The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A twist on soul food
Chef Deborah Vantrece infuses global flavors into modern soul food.
Chef Deborah Vantrece, the chef/owner of Atlanta’s Twisted Soul Cookhouse and Pours, shares some of her most beloved recipes in her first cookbook, “The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food With Global Flavors” (Rizzoli New York, $35).
Vantrece, who grew up in Kansas City, traveled the world as a flight attendant, and graduated from culinary school in Atlanta, where she soon learned that the foodways of her family were often considered a footnote.
“Basically they told you soul food existed, and that was kind of it,” Vantrece said, following up with a wry laugh. “I remember one teacher, who actually just turned to me and asked me to talk about it.
“It was strange to me that we spent days on different cultures, and spent such a small amount on soul food. And there was no one there qualified to teach it. For me, that was kind of an awakening. The question was, ‘What’s wrong with our food?’ ‘What’s wrong with the food I grew up with?’”
In “The Twisted Soul Cookbook,” Vantrece writes about a series of eureka moments, when she “became determined to give soul food a higher profile in her cooking and catering.”
Studying Charlie Trotter’s cookbooks, she made the connection between soul food and Southern food, and the food her grandmother and great-grandmother were cooking.
“I was seeing food that I grew up with that he had taken and elevated into these beautiful fine dining dishes, with all kinds of colors, and different ingredients,” she recalled. “That was something that really spoke to me.
“No one was taking the soul food that I grew up with and figuring out ways to present it, where it became what I called art on the plate. And that’s what I decided I wanted to do.”
Vantrece found inspiration in women such as Edna Lewis and Leah Chase, and other chefs
who honored African American food with their recipes.
“They were utilizing fresh products, and the best things, and they understood seasonal vegetables, and what to do with them,” she said. “So the knowledge was there all the time, not just in professional chefs, like an Edna Lewis, but all of the black women who were in white women’s kitchens preparing the meals for their families.”
For a time, Vantrece wondered if she had a cookbook in her, but finally decided there were plenty of stories to tell, and recipes to share.
“In the broader term, soul food goes across all cultures, and we all have something that touches our soul, and some
food that touches our soul,” she said.
Ultimately, Vantrece said she “wanted to touch people’s hearts” with her cookbook. “I wanted to elevate the soul food I grew up with, and marry it with all of the travel, and all of the history, and all of the stories,” she said.
Recently, Vantrece took on a new role as creative director at Twisted Soul, while promoting chef de cuisine Robert Butts to executive chef. With that move, she’s able to take on a bigger role as a mentor, working with several organizations and companies to advocate for minorities in the restaurant business.
“Turning over the kitchen, that was a big deal for me,” she admitted. “But it brought me a lot of pleasure. I didn’t have a mentor. I had my family, and their common sense, more than anything. I figured it out as best I could. I screwed it up a few times. And I want to keep others from screwing it up as bad as I did.
“Because I have been vocal and outspoken about the inequities in the industry, I want to continue to be a bit of an activist, and be a huge mentor to those who need it. That will be the role that I’ll take on a little bit more now — to push the agenda of more women, and more African Americans and people of color, and more restaurants that are owned by people who look like me.”