Chef Star Maye Went From Overlooked To On Top Of Nashville’s Food Scene
3 min read
This story is highlighted in the July/August challenge of ESSENCE.
Executive chef at Nashville’s hip cafe and CBD-centric espresso store Anzie Blue, 42-12 months-old Star Maye as soon as thought these lofty roles would elude her. For additional than 20 yrs in the foodstuff-services sector, they did.
Cooking for many others was her calling. As a baby in Alabama, Maye watched her grandmother make foods every single Sunday for as numerous as 50 family members. She received her prospect to add when she cooked her very first dish, grits, at age 4. As an grownup serving in the U.S. Navy, she was whipping up foods for fellow servicemen and girls. “People have been like, ‘Star, your food stuff is definitely great,’” she remembers. “By my mid-twenties I was like, Hmm, this may well be a matter.”
But when out of the armed forces, the single mother of a younger son struggled to readjust to civilian lifetime. “I ended up in the penal program,” she claims, adding that she served three yrs. Immediately after her release, she had a challenging time acquiring perform and made a decision to dive headfirst into cooking. She moved to Florida and, at 29, started out as a dishwasher at a cafe in Pensacola, working her way up the ranks. The head chef, recognizing her expertise, taught Maye how to do all the things, from dicing onions adequately to making béchamel sauce.
From there, Maye sought attention-grabbing gigs all over the nation, together with cooking at fishing camps in Alaska her son was cared for by her mothers and fathers and siblings. But these adventures didn’t translate to improvements in her positions at the places to eat exactly where she landed. She could do it all—but almost everywhere she went, executive chef roles appeared to go to White adult males. “Sometimes I even had to educate him on what his work was intended to be,” she suggests. “So it was not only insult, it was harm, also.”
It took place so frequently that Maye determined to leave food items provider. Eight a long time in the past, she moved to Nashville to attend college for aircraft maintenance. But shortly after she arrived, a mate who labored at Anzie Blue explained to her they needed enable making a breakfast menu. Just like that, Maye was back in the kitchen—this time earning the title of executive chef. “After 20-one thing years, I had offered up on ever staying captain of the ship,” she admits.
A calendar year into the success of Maye’s prime-chef fantasy, Anzie Blue has become a culinary warm spot—touted for “Best Brunch” in the city by foodstuff publications—thanks to Maye’s rooster and waffles, shrimp and grits, and more. She’s also developed well-known themed brunches, from gospel to drag. In addition, Maye lately produced her first cookbook, A Star Among Us: A Chef’s Tale, sharing the menu she’s intended at Anzie Blue. As a proud queer woman, she introduced the book in June for Delight month—with proceeds likely to the Trevor Challenge, which is recognised for suicide-avoidance efforts in the LGBTQ group. But she’s most grateful these times to have a bond with son Trenton, now 21, that she couldn’t have all through tumultuous occasions in her daily life. “Mom experienced to be extremely transparent, and confess what the issues ended up, and apologize to my child,” she states.
Professionally and personally, Maye is viewing all of her desires arrive real. “All my daily life there is been a ceiling,” she displays. “Now it’s open. There are no limits for me.”
