Lexington Betty Smokehouse

Chef Dominique Leach's grandmother Betty King is honored through Lexington Betty Smoke. Grandma King used to fill the house with the fragrance of home prepared meals, which Chef Dominique remembers fondly. Chef Dominique built Lexington Betty Smoke House by combining their scents with technique. Leach earned an associate's degree in culinary arts from the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago in 2006. She started as a grill line cook at The Renaissance Hotel Chicago in October of that year and worked her way up to become the kitchen supervisor in 2007. Dominique began working as a prep cook for Bon Appetite's dinner team at The Art Institute Museum in December 2008, where she worked with award-winning author and chef Raghavan Lyer, who taught her everything she knows about Indian culture and food. She was promoted to Sous Chef after outgrowing her prep position. Leach began working as a sous chef for a Chicago off-premise catering company in 2011. She departed for her first Executive Chef job at Zelda's Kosher Catering a few years later, and after building the entire catering idea at Zeldas, Leach realized she wanted to leverage all of her experience to create her own catering firm. Leach launched her own catering firm, "Cater to You Events & Drop Offs," with her wife Tanisha in 2016. After that, she founded Lexington Betty Smoke House, a food truck, and her first restaurant in Chicago's Galewood area. She announced a second Lexington Betty Smoke House at the One Eleven Food Hall in Chicago's Pullman area just three months later! Chef Dominique can even be seen competing on Chopped: Playing with Fire on Food Network!