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. From a personal perspective, she also transitioned from being a daughter, a wife, a mother who came out as a lesbian, to co- owning businesses with her wife, Lorraine Lane. Through all the changes, the pleasure of gathering individuals to enjoy great food has never changed. “I learned early on that food was something that brought people together, no matter what the occasion,” she says. “My family was not rich or poor, just somewhere in the middle. But we considered ourselves blessed because there was always good food on the table. Not necessarily expensive food–but good food.”
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