Margaret Miller: from TV Exec to Bakeshop Owner

It’s every culinary TV producer’s nightmare. You’ve spent hours backstage painstakingly preparing every ingredient for a celebrity chef who’s on set, with the show hosts, in front of a live studio audience, about to demonstrate a signature recipe. Now this was no ordinary show, it was our season premier and the star chef was Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman. We were a brand new show, Pickler & Ben (Kellie Pickler and Ben Aaron) and this was our big national debut. The pressure was on.

Kimberly Schlapman, with her glorious mass of bouncy blonde curls and truly charming personality just started the recipe for her mouthwatering Maw Maw’s biscuits from Kimberly’s cookbook Oh Gussie!: Cooking and Visiting in Kimberly’s Southern Kitchen. Miss Kimberly was elbow deep in flour when she realized something was missing. Buttermilk. Where was the buttermilk? The biscuit recipe calls for buttermilk but where is it? All of a sudden, culinary producer Margaret Miller, clad in her pink apron, hair piled on top of her head, marches out from backstage on to the live set, and plops down a gallon jug of cold buttermilk. Kimberly, Ben, Kellie, the audience, the crew, we all had a big laugh. That’s what reality TV is really like, my friends. We loved Margaret’s cameo so much, we left it in when we edited the final cut of the season premiere for air.

Margaret Miller is a take-charge culinary wizard, creative powerhouse, producer and so much more. Just a few years ago, Margaret had a big job at a legendary Hollywood studio in LA. Today she’s a Private Chef, Culinary Producer and Master Baker. Margaret’s one of my favorite colleagues and friends and I love her story.

You just got married. How was the food?

Fantastic! We were married at Greendoor Gourmet, a 350-acre farm in Nashville. It’s a local organic farm, with a rustic barn and farm-to-table market. Food was obviously important to me. Clean Plate Club catered it. We had a biscuit bar, smashed potato bar, flank steak with chimichurri, bbq chicken, quiona, and salad. At the bar we had homemade potato chips for guests to nosh on. It was simple, southern cooking. Our wedding cake was white with butter cream frosting. We actually ran out of cake! People were hiding 2 and 3 pieces wherever they could. Jay Qualls of Jay Qualls Cakes made our cake and it was the bomb.

It all began with your now legendary donut cupcakes?

It did! I started my career working for the President of TV at MGM and worked my way up to Director of Development. My job was changing and I had always had a passion for baking so I decided now was the time to give it a go. I started experimenting and I made donut shaped cupcakes.

I went to a dinner party at Lara Spencer’s (ABC Good Morning America host) house. I set out my donut cupcakes, not telling anyone I made them. They were a hit and that night I had orders from 3 different people! After that night, I got booths at several farmers’ markets in the Los Angeles area and I started getting even more orders.

And then you opened your own store, Mags Miller Bakeshop & Co. Were you scared of making the leap?

Oh yeah. I was scared. What if it didn’t work? Then I thought, what’s the worst that can happen? When I started Mags Miller Bakeshop & Co., I reached out to everyone in my Rolodex. I sent them a box of donuts with a card that read, “Something sweet for you for always being sweet to me.” I told them what I was doing now and I got tons of calls and orders.

How did you end up in Nashville?

My husband, Trevor O’Neil, is a TV producer and the Chief Content Officer at Hideout Pictures. He’s the reason we moved here. Nashville was never on my radar. He had come here for work many times and it was always a place where he wanted to live. We picked a random weekend, came to visit, and everyone and their mother—he has a huge network—came out to meet us. We had the best weekend ever.

By this time I had my business in LA, but the cost of living in LA is a big deal. No matter how well I did in LA, I felt like it was never enough. The fact that Trevor already had a network here, it seemed the right time to try something different.

And so now you’re baking and doing TV?

I still have my baking and catering business and I’m picking up more and more TV shows as a culinary producer. I was on Pickler & Ben for 2 years and then that led to more work on Nailed It and Netflix. My TV career’s come full circle!

What advice do you have for folks considering making a change in their careers?

Find something that resonates with your soul. That made all the difference for me. When I was working in TV only, in my downtime, I baked. It made me happy. I would come up with any reason to bake for people. I’ve also learned that when you’re doing something that feels right, doors open, there’s no resistance. It was as if I was always meant to be where I am today.