Born in Detroit, Michigan, he began his culinary career in his early twenties after leaving college, completing his first stage at Benu in San Francisco. He has worked in several fine-dining restaurants throughout San Francisco, New York City, and Washington D.C. Mitchell helped to open Clover Hill in Brooklyn Heights in 2021, where he earned his first Michelin star as executive chef and co-owner. Mitchell became the first Black chef in New York City to earn a Michelin star and the second Black executive chef in the United States to do so.
Mitchell was born in Detroit, MI in 1992.[1][2] His family lived on the West Side of Detroit during Mitchell's adolescence[3] and moved to Southfield, Michigan, when he was a teenager.[4] Mitchell has credited his grandmothers and family gatherings centered on food for sparking his early interest in cooking.[5] Food was used by his family as a means of celebration and community.[6] Mitchell attended Schoolcraft College in a suburb of Detroit, he did not complete a degree.[7]
Kitchen beginnings
At 19 years old, Mitchell began his culinary career at 24 Grille in Detroit,[8] where he became a pantry chef after working as a valet at the restaurant and asking the sous chef for a job in the kitchen.[8] He later joined the team at Forest Grill in Birmingham, Michigan, where he became sous-chef within 3 years.[9] During this period, he worked under executive chef Nick Janutol, whom Mitchell credits for providing his foundations in fine dining, primarily how to behave in fine dining kitchens.[4][10] In 2016, Mitchell moved to New York City,[11] where he attended culinary school briefly before leaving to gain practical experience in fine-dining kitchens.[3][12] Mitchell chose to leave culinary school because he felt hat the debt that he would accrue would not be worth it; he valued the on-the-job experience more.[13]
Mitchell trained in several fine dining restaurants, many with Michelin stars. His first experience in fine-dining came through a stage at Benu, the first three Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco.[1][14] After relocating to New York City, Mitchell began seeking employment by searching for nearby restaurants on the internet,[15] subsequently joining the brigade at Eleven Madison Park as chef de partie under Daniel Humm.[16] Mitchell also gained experience in various other fine-dining restaurants, including Betony (now closed),[17]Per Se, Blue Hill,[14] and One White Street, where Mitchell served as executive sous-chef.[18][19]
Culinary approach
Mitchell emphasizes a collaborative and supportive kitchen culture, contrasting it with the high-pressure environments he experienced earlier in his career.[17] A chef who has worked with Mitchell for several years, Max Guillaume, has stated that working under Chef Mitchell involves frequent collaboration.[11] Chef Kent provided guidance for Mitchell at the beginning of his career as executive chef by pushing him to "stick to the craft, and the rest will fall in line."[1]
Mitchell regularly mentions his grandmother's cooking and the food that he grew up with when talking about the style of cooking that he is aiming for.[16][20] While being interviewed by The Ultimate Dish Podcast, Mitchell recounted how as a child his grandmothers would feed everyone and would always have food available. He goes on to explain that being able to welcome people into his restaurant any day of the week and to always have food available ties his work to the memories of his childhood.[1] The Michelin Guide interviewed Mitchell after his Young Chef Award win in October 2022; he spoke of how much a "good meal can change someone's day," something he learned from watching his grandmother cook.[21][22]
Clover Hill
In 2019, Mitchell planned to move to Norway to continue his career but was unable to make the move because of COVID-19 lockdowns. When the lockdowns began, he instead returned to Detroit before moving to Washington, D.C..[23] While in Washington, D.C., Mitchell helped to open Jônt in 2020, which now holds two Michelin stars.[24] During his time in D.C. he also worked at Bresca, which holds one Michelin star.[18] He returned to New York City in 2021.[25]
In 2022, Mitchell joined Clay Castillo and Gabriel Merino as co-owner, partner, and executive chef of Clover Hill in Brooklyn Heights, marking his first head of kitchen role.[18][26] As executive chef, Mitchell helped to shape the restaurant's concept, menu, and overall dining experience.[19] Musician Laura Lee Ochoa described Clover Hill as her favorite Michelin-starred restaurant, noting the distinctive atmosphere created by Mitchell’s choices, including the music played during service.[27] Mitchell created the playlists of music that played during dinner services, typically including genres such as R&B, soul music, and hip-hop. He curated the restaurant's playlists, using music and menu design as complementary forms of creative expression.[6]
Less than a year after Clover Hill reopened, Mitchell was awarded the Michelin Guide New York Young Chef Award[28] and earned the restaurant's first Michelin star.[29] Mitchell was recognized as the only Black chef in the United States to win both a star and the Young Chef Award in the same year.[30] He is also the first Black chef in New York City and only the second Black executive chef in the United States to earn a Michelin star.[31] In a 2023 interview with Today, when asked if he knew of the historic implications of his receiving the Michelin star, Mitchell admitted that he did not. He further commented:
You always think about the people, so many people have come before you. You just assume that someone has already done this; you know, it doesn’t cross your mind that you may be the first or second to do really anything, especially here in New York City [...] I think a lot of times, we’re chasing a very different American dream, then to kind of put up with these aggressive environments that are often led by people who don’t look like us.[sic][12]
Critics have described his cooking at Clover Hill as ingredient-driven and precise. In 2024, Clover Hill was ranked 46th out of the 100 best restaurants in New York City by food critic Pete Wells, who highlighted Mitchell's use of seasonal ingredients. Wells commended him, stating that Mitchell's commitment to his cooking was evident in the dishes being served.[32] Also in 2024, Mitchell was awarded the James Beard Award for Best Chef, becoming the only chef to be awarded by the James Beard Foundation from the city that year.[33]Helen Rosner of The New Yorker noted that Mitchell's cooking at Clover Hill had "the subtlety and precision of any Manhattan-billionaire canteen," while maintaining a straightforward service style free of theatrical presentations that were often seen in other Michelin-starred restaurants.[34]
Saga
After it was announced that Mitchell would be joining Saga as executive chef, Daniel Humm (of Eleven Madison Park) told Food & Beverage Magazine that "[Mitchell's] cooking has a rare combination of precision, creativity, and soul – making him the perfect chef to carry Saga's legacy forward."[35] Before the reopening of Saga in early fall 2025, Mitchell traveled and was guest chef at several events.
Mitchell has served as the executive chef of Saga, a two Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan, N.Y. since July2025[update][36][37] He took over the role of executive chef after founder James Kent unexpectedly died.[16] In his role as executive chef, he creates the menu as well as curating the environment of the restaurant, including music and decor.[16][20] At Saga, Mitchell has maintained his focus on simplicity, replacing the more elaborate presentations used under Kent with a simpler, ingredient-driven approach.[20] Dishes are presented simply with minimal description, and the diner is left to experience the food.[34] His menu planning begins with the selection of local, seasonal ingredients, around which he develops each dish.[18] As of 2025, Mitchell is also a partner of the Kent Hospitality Group, formerly Saga Hospitality, alongside Kelly Kent – James Kent's wife – and Danny Garcia – winner of season 21 of Top Chef and executive chef of Time & Tide.[14]
Guest chef appearances
November 29, 2023: Chef Gabriel Kreuther and Mitchell cooked for the Dewar's Double Double blended malt launch dinner at The Blond.[38][39]
June 22, 2024: For the 50th anniversary of the Rockhouse Hotel and 20th anniversary of the Rockhouse Foundation, Chef Mitchell was invited to take part in the Dinner on the Beach series in Jamaica with Andre Fowles. The dinner focused on local ingredients and Mitchell commented that the experience helped him to learn to "let the ingredients tell you what to do with them."[40]
May 5, 2025: Chef Camari Mick of The Musket Room and Mitchell cooked at the GQ after-party for the 2025 Met Gala[41]
June 6, 2025: Mitchell joined Gavin Kaysen at his restaurant, Demi, as a guest chef for a special series titled the "North Star series" that featured multiple Michelin-starred chefs. The menu for the North Star series featured a tasting menu and beverage pairings. Other chefs included in the series were husband-wife team Kyle and Katina Connaughton, from SingleThread, and Brandon Jew, from Mister Jiu's.[42][43]
August 14-17, 2025: Mitchell was among the chefs that were featured at the Middleburg, Virginia "Family Reunion," a four-day food festival.[44]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
