Beneath the Curated Plate
Words by Nichole Shaw
Visuals by Felton Kizer
For Chef Lisa Shaw, it’s more than food. She caters unity. She caters inclusivity. She caters cuisines with a message.
Chicago-based Chef Lisa Shaw is embarking on an old dream in a new city. With an open heart and a compassion that holds her family and friends together, her menu artistically bridges a classic tradition of dining with the finer delights of Chicago’s eclectic culinary scene.
Settled beside her in a cafe booth, a voracious light in her eyes expresses a love for food. It’s exciting. Her new catering business—Lisa’s Boutique Catering, or LBC—is ready for Chicagoans to taste love in dishes made with real soulful devotion.
For Lisa, her company is not just a business, but a way for her to be an active leader in her community. In today’s divisive political climate, Lisa focuses her energy on creating and distributing dishes that practice inclusion and unity—authentic, artful cuisines with a message.
“It bothers me that grocery stores don’t look the same in different areas,” Chef Lisa said.
As a child, Lisa grew up on the fresh food her family grew in their backyard, a saving grace for her while living in the South. Unlike many underprivileged families—who were forced to eat processed, unhealthy foods—she was thankful for her experiences with good food early on. As a response to this systematic poverty, Lisa has invited all of Chicago to partake in her culinary journey. She wants to be sure everyone is invited to the table to experience the joyous celebration of food that comes from a place of love.
That joy isn’t just in the food Chef Lisa creates. It’s in her soul. Upon meeting her, you quickly realize that she exudes a joyful love for people, opening her arms to whomever is within reach. Hazelnut eyes rich with compassion gaze at you with a bright electric smile, lips painted red. She is here to make you feel at home.
After her welcoming embrace, we sit down, and Lisa thumbs the plate of her cafe pastry. There’s an affection in her touch. The eclectic white plate with blue patterned trim is reminiscent of china from the ‘30s. It becomes clear that Lisa has a fondness for all things vintage—including the traditional dining experience that brings friends and family together, united around a dinner table.
Born in Brooklyn, she flourished in that fast-paced urban environment until she made the traumatic move to Charleston, South Carolina, with her mother and brother in the ‘80s. Lisa was eight-years-old at the time. With racism alive and well, Lisa found comfort in food with her older brother.
Sundays were her favorite time of the week; four generations of women worked in the kitchen to craft an inclusive dinner to feed their family. The women of the family entrusted Lisa with the chopping and mincing of vegetables—the most crucial part of a quality meal. It was this Sunday tradition that helped Lisa cope with the crack epidemic in her surrounding environment. The coalescence of Black generations in that kitchen supplemented a priceless knowledge of health and wellness, a knowledge Lisa appreciates every day and hopes to extend to future clients, friends, and family.
“Those different cuisines we made in the kitchen made South Carolina feel a little more like home,” Chef Lisa remembers.
At the age of sixteen, Lisa made the jump back to Long Island, New York, where she met her mentor: the late Sheila “Diane” Caballero. Sheila became a model warrior for Lisa, a young curator of fine culinary arts at the time. Lisa feels a duty to honor Sheila’s revolutionary legacy as a woman of color moving forward in her life, helping Lisa take her power back.
Chef Lisa is familiar with fighting for her rights in the kitchen as a woman in an industry still dominated by men. She was isolated as the only woman in the kitchen throughout her career. She recalls being fired from a restaurant on the grounds she was a mother. When she used her voice to let her employers know it was illegal to fire someone for such a reason, they rehired her. Months later, she was let go again due to the restaurant’s financial struggles.
Lisa was pushed to step out on her own. In this moment, she reflected on the pervasive, consistent inequality she faced in the workplace and refused to accept the mistreatment any longer. Growing as a skilled chef and artist, Lisa learned to walk comfortably in her own skin. Now, she is confident in her own abilities and loves the life she’s made for herself.
“I live for today,” Lisa said. “I never want to look back and wonder what if.”
Her passion for cooking is tangible. She sits forward a little more. Her pupils dilate when the topic of food is mentioned around her. That passion has been there awhile, a beacon during her early days as a culinary artist.
Before Lisa and her family finally set roots in Chicago, they had lived in New York and Atlanta, Georgia. The moves were difficult for Lisa, who struggled to find her place as a culinary creator with a shifting home. She fell into a depression during her time in Georgia; her love for cooking was subdued. Her passion was not ignited again until she baked a cake for a friend, reviving her like a flame to dry bristles, spreading her tender benevolence like wildfire.
The self-transformation that followed her culinary reignition evoked the importance of self-care and taught her to take care of herself so she could take care of others. A mother first, Chef Lisa has perfected balancing family life with her catering business. She packs lunches for her husband and two daughters in the morning before she hits the colorful streets of culinary exploration.
She is her company. She prides herself on the thought that goes into each dish. When she cooks, she doesn’t just follow a recipe; she dives into the personality of the person she’s preparing for, ensuring the pillar of inclusivity is always at the forefront of her vision.
“I never want anyone to feel left out,” Lisa said. “I want people to have a dining experience, so I tap into the psychologist in me to be a great listener to my clients and evoke emotions in them from my food.”
Nothing she creates has preservatives. Everything is made fresh—from her legendary Nicaraguan fried rice and Black beans brekkie to her famous “Coffey” cake (inspired by her married name). The “Coffey” cake takes on many different flavors: walnut, pecan, pistachio, cardamom, granola, cacao, and almond. Although baking is not her first love, Lisa has come to appreciate the therapeutic process intrinsic to the cultivation of “Coffey” cake, a patient kind of love.
For Chef Lisa, emotional curation is the foundational focus of her business. Every dish is executed to perfection. It wouldn’t be created otherwise. She handpicks every detail in the catering process: from the unique fashion of her platters to the fusion of cultures; from simple, classic meals to the creamy sauces of fine dining. It is this careful fusion that Chef Lisa has curated over the past thirteen years, making her stand out without alienating her from the community.
“Cooking is my art,” she said.
Her food is the museum exhibit, and she is the curator.
“In today’s divisive political climate, Lisa focuses her energy on creating and distributing dishes that practice inclusion and unity—authentic, artful cuisines with a message.”
