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Mavis-Jay • Chef & Activist

@chefmavisjay

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🖤James Beard Award Winner
🖤Founder of @queersatbeards
🖤Culinary Director @communitykitchennyc pilot
🖤If Lena Waithe and Julia Child had a food baby

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In order to make good food more accessible, food justice writer and advocate @markbittman and @chefmavisjay have launched a pilot program in New York City called @communitykitchennyc, which for a limited time is offering fine dining on a sliding scale.

Customers pay what they can - $15, $45, or $125. It's a model they hope to open in a permanent version in Manhattan and beyond. @poguester reports. by @chefmavisjay

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a year ago

@csaquaculture We’re cooking up new videos about farming seafood offshore in U.S. federal waters! 🍽️

Here’s a sneek peek behind the scenes with @chefaz and myself as we advocate to bring sustainable and equitable #Aquaculture to our plates. We headed to Brooklyn to cook some locally farmed mussels and dish on why Congress needs to pass science-backed aquaculture policies. #GrowItHereDoItRight #SEAfoodAct #CHOW202 taken in Ursula BK by @chefmavisjay

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3 years ago

I can’t admit to having processed the last 4 months of my life, let alone the past two years.

Yesterday was my last day at Drive Change. It’s been a privilege to serve the alumni, fellows, team, neighbors, and industry partners.

Thank you to all my partners in justice. Thank you to all that came before me. Thank you to every thought partner, volunteer, and fundraiser. Thank you to every coach, teacher, and advocate for social change.

#jbfa #nonprofit #workhard #reimagine by @chefmavisjay

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4 years ago

Guest chef Mavis-Jay Sanders led our field kitchen for a second night back at Brooklyn Grange. Culinary Director of Community Kitchen NYC and a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award recipient, she’s spent her career reshaping what hospitality means when it’s rooted in community and that showed in every course, built around the season’s harvest. As the sun dropped, the Manhattan skyline lit up around the table.

Photos by @agardenofsorts_

host farmer Ben Flanner | @brooklyngrange Brooklyn Grange, Brooklyn, NY

guest chef Mavis-Jay Sanders | @chefmavisjay  Community Kitchen NYC, New York, NY

guest winemakers Julia & Alex Alvarez-Perez | @usoniawine Usonia Wine, Ovid, NY

guest brewery Sam Richardson, Matt Monahan & Andrew Burman | @otherhalfnyc Other Half Brewing, Brooklyn, NY

guest produce partner
Farm To People | @farmtopeople taken in Brooklyn, New York by @chefmavisjay

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a month ago

In this week’s AmNewsFOOD video, our food editor Kysha Harris spends some time with Chef Mavis-Jay Sanders beyond the plate.

From her Ferragosto collaboration with Briscola Trattoria chef-owner Silvia Barban to the work that continues to drive her, Mavis-Jay talks food, hospitality, community, Black women chefs, and what’s ahead.

Watch the video and read this week’s AmNewsFOOD story.

Link in bio.

📍 Briscola Trattoria

@chefmavisjay
@chefsilviabarban
@briscolabk

🎥 video editor: @soulrebelpro

#food #chef #NYCFood #hospitality #AmNewsFOOD taken in Briscola Trattoria by @chefmavisjay

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2 months ago

Four years in, and @queersatbeards never disappoints!
@nobodysdarlingbar was packed with people from all walks of life and a positive energy that was felt even before you walked in the door.

Thank you to our dear friend @chefmavisjay for always inviting and allowing us to partake in such a special night.

Here’s to the people who continue to make hospitality a place where everyone belongs! 💗

📸: @moll_jean_nye taken in New York, New York by @chefmavisjay

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3 months ago

Happy Birthday to the most captivating and loving woman I’ve ever met. by @chefmavisjay

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4 months ago

Have you heard the exciting news??!?!!

Thanks to support from @downtownnyc, we have a summer pop up at 111 Broadway at Thames St with a specific focus on NYC food stories!

We’re planning on taking advantage of the enormous space to host weekly events with local authors and more!

Next week, in celebration of #pride🌈, we’re kicking it off with our first panel discussion: A Place at the Table: Queer Food, Hospitality, and Belonging.

Join us on Thursday, June 25, with Erik Piepenburg (@erikp57), author of Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America’s Gay Restaurants; Megan J. Elias (@megelias), co-editor of Queers at the Table: An Illustrated History of the Gay and Lesbian Ways We Eat; and James Beard Award-winning chef Mavis-Jay Sanders (@chefmavisjay).

Jaya Saxena (@jayasax), of @feedravenous, moderates a conversation about how restaurants, bars, and dinner tables have served queer communities as sites of identity, resistance, and joy across generations.

Doors open at 6:00, the talk runs 6:30 to 7:30, and the authors will sign books afterward. Tickets are $15.

Follow the link in our bio to learn more and stay up-to-date with future happenings at this new space (and beyond).

And while you’re downtown, be sure to check out our fellow pop up space winners!:

@element.brooklyn
@francis_world
@dimorae.home
@thenumerogroup
@brooklyncraftcompany
@plusbklyn by @chefmavisjay

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4 months ago

James Beard Awards 2026
Queers at Beards presented by @chefmavisjay was a casual and cool time celebrating our queer family and nominees. It was awesome to connect and reconnect and let loose. To find a voice and feel seen within your industry and among peers and idols is something truly special. Thanks to all that came out and for the love and visibility within our culinary community. 🫶🏽🍾🏳️‍🌈
#foodislove
@queersatbeards @beardfoundation by @chefmavisjay

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4 months ago

Rolling squad deep into @beardfoundation awards weekend. Rooting for everybody queer in each category!!! LFG. by @chefmavisjay

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4 months ago

Congrats to all of the 2026 @beardfoundation semifinalist but also specifically the queers!! We’re always celebrating you but are going in extra hard this weekend. Join us is Chicago. Link in bio. by @chefmavisjay

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4 months ago

If you’re in Chicago for the James Beard Foundation Awards and you don’t experience pure unadulterated joy and the bond of community that shows up for each other, that means you didn’t find your way to @nobodysdarlingbar for the 4th annual @queersatbeards Sunday, June 14th from 4-7. RSVP Link in bio by @chefmavisjay

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4 months ago