We recently connected with Duke Kroger and have shared our conversation below.

Duke, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Organizing Cinder has been huge for me as a chef and creative. I decided about a year ago to open Cinder, which would be a live, open fire modern kitchen. This gave me the opportunity to “de-evolutionize” modern cooking to its simpler roots. It also gave me a platform to help raise awareness for supporting our local farm communities and making sure our neighbors understood the food sourcing chain and how important local sustainability was in the grand scheme. The idea of “just go to the grocery store, and there it is” had become the most irresponsible ideal I could think of in this line of work. And I wanted to change that. These people were our neighbors, our friends, our kids coaches, and local hero’s in the community. And for years we’d failed to represent their hard work and importance they played in our diet.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I started cooking at a very young age. My grandmother and grandfather moved all around the southeast when my grandpa was with Georgia-Pacific, which gave them a broad spectrum of traditional southern cooking, with my fathers family being from South America. Both these views gave me a strong grasp on the importance of our roots and how it plays a role in what we do. But it wasn’t until after I’d spent time incarcerated with one of americas most infamous outlaw motorcycle clubs, that I chose to make this a career path. It was a world build for cutthroats, vagabonds, outcasts and vagrants, and I loved that. I’ve got to do some awesome things with some amazing chefs, which I get to continue now working with a group that’s doing so much to promote overall wellness in the industry. Thanks to my good friend and mentor Chef Jamie Lynch

In my spare time I enjoy power lifting, building motorcycles, and working with Gang Related and At Risk youths to show them a different path to channel the creativity and energy these kids have. I also regularly involve myself with the NC Dept of Agriculture to help raise money for generational family farms throughout the state.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

I think the most rewarding experience I’ve had through being creative has been inspiring those around me to do the same. Instilling those values of community and supporting local agriculture have been huge. My mentors taught me you’re only as good as the chefs you leave behind you so I’ve worked hard in my career to nurture those that work with me to grow and thrive and always demand more. I’ve recently gave up smoking and alcohol entirely in my life to break the stigma we have as culinary professionals and to look out for my own health, which I hope to inspire others to do as well. Mental health issues are rampant in this career and anything we can do to create a sense of clarity and sobriety I think is extremely important.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

My goals and missions have actually become more clear as I’ve started my journey into opening my own restaurant. I think it’s important to look outside the dollar sign as we all do. Sure it’s a business, and it’s job is to sustain and gain. But at the end of the day what you represent is what echos into the nether. So by supporting local farms, growing my friends, family, and colleagues to be the best they can, has been huge. At Cinder our motto was genuine, and simple, “Do Good Things”. We aim to do just that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @chefdukekroger

Image Credits
Credits to Ryan Allen @friedchickensandwhich on Instagram