About Us

Simply D’  Licious Express is Master Chef D (Dennis Baines) take on Louisiana food in a story that took his family from that southern state to California and back to a “Louisiana soul food state of mind.”  Baines was raised in Los Angeles though his family arrived in California from Louisiana.  He never intended to be a chef but after he completed successful professional stints as both a rehabilitation nurse and dancer, he almost happened to take a job  at Gumbo, a soul food restaurant in Baldwin Hills down the street.  There, he discovered he loved cooking so much and was so good at it that the restaurant and catering evolved naturally within a few years.

Simply D’  Licious Express offers Catering

 by Master Chef D for all Occasions. 

What is “soul food?” It is defined as, “traditional black American cookery, which originated in the rural South, consisting of such foods as chitterlings, pig knuckles, turnip greens, and cornbread.”  Add Fried chicken and blackened Catfish and collard greens and okra and a slew of other classics to this.  It was the genius of cooks in the south who took inexpensive food and made it into as original an American art form as jazz.  And warm southern hospitality oozes out of every experience which alone is the price of a meal.   Simply D’ Licious Express has all this and more.

Also typical of the southern tradition is the plain wrap dining room cafe  and a straightforward menu to match. Categories include Express Chicken Strips and Fried Chicken with Southern Cuisine and Creole Cuisine along with Signature sides, Sides, Appetizers, Salads and Desserts.  Reading the list of Southern (fried or BBQ) and Creole (Blackened) dishes is mouthwatering without descriptions so popular today of item origin: oxtails, chicken, pork chops, catfish, shrimp, red Snapper.  Gumbo, Po’Boys and hot links head up theSandwich category.

The food speaks for itself.  Seasonings and seasonings developed by the chef flavor the food instead of heavy oils flavor the food.  So many customers asked about them that Master Chef D developed his own line, which has become a star on its own