Owner: Dionne Knox

It’s said that when you’re born you come into the world know­ing exactly what you’re sup­posed to do with your life. Due to numer­ous dis­trac­tions, most of us take detours on our jour­neys spend­ing quite a lot of time try­ing to dis­cover our way back to that know­ing­ness. At the young age of 8 years old, Chef Dionne Knox remem­bers spend­ing most of her time in the kitchen with her grand­mother, Zella, cook­ing meals and bak­ing deli­cious desserts. Zella was a dynamic chef known for cook­ing every­thing from scratch. To ensure the best fla­vors in her cook­ing, Zella grew fresh veg­eta­bles in her gar­den, raised chick­ens for fresh eggs, made her own jam, baked bread every day and churned her own butter.

Zella’s abil­ity to nour­ish her fam­ily extended beyond feed­ing them. The fam­ily reg­u­larly came together around the kitchen table to pre­pare fresh ingre­di­ents and share their lives to develop the close­ness and inti­macy that comes from prepar­ing and shar­ing a meal together. The idea of “fam­ily” was extended to guests enter­ing Zella’s home who were fed and treated with warmth, gra­cious­ness and a meal in the tra­di­tion of south­ern hospitality.

Hon­or­ing her legacy, Dionne fol­lowed in her grandmother’s foot­steps and cre­ated a cater­ing com­pany named Zella’s Soul­ful Kitchen in 2005. As a pro­gram par­tic­i­pant at La Cocina, Dionne grew her busi­ness cre­at­ing menus by sourc­ing ingre­di­ents from local farm­ers and tak­ing care to hand make the deli­cious foods she learned to make as a child. Clients enjoyed her healthy take on South­ern Food at wed­dings, din­ner par­ties, busi­ness meet­ings and in the com­fort of their own homes.

Tele­phone: 510.532.6652

Email: Email: zellaskitchen@sbcglobal.net

Web­site: www.zellassoulfulkitchen.com