“There’s something that you had as a kid – it could be a peanut butter sandwich, it could be Grandma’s tuna noodle casserole – but it made you feel good. I don’t care if it’s a hot dog,” said VanTrece. And I think every culture, deep down, has that. “It’s really a type of cuisine that touches your heart, that touches your soul. “There are some things that continue to be extremely expensive – our caviar, our truffles – but I spent some time in Russia at one point, and they would trade some caviar for a pair of Levi jeans in a heartbeat, it’s so common there… Take a step back and understand, good food is good food, no matter where you’re at, no matter what name you give to it.” But you go to Germany, you go to France, and it definitely is a delicacy.” “Hog head cheese is considered, really, some trash, some pretty country cooking here in the United States. And I laughed to myself and thought, ‘They never left,’” said VanTrece. “We did a hog head cheese, which is something that now I’m kind of focused on a little bit because I find it funny that there’s discussion on aspic, the idea of aspic dishes coming back. And the ingredients that you put in a paté are really some kind of castoff and throwaway ingredients, combined with fresh herbs and great flavor, and with a cute name,” said VanTrece. “When you really sit and put it together, is really a fancy meatloaf, if you think about it. Paté, aspic, and other niche foods reexamined: The basic food that I was given is absolutely delicious, but I think that we have an obligation to experiment with it – know where it comes from, know that your grandfather made this amazing gumbo, and he added this, this, and that – but also open up your eyes to all those things that are available to you now, that he may not have had access to.” “As food and food systems have changed, so have some of my ideas and my concepts. “Soul food that I grew up with, it was wholesome, it was delicious,” said VanTrece. “Soul food is not just one type of food… A lot of that depends upon where, actually, you live.” African-Americans came here and they were placed in the South, for the most part, but as the world, the country evolved, they started migrating up into Northern states… and so did the cuisines of those places,” said VanTrece. It’s definitely influenced by the region. “People have the idea, or have had the idea, that soul food is just like a bubble it’s one thing.
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