Vina Cloud: Emphasizing the importance of culture and care in culinary arts
Ida Balderrama-Trudell
Executive Chef Vina Cloud from Catering a Fresco, a Food Fight Restaurant Group entity, has worked at Overture Center since it reopened after the pandemic in fall 2021. Overture Center features a commercial kitchen and offers catering services under a contract with Catering a Fresco.
Before joining Overture Center, Cloud worked for Food Fight out of The Avenue restaurant, preparing breakfast and dinner for Porchlight shelter residents, about 300 meals daily. Food Fight later shifted meal prep to Catering a Fresco at Overture Center. Cloud enjoyed this project and commended Food Fight for hiring Porchlight residents for temporary kitchen jobs “to get people on their feet.” After the contract with Porchlight ended in August 2023, Catering a Fresco focused solely on Overture Center events. Cloud was named executive chef in 2023.
Cloud, who is Ho-Chunk, has worked in the restaurant industry since 2014. One of her first jobs was in food service at a Ho-Chunk casino. In a previous role at one of Ho-Chunk Nation’s branch offices, Cloud supported elders by driving them to appointments and ensuring they had food. There was no food program, so she started cooking for them, which she found both rewarding and enjoyable. As a mother and first-generation college student, Cloud thought culinary school would set a good example for her daughters.
Cloud joined the culinary program at Madison Area Technical College (MATC), participating on the American Culinary Federation team and even competing in St. Louis, where her team placed third, MATC’s best-ever finish. She graduated in 2017.
At MATC, Cloud forged strong relationships with Madison-area chefs and teachers and continues to stay in touch. Her experience spans from bar food, steakhouses and pizza to high-end sushi and, more recently, catering. This broad background helps her oversee Catering a Fresco’s 350-plus events at Overture Center each year.
“We cater to the guests and their vision. That’s what I want to make happen,” shares Cloud.
Cloud imparts, “You need to have experience to find out what you like and where you fit. Catering is where I fit.”
Culinary creations by Vina
Cloud’s “fit” ties to her cultural and ethnic identities. Raised in the Native American Church, she recalls how her great-grandparents attended Indian boarding school, influencing future generations, including her own. The Ho-Chunks living in Wisconsin “are the ones who came back,” notes Cloud, who has lived in Black River Falls, Wisconsin Dells, Baraboo and other Ho-Chunk areas in Wisconsin, including Madison. Raised by a single mom, Cloud learned traditional gender roles: “women prep, cook, clean and serve.”
“It is how they show their love and support. There is no better way,” said Cloud. “This is how it works with food.”
In the kitchen, Cloud grew up making traditional foods like fry bread, learning from her gaga [gah-gah] (grandmother).
“My coka [cho-kah] (grandfather) would plant, harvest and dry Indian corn. We’d shuck it by hand and let it dry. It would take forever,” she remembers.
Cloud continues these traditions with her kids, using a dehydrator for food safety, something she learned in culinary school. Younger corn is used for ceremonies and community gatherings, such as funerals, while mature, harder kernels are used for scones and corn cakes.
Food holds a sacred place in Ho-Chunk ceremonies, which often last all day and night. The males, and/or husbands have their responsibilities, as do the women/wives. This was ingrained in her as a child. Now that her kids are older, her daughters help her in the ceremonies and cultural traditions. Family hunts on indigenous land using traditional methods of hunting, including herding prey toward waiting hunters, are community events Cloud embraces.
She hopes her children will “look up to me and be proud of what I do. Even though there are traditional gender roles, they can do whatever they want.”
As executive chef at Overture, Cloud emphasizes the importance of food, saying, “When you prepare food, you want to have good intentions. No matter where or what I am cooking, that is how I cook. I want my employees to serve good food, take care in what they do and work well as a team—one thought, one mind. I want them to understand the intention of the event.”
Cloud’s team works closely with Overture’s Event team to create exceptional catered experiences. If you’ve enjoyed Catering a Fresco food at Overture, you understand how her philosophy is brought to the culinary delights prepared and served. This was evident when Cloud and her team, alongside MATC and Overture’s Equity & Innovation team, prepared a culturally centered meal for the Bad River Documentary premiere, featuring native Ojibe food.
Cloud ensures Catering a Fresco always puts their best foot forward—that the food looks good, tastes good, is well balanced and prepared with intention. “Otherwise, you don’t serve it,” she said.