Chefs from diverse backgrounds

The Travelling Cafe's services are designed with a global experience in mind for residential and commercial clients in the NC Triangle.

Meet the Chefs of The Travelling Cafe

We are a Collective of Personal and Private Chefs from various backgrounds, trained and ready to bring an incredible culinary experience to your home!

Leslie Chartier

Leslie (Shar-tee-yay) is the owner and founder of The Travelling Café. Culinary instructor, hospitality manager, singer, poet, former restauranteur, avid traveller and lover of diversity, her first passion is unabashed gratitude to God for all his gifts (especially food).

Her second passion is cooking and sharing her knowledge of global cuisines with anyone curious enough to listen. Her gift is being able to translate those cuisines into limiting diet structures so that anyone with food allergies or health conditions can still enjoy the food of the world to its fullest.

Kim Calaway

Kim has a rich culinary background. Nine years spent in Germany sparked her culinary curiosity as she traveled throughout Europe. Returning stateside, a career with Pampered Chef led to an hors d'oeuvres style catering business. Then after fifteen years in the nonprofit world, she returned to the comfort of food to work with Southern Season Cooking School in Chapel Hill, NC as the manager and instructor where she enjoyed working with notable chefs, authors and food business owners.

Rounding out her culinary experience with a multi-year position as a private sorority chef, Kim has now joined The Travelling Cafe as our Director of Operations.

Bruce Pressey

Chef Bruce Pressey attended Le Cordon Bleu in France after receiving his BA at the University of Pittsburgh. He has spent decades in professional kitchens across many disciplines. After becoming a father while working in California, he chose to be a stay-at-home Dad to raise his two children. During that time, he became a self-taught baker and mastered many ethnic cuisines, amassing a giant cookbook collection and entertaining friends and colleagues over the dinner table.

Chef Bruce's professional training and years of experience have culminated into his current love: teaching cooking classes concentrating on technique, developing a passion in others for cooking and eating, and keeping a sense of humor in the process!

Denzell Berry

Since earning a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu Chicago, Denzell has honed his craft in restaurants, resorts, hotels and bakeries from Illinois to North Carolina. While building out his own culinary business, Denzell is serving our clients with heart and passion. His vast culinary skills translate into exciting culinary experiences for clients - both in receiving his food and learning to cook alongside him.

Outside the kitchen, Denzell is a family man, and is passionate about Chinese culture as a student of both the Mandarin language and the discipline of Kung Fu.

Lane Calaway

Lane is a Triangle-born chef whose Southern upbringing sparked a lifelong love of food, hospitality, and the stories behind both. A "food and history nerd" with a passion for the outdoors, Lane brings curiosity and heart to every kitchen he enters. Since 2010, Lane has cooked across the Triangle's fine-dining scene, helping open several landmark restaurants featuring Asian, Latin American/Caribbean and American Cuisines.

Lane is also a seasoned cooking instructor who loves sharing skills, answering questions and learning from the people he cooks with. After developing Alpha-Gal allergy, he has become dedicated to creating inclusive meals that meet a wide range of dietary needs.

Personalized Service Through Personal Chef Services

Enrich yourself with convenience, health, and flavor.

Extraordinary Experiences

The food experiences, cultural immersion, and cooking classes created by The Travelling Cafe are designed to transport you to the place from which they come.

Our goal is to provide unforgettable experiences for you and all your guests.

Our Core Values

Our most closely held beliefs guide our behaviors, show who we are, and indicate what’s important to us. At The Traveling Cafe, we’re driven by values and it shows up in our food and level of service.

Gift Cards For Chef Prepared Meals and Private Cooking Classes

Gift cards to personal chef prepared meals or cooking classes can make the perfect gift for any occasion.

Why The Travelling Cafe?

Our speciality is bringing inclusion into culinary experiences with food for different diets, restrictions, and cultures.