Yolkore’s Mary Hancock on food, family, and great expectations

As chef/owner of Yolklore, the popular daytime restaurant and catering operation in Crestwood, Mary Hancock faces the daily challenge of navigating the needs of her business and her family. The key, she believes, is giving yourself grace and letting go of expectations about how you are supposed to do things. Not superpowers, she laughs. If you’ve ever tasted her biscuits and gravy and gooey butter cake, though, you might beg to differ.

What do you think attracted you to cooking in the first place? I think family is where it starts for a lot of us. When you are around your family, you feel this loving feeling in sharing a meal together. You realize how special it is, and it triggers something in you. That was me growing up. I’ll never forget the smell of walking into the house and smelling meatloaf; to this day, I still have that trigger when I smell it that takes me back to my grandma’s house. I can close my eyes and be right there smelling my grandpa’s vanilla pipe and his easy chair. Being able to bring that to my own family and kids now is really special.

Being a chef and having that passion in you, I’m sure people expect that you prepare these glorious spreads for the family. What’s it really like? “What’s for dinner?” is my least favorite question. With having three kids in the house, everybody is picky. I still want to cook and make stuff for them, but I am on a rotation for sure. It’s the only thing that gets us through. I try to make sure I have plenty of food in the house, and we just put things together. I still like to go to the store and see what looks good, but I know everybody will eat tacos, pasta, burgers, and breakfast for dinner, and that really takes the pressure off the idea that this has to be some sort of gourmet meal. You see all this crap on Instagram that’s over-the-top; you’re watching a mom build a Mario Brothers-themed bento box for her kid’s lunch, and you just think, Can we just chill out for a second and remember what we ate as children? It wasn’t the food in the lunchbox; it was the tiny notes from my mom that I would open. Those are the special things. I can do that kind of stuff and don’t care that I’m packing peanut butter and jelly. Those things mean so much more.

Running Yolklore requires you to work long hours. How do you find the balance between work and family life? When I find out, I’ll let you know. Seriously, I think that I put a lot less expectations on things. I used to have higher expectations and think that I had to do this and that, like we need to all go to the park and hang out. I realized, Why don’t we just start with the backyard? For me, it’s all about the smaller wins; we do a little bit less, and when we have the energy to go do something, we do it. Having those bigger times out is enjoyable, but it’s also important to take the pressure off and tell yourself it’s OK not to be a super mom 24/7.

That idea of giving yourself grace and making things easy was top of mind when you opened Yolklore, especially in terms of the drive-thru. How did that come about? Originally, we wanted to do a food truck, so when we wrote the menu, it was already heavily geared toward quick-fire dishes that were suitable for handing out a window. I didn’t have kids at the time, but my sister did, and she said we had to have a drive-thru, so parents don’t have to get out of the car. After I had my daughter, I was like, Oh yes, this drive-thru thing. Then we added a changing table and even diapers to the changing carts. It’s the little things—when you need something, you need it.”

And you’ve also found ways to make life easier for people in their homes, too. What sort of options do you offer for those who maybe want a great meal but don’t have the time or energy to do it themselves?

We do delivery for our regular menu, and we do a lot of catering and have options that range from a continental breakfast to a full buffet-style breakfast. We also do boxed brunches and lunches that people do if they are entertaining at home. And you don’t even have to come into the store for our gooey butter cake. We ship nationwide.