Today we’d like to introduce you to Chef Rae (Ranonda Penn).
Chef Rae, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My fascination with the kitchen began when I was six years old. I would help my Momma make cakes during the holidays. Of course, starting out the ultimate goal was to get first dibs at the beaters. Eventually, I realized I liked cooking and my passion for learning everything I could about cooking and baking was awakened.
Instead of watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, I would watch the few cooking shows I found on PBS. Then I would have my brother to ride bikes with me to the local grocery store, Parker’s. I would charge any groceries needed to make that day’s masterpiece to my parents’ grocery account (small town perk for the 80s) and create the dish based on my own interpretation.
Occasionally, my Momma would let me cook dinner for the family. One summer when I couldn’t find a job, I did my own catering business. I went around and asked family and friends if they needed food for any summer events and they hired me. I enlisted my mother for help with any desserts. She made the best desserts! My siblings would help me sometimes get things together for delivery. I even dressed as a clown using some of my Daddy’s old clothes for one event to entertain the children!
Right before leaving for college, I figured I needed to learn how to cook all of my favorite foods. I took cooking lessons for the foods I needed to learn from my Momma’s older sister Nanny. She was the sweetest and most gentlewoman! She taught me how to make homemade pie crust, apple turnovers, cookies – all the goodies I didn’t need to eat all the time! Nanny had arthritis in her hands and she would roll out the dough using and old clear glass bottle she keep in the kitchen. Every pie had these perfect edges. She made sure I learned how to crimp a pie crust properly. She always supported me and encouraged me to never stop cooking.
Throughout my adult life, I have always thrown dinner parties or other food-related events like Soulfood Saturdays, Wing competitions – to feed my inner chef. For the longest time, I felt if I took culinary from my personal world, the thing that I could do in my happy place, to my professional world I would risk hating it. Every few years, I’d check out culinary school but never take the leap.
In 2010, I started Divalicious Dish as a blog and ultimately a cooking club concept which ended up with over 100 local members! After another IT layoff later that year, I took the plunge and went to culinary school full-time. I have always known that if I took my culinary passion to the professional level it would not be a standard catering venture. I decided to combine my love of food with my love of photography. I took photography as my elective and set out to be more than just a chef – a food stylist and writer. This is why I consider myself a Culinary Artist.
The road my life has taken helped me to discover the cooking style that best tells my story and drives me to help others experience Southern flavors in unique ways – My fusion style takes traditional Southern foods and artistically recreates them as unique, unforgettable dishes with influences from my African-American roots and the African Moor roots of Spain. A few years ago, I traveled to Spain and took some cooking classes there to learn more about their cuisine. That was an amazing experience!
Divalicious Dish soon became my culinary outlet to creatively provide intimate fine dining dinner experiences for our clients in their homes or venue of choice. My focus is small gatherings for clients completely customized to their gathering. I partner with other artists – handcrafted paperie services, bartending services, musicians, singers and photographers as needed.
In addition to my own culinary vision, I believed I needed some experience working in the industry outside of my own business. I have experienced being an Adjunct Culinary Arts Instructor, Food Service Director for private schools, even an IT analyst for a food production company.
In January 2014, Divalicious Dish was selected as 1 of 3 Entrepreneurs out of 40 Entrepreneurs for the 2014 SURE/University of Houston Entrepreneur Academy Award Pitch Day. We presented our business plans to a panel of investors. The businesses selected received micro-investment funds to help us take our dreams to the next level.
Fast-forward to now … I am in a transition phase restructuring how I want my artisanal culinary perspective to be done. The company is now The Savory Experience and Divalicious Dish is again a blog which will be relaunching soon.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Although I love my journey, It has not always been a smooth one. The biggest challenges have been from my personal life versus industry-related.
Family.
Relationships.
Grief. In 2017, my last parent, my uncle (my Daddy) I lived with all my life passed away.
The hardest challenge was recovering from a very serious car accident I had in March 2014. I was hit by two cars on both sides going 70 mph. I am still amazed I survived!
Industry-related:
Understanding everyone cannot see my culinary vision and that’s okay. I just need to stay the course set before me.
Finding a commercial kitchen that will work for the next level concepts I have in the works.
Connecting with fellow chefs so we can collaborate and help each other grow in our perspective skills.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Dining is an eXPerience which creates memories that last a lifetime! This is one of the core beliefs for The Savory Experience.
Recently, we reorganized the business structure and fine-tuned the concept. Our blog Divalicious Dish is back and will be launching soon. Our intimate fine dining experiences are now under The Savory Experience.
We believe food is one of the global activites that unites us in this world. No matter how casual or formal the setting, dining with family, friends or strangers brings us all closer together. It helps us to: connect and build bridges, learn about each other’s culture and traditions, and leads us to discover we have more commonalities than we have differences.
Our eXPeriences represent a diversified concept for both the private and corporate client:
Savory eXPeriences – intimate fine dining dinner eXPeriences brought to clients in their homes or venue of choice.
Personal chef eXPeriences – meal services for on the go and concierge level clients.
Epicurean adventures – artisanal cooking classes uniquely designed for clients to explore cooking and foods from many cultures.
Aar·ti·san·al per·fec·tions – small batch artisanal products (coming soon).
Food safety training – certified ServSafe instructor and proctor services for industry professionals.
b2b & private client consulting – assist culinary establishments organize and streamline services and kitchen and pantry organization services.
What were you like growing up?
I was an interesting kid according to my parents! LOL. I lived with my aunt and uncle from the time I was 18 months old so for most of my life it seemed like I was an only child. Although I am 3 of 5 – middle child.
I was, and still am, a nerdy introvert. I began reading and writing at three years old. I could never get enough of reading books and trying new things. I went home for lunch almost every day in middle school! As a child, I was assertive and respectfully spoke my mind.
I grew up in Brazoria, about an hour south of Houston. We had a garden every season in the corner of the backyard. We also had horses, cows … a bull. My Daddy and his friends would dress a hog or cow at times, smoke whatever meat they wanted and divide the meat between them. The access to fresh meats and vegetables gave me the opportunity to taste food straight from the source and made cooking an ever expanding adventure. It was great to go in the backyard and grab tomatoes and peppers fresh out of the garden and cook them.
Thankfully my parents were on board with my hair-brained ideas and I got to try almost everything. I did little business throughout my childhood. However, I always gravitated back to my first love – cooking. Once I even charged the neighborhood kids to play in my backyard to raise money for Jerry’s Kids and had my Momma to make snacks for everyone.
Pricing:
- Savory eXPeriences – begin at $125 per person
- Personal chef eXPeriences – begin at $200 per week for a couple or single person
- Epicurean adventures – begin at $65 per person
Contact Info:
- Website: http://savoryxp.com
- Phone: 713.253.9907
- Email: connect@savoryxp.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/savoryxp
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/savoryxp
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/savoryxp
- Other: http://www.instagram.com/chefraeofficial
Image Credit:
Blue treasure photography; It’s so pastiche!; The savory experience
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