Black Chefs Shaking Up the NYC Food Scene

Led by household and locally famous names such as Melba Wilson, Marcus Samuelsson, Preston Clark, Alexander Smalls and Ayo Balogun, New York City’s Black chefs and restaurateurs are continually reshaping the culinary scene. Those trailblazers have paved the way for a new generation of talent beginning to get recognized, including Shenarri Freeman with her vegan soul food, Camari Mick for award-winning pastries and Scotley Innis, known for his self-styled “new age Caribbean cuisine.” Read on to find eight chefs making their mark today.

Shorne Benjamin

Restaurant: Fat Fowl

Dekalb Market, 445 Albee Square W., Downtown Brooklyn

If you’ve never tasted oxtail grilled cheese, you need to visit Fat Fowl immediately. After the 2008 financial crisis, Shorne Benjamin left his job as a stockbroker on Wall Street to tough it out in culinary school, where he became classically trained in French cooking. Today he is the owner and executive chef of Fat Fowl, located inside the Dekalb Market Hall in Downtown Brooklyn (you might also know him from appearances on Beat Bobby Flay and Chopped). Benjamin offers “new age Caribbean cuisine,” using French techniques to infuse Caribbean dishes with his own flair, creating dishes that cater to all dietary preferences.

Scotley Innis

Restaurant: Aliya

Hotel Indigo, 500 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn

On the fourth floor of the Hotel Indigo diners will find Aliya, a new Caribbean Asian fusion restaurant helmed by executive chef Scotley Innis. An NYC native with Jamaican roots, Innis started his culinary journey at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Atlanta before working at several renowned restaurants in that city. He went from learning the ropes at local Jamaican spots to being named by a magazine as Atlanta’s best rising star chef, along the way working to revitalize a struggling restaurant with his Caribbean-inspired soul food and to cook with local and seasonal produce at Tom Colicchio’s Craftbar in Atlanta. Back in New York City, he has curated Aliya’s menu with his take on Caribbean Asian fusion, featuring items such as escovitch lobster tacos, lamb shank pot pie and shrimp mandu (Korean-style dumplings) made with Jamaican curry.

Rasheeda Purdie

Restaurant: Ramen by Ra

The Bowery Market, 348 Bowery, Noho, Manhattan

In 2020, Rasheeda Purdie created Ramen by Ra, a pop-up experience to share her appreciation for ramen while drawing upon her Southern roots. Here you can indulge in an asa ramen experience, asa meaning “morning” in Japanese. The demand for her coveted ramen bowls has grown, thanks to options inspired by beloved NYC foods: there’s an everything-bagel-influenced egg-drop soup and a bacon-egg-and-cheese bowl made with lard-based shoyu. Before making food her focus, Purdie had a successful career as a stylist, having attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and worked for Betsey Johnson and Henri Bendel. After finishing at the Institute of Culinary Education, Purdie worked under chefs such as Melba Wilson and Marcus Samuelsson. Ramen by Ra is the newest addition to Bowery Market and has quickly become one of the most sought-after ramen establishments in the City since opening in December 2023.

Osei “Chef Picky” Blackett

Restaurants: Ariapita and Wings by Chef Picky at Smorgasburg

1197 Flatbush Ave., Flatbush, Brooklyn

Osei “Chef Picky” Blackett attracted long lines at Smorgasburg last year for his “Everything Oxtail” menu featuring Caribbean-inspired dishes with a twist, such as oxtail cheesesteak empanadas and oxtail noodles (he’s at it again this season, with a wing stand as well). But when he opened Ariapita back in 2022, his vision was to pay homage to the cuisine of Trinidad & Tobago, the islands where he grew up. The menu features what he calls homestyle Trinidadian food and reflects all the culinary influences of the area. Savor his famous curry crab dumplings and deep-fried branzino at the restaurant on Flatbush Avenue, and stay on after your meal to enjoy the rum bar and music.

Shenarri Freeman

Restaurant: Cadence

111 E. 7th St., East Village, Manhattan

It took chef Shenarri Freeman selling out her pop-up dinners to realize that she should head to culinary school instead of pursuing a graduate physical therapy program. Freeman is now the executive chef of Cadence, a vegan soul food restaurant in the East Village that uses organic produce and makes a point of being 100 percent soy-free. Dishes like smoked grits with vegan rosemary butter and fried oyster mushrooms and her maple buttermilk corn bread evoke her upbringing in Richmond, Virginia. Freeman was working in hospitality and attending Howard University when she decided to become vegan, her nights of going out with other food-industry folks after work beginning to catch up with her. This led her to a plant-forward program at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. At Cadence, the first kitchen she has overseen, Freeman’s approach to vegan soul food made her a semifinalist in the James Beard Emerging Chef category. She also heads up Ubuntu, a plant-based restaurant in Los Angeles that creates spins on traditional West African plates.

Camari Mick

Restaurants: The Musket Room and Raf’s

265 and 290 Elizabeth St., Nolita, Manhattan

During the pandemic’s peak, pastry chef Camari Mick worked with the Musket Room to launch their all-day café that operated out of a vintage truck outside the Michelin-starred restaurant and earned a spot as the restaurant’s first executive pastry chef. Before that, Mick, who has been baking since she was 12, honed her skills in kitchens like Daniel Boulud’s db Bistro Moderne and Le Bernardin. At the Musket Room and the restaurant’s sister location, Raf’s, Mick uses her Jamaican roots in her pastry creations, often incorporating Jamaican chocolate as well as spices, fruits and sheep’s milk to create dishes like tres leches cake with jerk ice cream. It’s hard to choose a favorite of this two-time Outstanding Pastry Chef James Beard semifinalist, though the pandan, rhubarb and coconut pavlova at the Musket Room and Raf’s almond panna cotta with elderflower granita are up there.