Mac and cheese:a fun twist on a historic dish

Deborah Vantrece has always appreciated pairing cheese with a sweet element.

“You find those combinations of flavours a lot in African American cooking,” says the acclaimed Atlanta chef and author of The Twisted Soul Cookbook.

With her sights on the saltysavoury-sweet trifecta, she set out to create an unexpected macaroni and cheese variation — and that’s where the bacon praline came in.

“I wanted to do a twist on mac and cheese that no one had done before. Just take it a step higher,” says Vantrece. “And even the texture, when I do it, that topping and just crunching down into it. It’s an amazing dish and the flavours all work well together.”

In the 1960s, when Vantrece was growing up in Kansas City, Mo., macaroni and cheese was a mainstay. The women in her family were skilled at transforming commodity cheese into something special, she recalls, as she highlights the significance of a budget-conscious comfort food once only in reach of the rich.

The popularity of macaroni and cheese in the U.S. can be traced back to 18th-century chef James Hemings, who was born into slavery, trained in France and spent much of his life at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Va. before negotiating his freedom at age 30.

While training in “the art of cookery” in Paris, Hemings likely learned how to make macaroni and cheese — which “was considered a refined, upper-crust dish with roots stretching back to Italy, France, and England,” Vantrece writes.

His recipe became part of the legacy he left to generations of cooks. (Read Adrian Miller’s The President’s Kitchen Cabinet and watch episode three of the Netflix limited series High on the Hog for more on Hemings’ contributions to American cuisine.)

“This updated version puts a fun twist on a historic dish,” writes Vantrece.

It’s substantially sized, but you can store half in the freezer to reheat (see note) anytime you’re craving comfort.