The character arc of Mashama Bailey
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in the Bronx to David and Catherine Bailey, the eldest of three, and moved to Georgia at two, Savannah at five and Queens at eleven. She learned to cook from her mother and her grandmother. Between then and now sit a community college degree begun in physical therapy and switched to social work, a job at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn that ended when the project changed, cooking school, an internship at a restaurant in SoHo in 2001, a period as a personal chef, a work study that took her to Burgundy, four years at a New York restaurant from 2010, the opening of The Grey in a former segregated bus station in Savannah in 2014, a market in 2018, and two national awards. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Mashama Bailey?
The shelter let her go. She took it as the sign.
She was born in the Bronx to David and Catherine Bailey, the eldest of three, and moved to Waynesboro, Georgia at two, to Savannah at five, and to Queens at eleven. She learned to cook from her mother and her grandmother. After high school she went to a community college where she studied physical therapy and then switched to social work, and early in her working life she took a job at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn. The project changed and she was let go, and that ending is what sent her towards cooking.
She enrolled at a New York cooking school and began her culinary career in 2001 as an intern at a restaurant in SoHo, then worked in a series of New York kitchens including the Oak Room at the Plaza. Wanting to see what else the trade offered, she took a break from restaurants and worked as a personal chef on the Upper East Side. Some of her family were uneasy about it: her grandmother had come north from Georgia and worked as a maid in several households, and this looked like a return.
The personal chef work did not inspire her the way she had hoped, and during that period she applied for a work study programme that took her to a chateau in Burgundy. Her mentor there advised her to keep cooking in restaurants rather than moving towards writing about food. She took the advice. In 2010 she was hired at a restaurant called Prune in New York, was quickly promoted to sous chef, and stayed four years.
An entrepreneur named John O. Morisano heard about her through the chef who owned Prune. He had bought a long abandoned Greyhound station in Savannah, a building that had been segregated under Jim Crow, and he wanted a chef. Across the street stands the county courthouse where her parents were married in the 1980s. The restaurant they opened in it is called The Grey. It was nominated for a national best new restaurant award for 2015 and named one of a magazine's best restaurants that year.
In 2017 it was named a restaurant of the year, and since that year she has chaired a foundation working to revive, preserve and celebrate the history of African American cookery. In 2018 a magazine chose The Grey as one of the hundred best places in the world, and she and Morisano opened The Grey Market, inspired by Southern lunch counters and New York bodegas. She won the national award for Best Chef in the Southeast in 2019 and the award for Outstanding Chef in 2022. In 2021 she and Morisano published a book about the partnership, written in two voices.
The moments
Mashama Bailey's timeline.
The 2000s
An intern, after the shelter
Milestone, and it changed everything. A job ending was the thing that started the rest of it.
Personal chef, and unease
Setback, and it changed her direction. A good job her own family could not be easy about.
Burgundy, and the advice
Milestone, and it changed her direction. One piece of advice, taken, and it decided the rest.
The 2010s
Four years at Prune
Milestone, and it changed everything. The kitchen where she stopped moving and got good.
The Grey opens
Milestone, and it changed everything. A Black chef cooking in a building that once would not have served her.
Leave New York for a bus station
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go south to the station, taken, or stay at Prune. The Grey was nominated for Best New Restaurant for 2015, named Restaurant of the Year in 2017 and one of the hundred best places in the world in 2018. She won Best Chef in the Southeast in 2019 and Outstanding Chef in 2022.
A foundation, and a title
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Carrying another Black cook's name, on purpose.
The Grey Market opens
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The second room, cheaper, and open all day.
Best Chef in the Southeast
Milestone, and it changed everything. The national award, in the region she was raised in.
The 2020s
A book in two voices
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The two of them writing it out, taking turns, in public.
Outstanding Chef
Milestone, and it changed everything. The biggest one the country gives a cook.
She cooks Southern food with French technique in a bus station that was segregated when her grandmother was going north on buses like it. What she set moving is a room in Savannah that is about who is allowed to be behind the stove, and a foundation carrying another Black cook's name forward.
What she wrote
Books by Mashama Bailey
- 2021
Black, White, and The Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant
Written with John O. Morisano in alternating voices, hers and his, about building the restaurant together.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers is a job lost at a shelter, an internship begun late, and a kitchen in a building that once would not have served her. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Mashama Bailey: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is Mashama Bailey's character arc?
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What awards has Mashama Bailey won?
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Where did Mashama Bailey learn to cook?
What foundation does Mashama Bailey chair?
Where does this timeline of Mashama Bailey's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Mashama Bailey, English Wikipedia biography.
- James Beard Foundation award records for 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2022.
- Black, White, and The Grey, by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano, 2021.
- Savannah Morning News reporting of 25 October 2014 on the opening of The Grey.
- Her birth year is not published, so none is given here.
- No Wikiquote page exists for her, so no quotations are printed here.