Kasey Lee Cooke

My signature dish is a 100% house-made kolbász sausage roll, wrapped in golden, flakey pastry and showered with roasted sesame seeds. This lovely roll is a vessel for a velvet sauce of port wine, pork jus, and prunes—deep, rich, and softly sweet— with cool dollop of crème fraîche at the side, brightening each bite and giving the dish a seasonless soul: as comforting in winter as it is luminous in warmer months.

My culinary inspiration is my mother. We grew up with little, yet I never knew hunger—only meals alive with flavor. Even canned green beans, softened (even further) with butter, garlic, salt, and pepper, felt made with care. She turned scarcity into comfort, necessity into love. Resourceful, resilient, endlessly creative—she embodies the spirit every great chef shares. She will always be the heart behind my cooking.

I’d use the $25,000 to lift myself out of some previous debts. Freedom from that weight would allow me to fully step into my purpose— opening a restaurant built on care (for staff, ingredients, and guests), integrity, and the change this industry so deeply needs, while serving food that is thoughtful, beautiful, and unforgettable. Humans being treated as such, doing the most human thing: cooking food.