Chef Dee Dee
Chef Dee Dee’s memories of her mother and aunts preparing family meals stemming from their family’s secret recipes encouraged her to follow her true passion-spreading her love for southern cuisine with others worldwide. Needless to say, her fascination with her mother’s culinary capabilities in their Alabama kitchen aided in her transformation into a business savvy, well-recognized and respected chef many years later.
Nine years after exerting countless time and energy pursuing her corporate America aspirations, she took that same energy and time to establish a company that better represented her true love in life-Southern Cooking Girl Creations, Inc. which houses DEElicious Southern Cuisine Fine Catering & Meal Plans, DEElicious Red Velvet Waffles & Cooking with a Twist cooking classes. Though many may perceive southern cuisine as grandma’s golden fried chicken or auntie’s delicious candied yams, Chef Dee Dee’s creative spin on southern-styled dishes will convince them otherwise arguing that these traditional soul foods do not compare to true southern cuisines, which she describes as “food made from the soul of a southern woman.”
Above all, Chef Dee Dee truly enjoys the versatility of Southern cuisine and the limitless possibilities it presents being that it is “the blending of culinary traditions and ingredients with food that is derived from the south.” Furthermore, it is far from unusual to find entrées with various cultural influences on her menu such as steak and eggs, chicken parmesan and creole pasta-all served with a unique southern flair. This special southern flair has awarded her with exclusive branding opportunities like producing and hosting her own online cooking show on Unation.com, a Tampa based social networking events & branding network and becoming a featured columnist and food contributor for the Houston based Empower Magazine to name a few.
Her features in the Hope for Women magazine, the Living Day by Day magazine and radio talk-show, Kingdom View Network, KHOU-11’s Great Day Houston with Deborah Duncan and ABC’s Channel 13 Crossroads with Melanie Lawson have all showcased her culinary skills & famous DEElicious Red Velvet Waffles- the same waffles that her clients craved so deeply until she decided to sell the infamous batter so all could make and enjoy at home and will soon be featured in the popular Texas supermarket chain, HEB, as well as other grocery stores, restaurants & hotel chains. Moreover, this award-winning batter helped her sweep the competition in all five categories of the HEB & NZURI sponsored Top Chef Competition in December of 2013, which was then followed by her title as an HEB’s 2014 Primo Picks Quest for Texas Best 25 finalist out of over 600 contestants.
Chef DeeDee has also participated in many Chef Events to raise money for non-profits such as The Ronald McDonald House, where she won 2 out of three awards in the Red Shoe Chef Competition, The American Heart Association and The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital chaired by Roland & Jacquie Hood Martin and where she worked alongside many great chefs and Carla Hall of The Chew.
When this top-performing chef needs strength and inspiration, she recalls this particular scripture:
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
These words remind her to remain hopeful for a joyous and prosperous future, and as her future begins to morph into all of the promises God has for her, she realizes that God has blessed her remarkable new journey of bringing the world together through her southern cuisine since day one.
Chef Dee Dee Today: Catch her providing some of Houston’s elite with a week’s worth of meal preparation both nutritious and enjoyable for all. If she is not prepping one of her many meal programs for her clients’ convenience, she is probably teaching at Cooking With A Twist, instructing a company team building event or rendering her skilled services for a private dinner, brunch party or personal one-on-one cooking experience. When requesting her presence in the kitchen, you can always expect her to provide top-notch quality, professionalism, meal diversity and of course, great food! She encourages her supporters to be on the lookout for her Red Velvet Waffle Batter and Frozen Waffles in HEB grocery stores very soon as well as partake in her fun & interactive Cooking with a Twist cooking classes.