Chef Mashama Bailey On Getting Her Seat At The Table

When I was five, we moved from my hometown of the Bronx, New York, to Savannah, Georgia. We’d visit my maternal grandparents in Waynesboro, which is a very, very small town in the countryside that seemed to have only one stoplight. Every Friday morning, my granddaddy would go fishing and catch whiting or trout or some other freshwater fish. My grandmama would fry them up whole in cornmeal, salt, and pepper, and we would eat them with grits and baked beans and mustard. It was a normal supper, but it was special to me because I got to know them a little bit better by sitting around and talking and eating on Fridays. You learn about your family through the food that they cook.

When I was 11, we moved to New York City to live with my dad’s mom, whom we called Grandma. My parents were in social work and there was more opportunity there. Grandma loved food. She invested in herself by putting good food in her stomach and through that investment she extended love to others. Whenever she cooked, she always made sure she had extra for whoever walked through her door. Grandma would shop at this discount place in Long Island called Gout Farms and make flamboyant recipes from The Joy of Cooking for me and my siblings and take us to family-style restaurants. On Friday nights, instead of my grandparents cooking fish, we would either eat Chinese takeout or go to our local fish-fry joint.

I went to school for social work, but it didn’t make me happy. Cooking was one of those things I just enjoyed. Holiday meals were always a big deal in our family, especially Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. I made the sweet potatoes and layered them with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. I was always the person who was in the background, but when I started cooking, people started paying attention to me in a way that was all mine.

In 1999, I attended the Institute of Culinary Education, and then worked as a caterer and chef for six years. In 2007, I did a six-month stage at Château du Feÿ in Burgundy, France. It was there that I realized I wanted to be more engaged with local farmers and the actual growing of the food I cooked.