Lifestyle/Culture
Chef Deborah VanTrece is Showing us Soul Food’s Global Range By Kristen Adaway
IT’S BEEN A BUSY COUPLE OF MONTHS for Deborah VanTrece, who’s known for her modern approach to soul food at her restaurant Twisted Soul Cookhouse and Pours. Earlier this year, the Atlanta chef transitioned into a new creative director role for her restaurant all while working on her debut cookbook. Soul food is a cuisine that Black migrants took outside of the South during the Great Migration. Photo: © The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food with Her experiences as a former flight attendant Deborah Vantrece, Rizzoli New York, 2021. Images © Noah Fec allowed her to see how different ingredients were Han for Thrillist incorporated into dishes worldwide that later inspired her recipes as a chef. In The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food with Global Flavors, readers are the ones taking a trip around the globe while exploring the ways in which soul food appears on the plate. And while still keeping the essence of the traditional cuisine at the forefront, VanTrece provides unique twists on classic dishes like smothered chicken gizzard poutine and creamy red bean risotto. In a recent call with VanTrece, we talked about the inspiration behind her cookbook, the global reach of soul food, and Black women’s role in American cuisine. Thrillist: What made you want to write a cookbook? Deborah VanTrece: I think everybody's culinary experiences are a little bit different. I definitely put myself in the category of having a different culinary experience, and I thought it was worthwhile to share it. There's cookbooks about soul food, but really not from a global perspective. I thought it was a chance to— through food— showcase all of the similarities that we throughout the world; we as people have when it comes to our cuisine, and some of my thoughts behind it. That’s the motivation behind doing the cookbook and wanting to just share a part of me with the world.
Smoked chicken cracklin’ cornbread from VanTrece's cookbook © The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food with Global Flavors by Deborah Vantrece, Rizzoli New York, 2021. Images © Noah Fecks
think of the South, but many of your recipes are influenced by cuisines from all over the world. How did you decide what cuisines to base these recipes on? You know, usually the recipes are things that reminded me of my own family or traditional soul food, or a traditional soul food ingredient. From traveling throughout the world, that commonality of ingredients was something that honestly, prior to traveling, I didn't really think of. I thought soul food that I grew up with, I kind of put When people hear “soul food” they often 104
May-June 2021
DAWN
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