Greg Collier will once again be a minority in the kitchen when he and his wife Subrina’s upcoming restaurant, Leah & Louise, opens at Camp North End this spring. As a black chef, he’s used to standing out from his peers. This time, however, it’s of his own doing: his savory and dessert sous chefs and lead line cook at the new restaurant are all black women.

As some of the founding members of Soul Food Sessions, the Colliers — owners of The Yolk in 7th Street Public Market — set out with several other black chefs in town to diversify our perceptions of what chefs look like. The dinner series since earned national attention, and has been able to highlight many up-and-coming minority chefs as the founding members step back from the spotlight. Collier says he hopes that attention will give participating chefs a platform to open their own restaurants one day.

“I feel like mentorship is one of the biggest pieces to my legacy as a chef, and specifically a black chef,” he says.

The original Soul Food Sessions members featured only two women in the group of six: Subrina, who works in the front of the house, and pastry chef Jamie Turner, now at The Asbury. With Leah & Louise, a concept named in honor of Collier’s sister and grandmother, Collier felt the restaurant should be a platform for black women.

So he hired Jasmine Macon as the restaurant’s sous pastry chef and Tchnavia “Tché” Carter as sous chef. Macon, a Johnson and Wales graduate, was the pastry chef at Joe’s Doughs before the popular donut shop closed its doors. Carter worked at 5Church before earning a scholarship to work in Michelin-starred kitchens in Spain. Both women were introduced to the Colliers through friends in Soul Food Sessions, and excitedly accepted positions at Leah & Louise for the chance to learn from Greg Collier.

“I just want to see him as a leader and take notes from that, because I do want to have my own shop one day, and I don’t really feel like I’ve had that mentorship relationship in my career so far,” Macon says. She’s shared her ambitions with Collier, who is enthusiastic about teaching both chefs all he can to help them move on to greater things, like opening their own restaurants. The Colliers hope to see more black-owned and black-run restaurants in Charlotte, even if it means training up-and-coming chefs to help prepare for leadership in their own kitchens.

“It has always been very important to both of us, to Subrina and I, to be able to create the culture we would have wanted to grow up in or come up in,” Greg Collier says.

Leah & Louise will have a menu that focuses on Southern dishes in a space that’s inspired by juke joints in the Colliers’ hometown of Memphis. We’re anticipating the restaurant to stand out among Charlotte’s modern Southern restaurants thanks to Collier’s understanding and desire to honor the often-forgotten voices in black cooking.

“I’ve always looked at Southern food as African-American food as black food at its core,” he says. “I also always have felt like that food comes from black women.”

With a talented, mostly female staff, the Colliers hope the narratives around cooking in the South will begin including the demographic that’s largely responsible for it. And if, after he’s shared all he can with his sous chefs, they move on to achieve more than he has, he’ll be proud. For now, however, he’s happy to be a minority in the kitchen once again, and Carter and Macon are both grateful to be learning from someone who has done so much for black chefs in Charlotte and beyond.

“It’s really pivotal to give us that exposure that we’re seeking,” Carter says. “For me personally, trying to find my place has been a challenge — even outside of Charlotte, just in kitchens in general. You see our faces, but you don’t really see our faces. So to have someone who’s really trying to push us along and teach us, help us strengthen our weaknesses and build up our strengths is going to be monumental.” —Kristen Wile

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