Food from the soul
Written by: Cary Wong
food from the soul
How Chef Debra VanTrece transcends multiple boundaries
“I was a bit of an introvert—which comes as a complete surprise to those who know me now,” says Chef Debra VanTrece. That fact may be rather unexpected for those who have seen her lively appearances on various TV programs. It was, however, not the only transformation she had gone through in her life.
Born and raised in Kansas City, she worked as a model and a flight attendant. Eventually, she became a culinary student at Atlanta’s Art Institute, graduated as a valedictorian, and settled in the city.
There, she started working as an executive chef for a catering company. During the 1996 Olympics, she cooked for the VIPs and opened her first restaurant, Edible Art. Since then, she has started more ventures, including Twisted Soul, The Catering Company by VanTrece, Oreatha’s, and Serenidad—all as parts of the VanTrece Hospitality Group that she founded. She has also published The Twisted Soul Cookbook and was showcased at the James Beard House, among other honors.
Chef Debra VanTrece
Since she was young, her family could create magic on the dinner table from paltry ingredients. The biggest feast was on Thanksgiving, when all her family gathered and shared their best dishes. That tradition continued even when she grew up and moved away from home, as she would spend hours on the phone with her mother to discuss their menus and recipes.
Fast forward to current times, Chef VanTrece is still working on menus and recipes—only now they are in the context of a restaurant group. For her, it is an exercise to balance her sensibility and creativity. She follows some basic rules, such as seasonality, ingredient combination, pricing, and needs of various diets such as vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, gluten-free, and others for an inclusive menu. After that, “comes the time for fun. This is when I really get to utilize all my knowledge from living, traveling, and reading to create something a little different but still familiar,” she says. “This is how I put a little of myself and my story in each dish.”
Having been trained in classical French cooking techniques, she could have focused on any cuisine. However, she decided to focus on the dishes at the heart of her upbringing. As she traveled to different places, she also realized that the soul of a country is defined by the soul of its cuisine. With that in mind, she wants to celebrate the food that tells those age-old stories.
“I understand my version of soul food was often going against tradition, but I believe traditions were meant to be used as a foundation to build on. And as we evolve, so should our traditions.”
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