Subrina and Greg Collier, of the restaurant Leah & Louise in Charlotte.
With COVID restrictions finally easing, star-packed food festivals are beginning to return to the scene. But a new festival planned for this fall in Charlotte aims to bring a different focus than the big gatherings: celebrating Black chefs.
While Black chefs have long been an integral part of Charlotte’s food scene, they weren’t getting the recognition they deserved. That began to change in 2016, when a group of Black chefs in Charlotte put on a pop-up dinner, Soul Food Sessions, designed to showcase the city’s Black cooking talent and garner the chefs more visibility. The dinners became semi-regular events, and they eventually expanded to a three-city tour that took them to Washington, Baltimore, and Charleston. For the chefs, it was a vital means of exposure.
Charlotte Magazine
From subscription services to cocktail kits
December 13, 2020
Lukacik
Pastry chef Jossie Lukacik opened her hands-on baking classroom, Sweet Spot Studio, on Monroe Road two years ago. She shifted to online classes in March and sold take-home cookie kits throughout the spring, but she couldn’t sustain her setup without in-person baking classes. So she closed her doors in June and spent the next three months restructuring her business and the space in which it operates. Lukacik relaunched in September with mask and social-distancing rules and a knee-operated sink. She added a baking supply store to the studio and a subscription service, Cookie Club, that provides students with everything they need for online classes.