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Chef Tye Hall
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Virginia-based chef, culinary storyteller and historian Leni Sorenson
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Former quarters for enslaved people on the historic property where the Fire & Memory dinner series will take place
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The first course from the Fire & Memory dinner: pot likker, greens and corn pone served with sorghum syrup
Tye Hall can pinpoint exactly when she had an ego death. After breaking a leg, thinking she might never walk again, her culinary awakening took shape. But that was nearly five years ago, and Hall — a military veteran and longtime local chef and caterer — has come back stronger than ever. Less concerned with the kind of success that once defined her path, she sees a more rewarding pursuit: heritage.
“I chased fame. I changed, wanting everybody to know me. I wanted to be at everybody’s table,” she says. “And then I realized, that’s the easiest way to die, because you can get poisoned, not realizing who you are.”
That yearning to reconnect with herself and her past has become the North Star of Hall’s journey. It’s also what led her to Virginia culinary icon, chef and storyteller Leni Sorensen. Both are drawn to seek out the backstory and the deeper layers in their craft and upon meeting felt an instant kinship.
The duo first connected through social media; Sorensen reached out after a post from Hall asking to hear others’ food memories.
Hall made the trip to Crozet, where Sorenson resides and operates Indigo House. The visit led to an all-day exchange, with the 84-year-old dropping her infamous f-bombs and Hall whipping up meals, the pair talking fervently about everything from family to foodways. They also discussed what it might look like to pursue preservation together.
Fire & Memory takes place April 19.
On April 19, the duo will host “Fire & Memory,” a six-course sold-out dinner inspired by the foodways of the past. The event, hosted on a historic property in Richmond, is centered around sharing, preservation of memories and traditions, and storytelling, with Sorensen serving as raconteur for the night and Hall at the helm in the kitchen.
“Dr. Sorensen will speak to the history behind each dish,” Hall says.
The intimate dinner is part of a series (dates to be announced) that will travel across the South with stops in North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia, each with its own theme, menu and collaborators. Hall has confirmed meals with John Haney of Alveron BBQ, Creole chef Panderina Soumas and 3T Farms owner Iteago Felton.
A military veteran and former nurse, Hall has spent decades in the kitchen, from food trucks to a longtime catering company with her husband, along with a budding hemp-based food business. But Hall’s new chapter is more focused and more intentional — just how she planned it.
“[Leni] was just like, ‘This is going back into innovation and food culture and foodways, and you are now becoming a torch because you’re reaching back to make sure it’s not forgotten,’” Hall recalls.
The backdrop for the dinner is a historic home, where the original quarters for enslaved people on the premises are still attached. “When we cook, we’ll be cooking in that kitchen,” Hall says. “It’s modernized, of course, [but] we’ll speak to the history.”
The gingko tree where guests will gather for the al fresco heritage dinner
Guests will be greeted with an ancestral-style drink, something Hall says would have been more prominent in the early 1900s, and gather under a giant gingko tree. From there, the meal will unfold like a book, each dish representing a different chapter and speaking to a larger narrative.
“This is literally getting people to remember where they come from,” she says.
The meal and its origins align with Sorensen’s area of expertise, which spans from the 1800s to the present. Each ingredient is an ode to lineage and legacy, a taste, a smell, a tether to the past.
The meal begins with pot likker; leafy greens seasoned with pork fat or smoked meat; and a slice of corn pone, an old Southern spin on cornbread, served with sorghum syrup.
“Back then, that’s basically what they would have had to fortify them, to carry them through the day, and that cornbread would be just heavy enough to make sure that they didn’t feel hunger while they were working,” Hall says.
A dish dubbed Waters First leans into the waterways, with Hall preparing a simple fish indigenous to Virginia, cooked with oil and herbs and finished with burnt lemon.
Following is Field and Flames, fire-roasted rabbit with herb jus and spring roots, then Yardbird and Memory, with chicken prepared two ways. Sides will include rice pilaf, Sea Island peas and Nana’s collards and cabbage. The story then returns to the water with Tide and Trade, a deliberate nod to broader Southern waterways, anchored by a crawfish stew.
“Most people don’t associate crawfish with Virginia; they associate it with New Orleans,” Hall says. “That dish is just to tie in and to show how powerful a waterway is when it’s that close to you.”
The closing dessert is Sweet Memory, a ginger molasses cake from Sorenson’s recipe.
Beyond the meal, Hall hopes diners engage with one another. She has created discussion cards with prompts including, “What’s one food you refused as a child, but now you love? What does preservation look like in your life?”
Fire & Memory will close with a moment to slow down, and guests will receive a custom candle scented with sage and palo santo — a blend meant to linger and serve as a reminder of the night.
Hall says the most important lesson she hopes guests leave with is simple: “Slow down, have that conversation, be intentional with the people in your family. Be intentional with anyone who wants to share something with you, because you don’t want it to go away.
“It’s heart work, it’s not hard work,” she continues. “This is work where my heart is at peace, because I know that I am going to do for family what wasn’t done for me, which is to preserve a voice, preserve a memory that you can carry on.”
The meal will start and end with guests gathered beneath a towering ginkgo tree. Often called a “living fossil,” the ginkgo has no close living relatives, remaining unchanged for millions of years. The same could be said for the traditions Hall and Sorensen are working to protect — stories, flavors and foodways that have endured, passed from hand to hand and heart to heart.
