Sara’s Weeknight Meals: Season 09

Mashama Bailey

Mashama is a New York City girl – born in the Bronx and raised in Queens. Her maternal roots hail from Waynseboro, GA and as a result Mashama attended grammar school in Savannah at Charles Ellis and spent many summers at her grandmother’s in Waynesboro. Mashama learned to cook at the hands of the women in her family with grandmothers, aunts and her mom giving her the best kind of education – a real world one. She attended ICE to round out that education and has studied in France and travelled far for food. She spent a dozen years cooking throughout New York City the last four of which were at Prune on Manhattan’s Lower East Side under the tutelage of her friend and mentor, Gabrielle Hamilton. As executive chef of The Grey, Mashama has earned a number of accolades, including a nomination as a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Southeast award in 2018. She also serves as Vice Chairman on the board of the Edna Lewis Foundation, working to preserve and celebrate Edna’s legacy that heavily influenced her menu at The Grey. Mashama surrounds herself with family, friends and food and she is a firm believer in the old adage that you learn something new every day.