retail are of massive scale. Because now, you're dealing with distribution relationships, retailer relationships. And now, your consumer is so far removed from you, it's hard to communicate. When a direct consumer, I can do an ad, and I know if the person clicks on the ad and goes to my page. If they check, I can see their journey. But when I ship my product out to retail, it goes like a black hole, and I have no idea who's walking down the aisle and seeing the product, who's picking it up. That transition is probably one of the biggest challenges that I continue to face today.
Justine Reichman: Wow, I can imagine. There's always going to be a challenge, whether you're shipping it, and wrapping it, and then there's broken glass. And if you're shipping it and it's perishable, right? So when you moved from something that was more shelf stable to something that was perishable, what was that like?
Myles Powell: Very tough. Because now, it's getting more expensive. Because now, you're dealing with ice packs and insulated shippers. You're putting your trust in the hands of the shipping company even more, because you're selecting a two day ship window. You're paying for it. If there's a delay, there's literally nothing you can do about it. And now, the customer is getting it, and the product is spoiled. Now, you're reshipping it, you're trying to get a refund. It creates just a whole mess. And because it's so expensive and the consumer has to pay more now, you have to justify the higher price point, which means you have to build a bigger, bigger brand awareness.
Justine Reichman: So talk to me, what was it like when you started this company? Let's go back to the beginning. I know it's personal for you. I know it was based on family and what you created. And I often talk about cultural competency and the role that culture plays in food, because there are a lot of foods that traditionally people have eaten over years. They make them feel nostalgic, but they're not necessarily healthy, and so people have tried to adjust them. Make a creative 2.0 version, so that it's better for you in this day and age. And with people's intolerances and allergies and all sorts of things, they're being a bit more mindful of that, and just being healthy. This is sort of the root of where you came from? I think it's important, because we always want to improve what we're doing, and we always want to create better solutions and make it more accessible to folks. And I think there's so many different kinds of foods that, traditionally, have not been so healthy. Maybe they're not going to be perfect, but they're going to be the better choice. You have yours or one that's with saturated things and all sorts of things, right? I was trying to go away from saying the name, so all of a sudden, I was going to name ingredients. That just seemed like a bad idea, because I don't have a box in front of me. But you get my point. My point is that you just want to make an informed choice.
Myles Powell: Yep. You want to be confident about that choice. And a lot of times, it's emotional. I'm an emotional eater, and so I want to make sure that whatever I'm putting out into the world fits from a nutritional standpoint, but also fits from an emotional standpoint. Something that's reliable, and something that your soul can feel good about eating. We always say that our mac and cheese is like a break from the chaos. Things are crazy in your life, we just need a break. You don't have to go off the deep end and eat, name the food, a bowl of some boxed X, Y, Z. I grew up on Frosted Flakes, and there have been times where I was in a mood, and I would eat three bowls of Frosted Flakes. And I'm like, oh, my God. What have I done? I want to eliminate that.
Justine Reichman: I think that that's really inspirational, too. And I think it's achievable when we think about it as a better option, when we're not trying to create something that's going to be completely different. Because then, I think it just needs a new category. If it's not actually mac and cheese, then we just create something else. But understanding the mac and cheese landscape, it's a bit of a crowded space. I'm wondering why you chose that space versus others?
Myles Powell: So the one thing about me is that I tend to leap before I look a lot. So when I launched the mac and cheese business, or the side of the brand, I didn't really fully consider all the players and where they sit. And you can break them down into three categories. You've got your frozen brand, like your stovers of the world. They've been around for almost a century at this point. You've got your shelf stable category. So you've got your Kraft mac and cheese, you got newcomers like Goodles who really shook things up, shout out to them. And then you've got the nameless brands that you can get in the refrigerator section at your grocery store. The funny thing is that those are three different shoppers. And before I even got in the space, I just decided that I want to go frozen because I want the convenience. I knew I couldn't get the convenience I needed from refrigerated, because I also know that that thing's been sitting there for a week, and probably the quality is degrading over time. It's not going to taste how it should. Definitely not in the box section, because I'm like, powdered cheese is not real cheese. I couldn't go that route, so I froze. And then when I got frozen, I realized how complicated and crowded it was. It made me really think through, how do I carve out my own lane in that category? And so, hey, it's a continued challenge. So one of the things is leaning really heavy onto what we stand for, and not necessarily just the product itself.
Justine Reichman: So you're saying product face is a direct correlation to your values?
Myles Powell: Exactly. And people now buy brands more than products. The people buy products for the brand itself. And so for us, we're like, how do we communicate what we stand for to someone that's frozen? And the challenge is, how do you communicate that to them before they walk down the aisle? We're also trying to adjust what frozen has been telling us for years. Look at the veggie section. Veggies came in, and they did a really great job of educating consumers to say, flash frozen veggies are really healthy for you. And even more healthy than the actual veggie aisle. So now it's like, how do we tell consumers that frozen meals can be just home cooked meals that are frozen?
Justine Reichman: And I think you also tapped on something as I was listening to you, and you're like, you know your ethos, your values on what you're building, what you're putting into your food, how you're treating your employees, the kind of culture you create. I think that all goes into your ethos. And I think people do want to support a brand that is just doing it in a way that is holistic. And I don't mean that word in that holistic way. But in the way that you're thinking about it from the minute you come into the office, wherever you work with your colleagues, and how you're interacting, how they're being compensated, and how you're paying for them and the ingredients that you're putting in there. So what you're saying is that, understanding who you are helps you better understand what you're going to produce versus, here's a brand, and it's a gluten free brand, but it doesn't tell us anything about the ethos of the family, or the person, or the business that runs this. So all we know is it says it's gluten free, but we don't know who they are behind it, and what their ethos is, and what's important to them that they're going to prioritize.
Myles Powell: Exactly. Now, we leave Gen being genuine, being transparent. We're small fish in a big pond. This sector is run by conglomerates. And conglomerates spit out products left and right. So we say, okay, then we need to stand on something that's true. We're not just a product factory. We're much more than that.
Justine Reichman: I know that you're a small company, obviously, as you just said. Tell me about your team.
Myles Powell: So funny enough, I'm currently a solo founder, running operations with fractional and contractors that work on our behalf. So for instance, we've got a manufacturing partner up in New York. We've got an accounting team. We've got pieces that are not solely dedicated to us, because we are so small, and we're still trying to make our way through the market. We don't want to be in a situation we're we overstaff early, and then we put ourselves in a pretty critical spot.
Justine Reichman: So I think that's like a really smart thing to do from looking at this as a fellow entrepreneur, having employees comes with more responsibilities. And being able to have contractors, you're able to be a little bit more scrappy, and then become strategic about it as you grow. And you can have these people for less hours. You can maybe have better people more, I don't want to say better, I want to say more experienced people or less experienced people, depending on what the need is and the project, so it allows you to be able to get to the next step in a smart and scrappy way. And then as you grow, you can become more strategic about that, and figure out how you want to expand. But the idea of bringing on such a large team, whether it's responsibility or its cost, it's all those things that can be overwhelming and even a little intimidating and unnecessary. I didn't even ask, but are you self funded? Or did you go raise money?
Myles Powell: Both. We started out self funded prior to even knowing what raising money meant, because raising money is a whole full time gig on its own. We were very naive early on. The initial plan was, we're just gonna build this thing, we're gonna bring in cash, and we'll just use the cash we bring into the state operations. That's far from the case in this industry. So we ended up raising some money over the past three and a half years. Now, we raised about 1.5 million in funding, and we continue to grow because you're dealing with the economic environment, even the political climate, all these things impact the fundraising cycle. We're always fundraising like it never ends because you're always looking to continue to grow.
Justine Reichman: What was your experience prior to this? Or the skill sets that you had that allowed you to be able to go fundraise? That is an intimidating endeavor. And oftentimes, very much out of our skill set. In some ways, some people are better at presenting, some people are better at talking. Some people are better at being behind everything. So where were you in this? And how did you get yourself ready to be able to go forth and raise money?
Myles Powell: I learned once, like everything else, the hard way. So the first six months to a year, I learned how to build a pitch deck from those no's and how to present better. I will say, though, that I'm an engineer by trade. I struggled in college all four years in engineering school, and that taught me resilience. So once I graduated, I had this strong backbone of how to handle bad news. So when I began fundraising, the common thing is you'll get 99 no's and one yes. So the resilience helped me continue pushing, continue pushing, improving the debt. And sometimes, it's not you, it's a no, it's just the timing's a no. So with that, practice also became understanding what investors are looking for, what you need to emphasize. It just took time. But eventually, I began to feel like I'm an expert at pitching. But it wasn't overnight. And even when I had a perfect pitch deck and the perfect pitch, I still got a NO. And so you have to learn that the NO's are going to come, but all you need is one good YES.
Justine Reichman: True. It's not a but, it's an end with all that frustration, or challenge, or experience, and learning that you do in that. To our listeners and our viewers that are tuning in to hear this from you, somebody that's gone through this and had some no's and some yes, and just gone through the whole experience, can you give them three tips so maybe they won't hit some of the challenges that you hit, or things to lean into?
Myles Powell: Yes. So my number one tip, it's a question mark as well. In this industry, you have to understand in the beginning that no one's going to care about your product. I know that sounds harsh. But in the grand scheme, I think that no one's going to care. So you have to determine, what is it about this brand? Or whatever the case might be, that someone's going to fall in love with it, and they're going to need it. All the big food brands have developed a need where the consumer is putting you on their shopping list every week for whatever reason. So you can't lean on taste, because taste is subjective. It's got to be something bigger than that. So thinking about branding, it's critical early on to figure that early. Number two, discover your WHY. Because the industry is so tough. Really think through why you're doing this in the first place, because that's what's going to keep you going when you get the rejection, and you get the bad news and things like that. And then the third one, which is something I'm still working on, is finding time for mental space.
Justine Reichman: Oh, my god, definitely.
Myles Powell: So horrible, so hard. I still struggle with that. But I know when I do focus on it, I feel like I'm more mentally clear, as opposed to go, go, go, go, go, and then you burn out by Wednesday. So whatever it is, carve out some time just for mental space.
Justine Reichman: I think those are great tips. So the other thing I was curious about, when you started this and you started looking for money, did you look for any loans, grants or anything like that? What was that journey like? And what would you recommend to people for them to think about if they're going after any grants or loans?
Myles Powell: So crowdfunding is good because it actually helps you with brand awareness. Because you're putting your brand out there, you actually learn about your own brand through crowdfunding because you're forced to put it on display. But crowdfunding like everything else takes a lot of marketing or a great network. And if you are starting a campaign, it's important to know who in your immediate network can be an early contributor. We've done two smaller campaigns. We hit our goal, but it wasn't what we wanted. We also launched a third one. It didn't go well because we didn't have a strong network at the time to bring in some significant capital through this kind of campaign. That's an option. It's for smaller dollars for a lot of food brands, but it is an option. Business loans are really tough. If you're not profitable, banks will typically say, and at least in food, nope. Right now, if you're a woman owned brand, especially a woman of color, there is grant money out there for you. And I suggest going after it hard, because a lot of it gets unused. So you just need to either become really good at grant writing or hire someone to help you because that's a whole nother game. And then angel investors are probably your best early on, because angel investors are going to invest more emotionally. They're going to invest in the company, but they're going to invest in you as a person too. If you've got a great idea, but they see you as the founder to build that they are going to believe in you, then you'll be able to invest money that way. So those are all the early stage options. Of course, you can self fund as much as you can, which we did. But that's kind of what's at your disposal early on.
Justine Reichman: Wow. I think those are great recommendations. And I think as a woman, I've also looked into some of those things just for informational purposes at times, to better understand the landscape of that. And whether that you are from one of the minorities, whether you're LGBTQ, whether you're black owned, whether you're female founded, there's so many different things that I think people need to explore. And not overlook, and things that we don't even think about, right? it could be a void in the space that all of a sudden, they're looking to fund because they need research on it, or they need information. So I think people need to dig deep.
Myles Powell: Yeah, I agree. It's a lot of research, don't get me wrong. There's a lot of information out there, and so I dedicate a few hours per week to just finding opportunities.
Justine Reichman: So tell me, as you're evolving here, and now you're no longer doing the direct to consumer, tell us a little bit about where you are today, and where you hope to be in the next few years.
Myles Powell: So right now, we're over 500 retail locations across the country. Whole Foods is our biggest customer right now. We want to continue to grow. That's for sure. We also want to place our product in other places of consumption. So that would be your hospitals, your school system, your airports, your hotels. We want to really expand clean label food outside of retail. And quite frankly, I've got the DTC bug. I still want to figure out how to direct to consumer with the frozen product. Part of it comes later when we have a better brand awareness and people are looking for us online. But part of us like, how can we turn that into more of an experience? Where someone's not just getting a five pack mac and cheese. What else can we build into that where they're excited about the delivery? Maybe it's like a wine pairing, or dessert pairing, or something like that. So that's constantly in the back of my mind, and something that we want to do in the near future.
Justine Reichman: And can we expect to see some other products and SKUs?
Myles Powell: Yes. So the next one that's gonna come out, which we're still really early on with is shrimp and grits. That one's a bit more complicated because it's grits. And grits are a little more finicky. But you can do this. I think it'll be a hit.
Justine Reichman: I'm a big fan of grits. I grew up going to camp in North Carolina, so we had a lot of grits there. I love them. If folks wanted to learn more about you, what's the best way?
Myles Powell: So I'm super active on LinkedIn, full name, Myles Powell. But also, we're fully active on Instagram and Tiktok at Myles Comfort Foods.
Justine Reichman: Myles, thank you so much. I want to thank our listeners and our viewers today for tuning in. Our family continues to grow, more friends, more community, and it's just so wonderful to see, and it's thanks to our guests, like Myles and those folks that are tuning in to learn more and make more informed choices. So if you are listening to us on a podcast, don't forget that we can also be viewed on our YouTube channel at Essential Ingredients. And if you want follow us on Instagram, at essential.ingredients. We want to hear from you. We want to hear what you like, what questions you have, whether it's for Myles, or for me, so we continue the conversation. Thank you, Myles.
Myles Powell: Of course, it's been a pleasure.
