Winner of the 2022 James Beard Outstanding Chef and winner of the 2019 James Beard Best Chef: Southeast, Mashama Bailey is the Executive Chef and Co-Founder of the critically acclaimed The Grey in Savannah, GA.

Born in the Bronx and raised in Queens with roots in Georgia, Mashama’s early education was spent in Savannah. She first learned to cook through culinary traditions developed and practiced by the women in her family and went on to train formally at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City as well as LaVarenne in Burgundy, France. Prior to opening The Grey, Mashama’s career includes a dozen years cooking throughout New York City, the last four of which were at Prune on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In 2019, with the premier of Netflix’s Chef’s Table Season 6, Mashama became the first African American chef to star on the show.

Together with Johno Morisano, Mashama co-wrote Black, White and The Grey which explores the business partners’ challenges navigating race, class and culture while building businesses, relationships, and community in the South, as featured on CBS Sunday Morning.