The Ultimate Katerer: Dayna Latrice Kline

Dayna Latrice Kline is Chicago born and bred and is the daughter of one of my besties, Pat Kline. I held her as a baby, and it would be years later that I would first taste Dayna’s divine cuisine at her mom’s gathering. It was a pasta dish with lobster. Oh yeah, we were all dying for more. All I could say was, “Pat, hide some for later.” I discovered my “niece” could burn!!

Dayna has been cooking for over 30 years. Grandma Kline had a hand in introducing Dayna to the kitchen. Dayna remembers, “Grandma would cook all the wrong stuff, like biscuits, fried chicken, all Southern cooking, all delicious.” While Grandma Kline is no longer living, her legacy of good cooking is intact with Dayna. She loves watching others enjoy what she prepares.

Her love of cooking took Dayna to Kendall College Culinary School. However, her funds “ran low” and she could not complete her degree. She started to work for RTA Travel and the Police Department Office of Emergency Management and Communications. OEMC. Dayna began to sell dinners on a shift she was working and the catering “blossomed from there.”

Ultimate Katerer does everything from weddings, repasts, prepasts, parties, and movie sets to dinner for two. “This month I got a TV mini-series, Black and Privileged,” Dayna said. “I have no particular specialty. I cook everything – Caribbean, African dishes, contemporary, soul food, but desserts are really not my forte’.” For desserts, Dayna only cooks peach cobblers, brownies, and pound cakes. She hires out the rest. She has catered events from 2-300 people.

In the future, Dayna anticipates traveling abroad to learn about international cuisine, but she will bring the recipes on home to Chicago for The Ultimate Katerer.

The beginnings of Jamaican Stuffed Red Snapper. “I had no callaloo so I used spinach.”

Salad

Pineapple stuffed with stir-fried shrimp and jasmine rice

Jamaican Oxtails

A little Simple Food Prep for Myself… Shrimp & Salmon Croquettes w/ an Cajun Aioli & Asparagus Stir Fry, Porcini Mushroom Pasta tossed in Pesto w/ Shrimp & Lump Crab and an Array of Veggies