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Theresa Headen, chef and owner of Elegant Cuizines at 415 W. Grace St. in Monroe Ward
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Elegant Cuizines started as a catering business in 2016.
On the walls of Theresa Headen’s forthcoming restaurant, Elegant Cuizines, diners will spot a map of Africa, her native continent, as well as the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:11, reflections of her roots and her journey to this point. The reading goes, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
They are words that Headen lives by, a personal mantra and affirmation that guides her daily.
“Everywhere I go I post it, because it speaks to my life and encourages me even when things are going bad,” Headen says.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, the chef will open the doors of her West African-inspired restaurant at 415 W. Grace St.
Headen landed in Richmond as a child, immigrating here from war-torn Liberia with her mother and sisters. With a family friend in the area, they settled on Richmond and have remained here since.
“We were able to come over here and basically start a new life,” she says. “I was 8 years old.”
Some of Headen’s earliest memories are in the kitchen, and while some kids were reaching for plastic toy sets, she was at her grandmother’s heels, ready to use her pots and leftover ingredients to make something new.
“I always loved cooking; that’s the only game I really played as a kid,” she says with a laugh.
While attending St. Gertrude High School, Headen and her fellow students wrote a letter to their future selves for a senior assignment. In her penned prediction, Headen declared that she would own a restaurant, and that it would be called Elegant Cuizines.
In college, Headen refused to eat at the university cafeteria and often found herself whipping up food of her own as she began to explore clean and healthy eating. In 2016, after years of feeding friends and family, she launched Elegant Cuizines as a catering business. When the pandemic struck, Headen found her stride by offering subscription meal-prep services; she prepared the food at Hatch Kitchen.
Despite the growing success, Headen, who has a biology degree from Chowan University in North Carolina, says her decision to commit to the culinary field wasn’t one her mother immediately endorsed.
“I always told people that growing up as African children, you have two career choices, to be a doctor or lawyer, and when you tell your family, ‘I don’t want to be a doctor, and I don’t want to be a lawyer, but I want to be a chef —’ ” she says, then stops to laugh.
But after years of understandable maternal concerns regarding the stability of working in the service industry, her mother’s feelings shifted as she watched her daughter’s dreams slowly unfold.
“My mom was like, ‘I’m going to call you Chef Headen from now on,’ and she said, ‘because it’s so amazing to see you do something you’re really passionate about,’ ” Headen says. “It didn’t make sense to her, so I felt like I had to kind of show her like, look, this is something God has given me, this is my purpose.”
Focused on clean eating, the dishes at Elegant Cuizines — all of which are dairy free — are familiar but different, presenting approachable dishes that showcase African spices and techniques.
Offerings at the restaurant, which seats about 45 guests and has an enclosed patio in the back, include salmon in a spiced palava sauce, a one-pot stew widely eaten in West Africa and cooked with vegetables including taro, spinach or amaranth leaves; pancakes made with plantains; and a brunch-centric riff on shrimp and grits featuring attieke, a grain similar to cous cous that is made from fermented cassava pulp.
“We’re telling a story of who I am and a part of who [my husband] Charles is and bringing that together,” says Headen, whose spouse is the general manager at Elegant Cuizines.
Other menu items include curried pesto garganelli, vegan crabcakes with okra fried rice and housemade tartar sauce, suya lamb chops, and garlic butter-palava vegan “chicken” made with cauliflower or oyster mushrooms. Brunch will feature salmon croquettes, lemon-ricotta pancakes and cauliflower hash.
Headen says the restaurant will offer a number of nonalcoholic cocktails and that wines will be sourced from RichWine, the delivery offshoot from the owners behind Jackson Ward’s newly opened Penny’s Wine Shop. Justin Ross of JC Desserts will be crafting sweet treats for the restaurant, including an exclusive vegan cronut, while pastas will come from Oro.
“We’re trying to make sure it’s very local; the menu is very locally influenced with other businesses that are growing,” she says.
Headen, who does not eat meat, says Elegant Cuizines will also offer a bounty of vegan options, in addition to gluten-free bites. She is a firm believer in using fruits and vegetables such as cauliflower, mushroom or jackfruit to re-create a meaty texture rather than relying on meat substitutes. She also sees food as a source of power with the potential to heal the body.
For guests who don’t eat meat, “I want to make sure that people aren’t like, ‘Oh, all we have here is a salad.’ I want them to have the same options as a meat eater or seafood eater,” Headen says. “My No. 1 focus is for it to be clean [eating] so that you’re not comprising health to enjoy something.”
Elegant Cuizines will be open Monday through Saturday with brunch from noon to 4 p.m. and dinner from 4 to 9 p.m.
