Black, White, and the Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant

by Mashama Bailey

This conversation strikes me as ridiculous. Three White men talking about finding a Black woman chef as though she’s a unicorn of some sort, a mystical creature with talents that could only be dreamed of. Turns out, I am that Black woman that they were discussing, that business partner that Johno was seeking. So, why was I so hard to find? Why is it that it was so hard to believe that someone like me, who had been cooking in restaurants for years, and who has traveled abroad to cook and eat, wasn’t making an impact on the perception of what an American chef looks like? During the beginning of my cooking career, I decided to leave the professional restaurant kitchen, and become a personal chef. When I told my father, he immediately hated the idea, in part because his grandmother, Anna Hollis Ford, was a domestic for a White family. She worked while she raised her daughter, missing family holidays and birthdays. Those sacrifices left scars that were passed down to him and then to me. He didn’t care that there was a trend in my industry toward personal cheffing because the economics were such that it was a way for chefs to save some money while honing their craft. My plan