Today we’d like to introduce you to Shamirr Kennedy. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Introduced to the food and beverage service at the age of five back in 2002 at Christines KingFish in Shamong, New Jersey. A young, inspiring chef, Shamirr Kennedy, also known as Chef Skate, plans to shine a light on the chefs in America.
Shamirr was raised in Southern New Jersey; Shamirr graduated from Arthur P. Schalick High School as a student-athlete studying Graphic, Media, and Web Design. In 2015, fall, he became a student at Rowan University for two years, then transferred to Monroe College, a culinary school located in New Rochelle, NY, in 2017 fall. There, he was first introduced to a multicultural environment. Monroe has students who come from 93 countries and speak over 43 languages. Shamirr said, “Going to Monroe felt like I was in a different country in every class, but we all spoke English. Everyone had different accents and cultural routines.
The number of different cultures and ethnicities at the school was breathtaking. Coming from a small town in New Jersey, I was only gifted with the opportunity to compete in sports. Attending Monroe, I was taught the understanding that we all may not be the same ethnically, but we all share the same American dream.” While attending Monroe College, Shamirr spoke with a chef who gave him the opportunity to work with the Los Angeles Galaxy home stadium, Dignity Health Sports Park, located in Carson, California. Levy Restaurants gave Shamirr his first opportunity to work as a host in the Bank of America Stadium Club.
Senior Sous Chef Estavan Vargas promoted Shamirr into the kitchen as the Banquet Chef/ Kitchen Supervisor for the Los Angeles Chargers final season at the stadium after seeing his detail and dedication towards the event. There Shamirr showed character and dedication towards ensuring a positive environment. Shamirr said,” Working with Levy Restaurants is a different level of commitment. I understood the position I was given. I understood it was very tedious, and I was highly detailed about the amount of money spent to experience the types of events we were catering to. Watching all the Southwestern Chefs complete national events was truly a life-changing experience.
I enjoyed the feeling of seeing chefs from all cultures come together to create amazing menus with a clash of different cultures. It was a culture shock 100%. I learned a lot of details and gained wisdom from a gang of chefs.” Leaving Levy Restaurants to return to New Jersey to help take care of his family, he decided he still wanted to create something to show the hard work and dedication shown throughout the kitchens in America. Shamirr created the Chefs in America Project in September 2021 in his mother’s backyard after sitting on his phone for 2 hours admiring the different chef’s stories. Shamir said, “I was sitting in the back relaxing, enjoying the smell of the grill, and was literally coming across so many different chefs’ pages.
I would go to their page and stroll until I could not stroll anymore. I would check out the websites, menus, and meals, reading captions and their stories. After reading so many different American chef stories, I just decided to create a page with the hopes of an atmosphere of chefs of all kinds giving each other appreciation. The Chefs in America Project was created to make a platform to show the cultural diversity in American Kitchens throughout the country. For the past few years, Shamirr and a collection of food lovers have networked through social media to meet and share photos and stories of the chefs around America, of all ethnicities and levels of culinary background. The Chefs in America Team said, ” The page has developed so well.
We accepted all chefs and collaborations asked and gained a heavy following from culinary experts throughout the country. Reaching year four, we plan to begin our journey of getting as many chef stories as possible to share. Believing it is important to have a platform to share American dreams for all the chefs, restaurants, cooks, and culinary motivated people.” Shamirr, the creator, says, “Right now, we are trying to develop a schedule and gain sponsors to help us achieve our goal of traveling to get deeper insights on the chefs in America. We are in communication with many chefs, local and out-of-state chefs, working on scheduling a time frame to meet. I don’t want to say too much, but I will say no one has said no yet!”
As Americans, we are just keeping our trust in God, working, and praying to begin our journey soon. As of now, we are accepting donations and collaborations toward sponsorship. Please just private message the Chefs in America page or email Chefsinamericaproject@gmail.com, and you’ll hear from us within a respected timeframe. Follow @Chefsinamerica via Instagram to see the amazing chefs. Thank you.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Culinary is a very time-consuming career. Understand all chefs would like to cast the stories we have to be very patient with their schedules. Keeping our trust in God as Americans we believe there will be the right time to meet will all chefs.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. What can you tell our readers who might not be as familiar with your work?
Networking is what we specialize in. Not only do we want to share all the chef’s stories, but we’d like to help make cultural connections.
Sharing local farmers with restaurants, helping develop social media, graphics, and websites, and chef collaboration is an area we plan to work on increasing throughout our time shared with most chefs.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Shamirr, Chefs in America Project creator says, “Taking risk in the culinary world happens often but that’s the beauty of being a chef. Some recipes are created to give a base to the general taste. Sometimes taking a risk to offset the taste just may be what was needed.”
Contact Info:
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/chefsinamerica
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChefsinAmerica
