Chef Mashama Bailey, ICE Alum and JBF Award Winner, Is Always Learning and Growing

The 7th arrondissement in Paris is an unlikely destination for a New York City-style bacon, egg, and cheese, but that’s exactly what Chef Mashama Bailey is dishing up for breakfast at her newest restaurant, L’Arrette, just steps from the Seine River.

The Start of Big Things

Chef Mashama shot to culinary stardom as the executive chef and partner at The Grey in Savannah, Georgia. There, she merges her taste memories of the South with her NYC culinary training, which includes graduating from the Institute of Culinary Education.

"I wanted those fundamental skills before I went out to restaurants to cook professionally,” she said. “The chef-instructors are serious, the classes are serious, the deadlines are serious, and they really ask you to perform to a high standard.”

Learning Then Doing … Then Learning More

After soaking up all she could at ICE, Chef Mashama set out to find her place in the industry. She took an externship in France; worked in both fast-paced fine dining kitchens and slow-paced farm-to-table bistros in New York City; and even worked as a personal chef in the Hamptons.

“Culinary school is a gateway to a lot of different things,” Bailey said earlier this year. “You're always learning. You're always growing.”

Coming Home

When, a little more than ten years ago, Chef Mashama was asked to turn an abandoned Greyhound bus station in Savannah, Georgia into a destination-worthy restaurant, she met the challenge head on — which meant leaving New York and returning to Savannah, where she had once lived as a child.

From there, she fine-tuned her signature culinary style — nostalgic for the people and places of her Southern upbringing, but also refined and celebratory. “I feel this responsibility to educate people through my cooking,” she told Eater in a 2019 interview.

The Grey

The Grey opened in 2014 to widespread critical acclaim. According to publications like Food & Wine Magazine, Eater, and Southern Living, it was the biggest restaurant opening of the year. In 2018, TIME Magazine put The Grey on its list of the world’s greatest places, and Chef Mashama herself made history as the first Black female chef to not only be nominated for a James Beard Foundation award, but to win. Twice.

Following a 2019 appearance on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, she told Eater, “I’m just getting warmed up.”

A Platform To Pave the Way 

Esteem has given Chef Mashama a platform, and she uses it to spotlight Black culinary history in America and pave the way for future generations of Black chefs. She is currently the Vice Chairperson of the Edna Lewis Foundation, an organization that awards scholarships to promising African American chefs, farmers, and food scholars. 

Another passion project is enabling and supporting female chefs in a male-dominated industry. “I see a lot of women in the classes, but I don’t see a lot of women in the kitchen,” she says. “My advice for young chefs, especially young women who are becoming chefs: find that support. Figure out who those people are, and keep them close because they’re going to be the ones that … help you [become] successful in this business.”

What’s Next?

Recently, after ten groundbreaking years in Savannah, Chef Mashama took her culinary love letter to the American South to Paris. L'Arrêt, which means "the stop" in French, is the new venture's name, and Chef Mashama and her partner Johno Morisano define it as a "meeting place for neighborhood regulars and travelers alike."

In typical Chef Mashama fashion, the restaurant's vibe is warm and welcoming, and the food.. Well, you'll just have to stop by "the stop" yourself. 

* Experience varies by student, with outcomes contingent on factors including graduate aptitude, job market, place of residence and work history, among others.