Vilda Gonzalez

Born: Savannah, GA — 1998 / Living: Charleston, SC

Interview by Speciwomen — August 2019

Speciwomen: Tell us about yourself. 

Vilda Gonzalez: I am a student and a cook. I’m often loud, often laughing, very ambitious, and always curious. 

S: Why food?

VG: I never really chose to work in food, it just eventually became clear that I always would. As a child, my appetite was insatiable. I can’t think of a food I didn’t love. It's funny to reflect on because I’ve always been obsessed with food in one regard or another. It is the most tangible expression of care, presence, and patience. It has brought me my closest friends, forced me to face my worst habits, and saved me in a time of desperate need. 

S: How did you get into cooking?

VG: I learned the basics of cooking when I was young. Growing up, dinner time was one solid ritual in our house, and my mom or dad almost always cooked our meals at home. This taught me the fundamentals: how to use a knife, how to taste for what’s missing, how to improvise. I started cooking for myself from a young age, and have always continued. Severe illness is what brought me to the style of cooking I practice today. A few years back, I had a very sudden onset of a debilitating autoimmune disorder. I read, researched & experimented obsessively to figure out how to bring my body back to balance. The solution was eerily simple, and it had almost everything to do with food. I am grateful that I had the intuitive sense to treat myself, and have been devoted ever since to helping educate & empower people to do the same for themselves.

S: Your top three culinary influences?

VG: Dan Barber. He taught me the correlation between the soil’s health and my own health. I read his book The Third Plate when I was very sick, and suddenly everything clicked. Naomi Devlin. Reading her cookbooks always reminds me to stay on track when I doubt the path that I’m on. Matt & Lentil, the authors of my favorite cookbooks: Grown & Gathered and The Village. They remind me daily of the joy of simple living, with good food and good people. I have an endless collection of cookbooks, and theirs are the only ones whose recipes I actually follow. 

S: What are your favorite go-to dishes to prepare for any occasion? 

VG: I’m always experimenting with new dishes so it definitely varies, but one true and tried dish goes as follows: quickly sauté kale and/or collard greens in ghee, add a knob of grated ginger and salt, then braise till tender in pure coconut milk and finish with chili. This is delicious with rice, with fish, or drizzled in black sesame tahini. A salad of beautiful, crunchy greens (my favorite is a blend of red mustard, arugula, mizuna & sunflower shoots) is another given; raw milk cheddar and toasted hazelnuts has been my go to move recently, dressed simply in citronette, with a smear of sumac yogurt on the bottom of the plate. I also love making slow roasted salmon loaded with herbs, shallots, citrus and olive oil. 

S: If you could open a restaurant in any city, where would it be, why, and what would you serve?

VG: This has always been a difficult question considering that opening a restaurant to begin with is a difficult idea. If I ever were to open a restaurant, it would operate in service to the community that allows it to thrive, as a hub and refuge; the type of place you’d want to go to multiple times a day, with a book, on a date, with your kids, in a rush. I would open it in Savannah, GA as there’s hardly an option for a restaurant serving seasonal, healthful and delicious food. The people there have always supported my growth, so the idea of continuing to build within that city feels really sweet. There’s so many places I’m drawn to with more developed food scenes and easier access to better ingredients, but the idea of filling the void for a more conscious restaurant concept in Savannah excites me. We’ll see.