By Brittany Wallace
At the age of 21, Devin Davis from Plant City has already been a shining light in the culinary world. Growing up Davis used to watch his grandmother and mother cook, which in turn inspired him. In his senior year of high school at Seffner Christian Academy, he was wondering what to do. Debating between being an engineer or a musician, neither career sat right with his soul. It was when his grandmother suggested he go and try out for the competition Chopped on the Food Network did his life permanently change.
Out of 90 students from schools all over the country, Davis was one of the final four who got to appear on Chopped, and won first place. He was thrilled when he received a $40,000 scholarship to The Art Institute of Tampa, his dream school.
On winning, “Bam, I win and it’s like one thing after another; now I’m starting culinary school; now I got news outlets trying to cover me. It was like the whole world just blossomed.”
Davis finished school at The Art Institute of Tampa in December 2016. He finished his four year degree in two in half years with honors and a perfect GPA.
Davis currently works at the Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium in Brandon, where he teaches a class on cooking once a month. He loves it there, because he can serve food to people, whether newcomers or regulars, who he calls his “groupies” jokingly. For him serving people is the best part of cooking.
Dave West the owner and chef at the Rolling Pin said “Devin has grown as a chef and presenter over the past six years. He is professional, inventive and cooks well with others. He has great stories of his culinary experiences and channels them into his food and his presentations.”
Davis’ next project is The Kitchen, which will be a food truck with southern style food but with a twist. He will have a revolving menu and use seasonal ingredients to offer the freshest food to his customers. One item on his menu will be Chinese steam buns, but the country twist is that it is stuffed with shredded beef ribs and pickled okra.
For info about The Kitchen and Davis , visit ChefDevinDavis.com or on Facebook at The Kitchen By Devin Davis. You can reach him at 480-5919.
