Army veteran turned acclaimed chef’s work to star at Connecticut restaurant

(Tribune News Service) — Chef Roshara Sanders tells a story with every dish she makes.

It’s a story of culture, family, history, across North America, South America, Africa and the Caribbean, known as the Pan-American diaspora table.

“It’s about people, places and things that inspire us,” Sanders said of her style. “There’s always something you’re going to learn from Chef Ro.”

Next month, Sanders is heading to Gather55 in Hartford, Conn., as a guest chef.

Each month, Gather55 welcomes a celebrated guest chef. Revenue from the evening dinner service helps sustain the restaurant’s daytime pay-what-you-can café.

“Chef Ro’s journey is one of perseverance, service and purpose,” said Rob Maffucci, restaurant director of Gather55. “Her passion for mentorship and storytelling through food reflects everything Gather55 believes in — that a meal can nourish people, spark conversation and strengthen community.”

Now an accomplished chef with many titles and accolades, Sanders defied the odds to get there.

She was born into poverty, raised in Bridgeport, Conn., by a single mother, and joined the U.S. Army after graduating from high school with the sole goal of someday attending the Culinary Institute of America on the GI Bill.

After six years as a combat veteran in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as a member of the 4th Engineer Battalion and later the 395th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion where she cross-trained as a food supply specialist, her mission was accomplished.

Not only did Sanders, 36, graduate from the Culinary Institute of America, today she’s a professor there and its first Black female culinary instructor.

Among Sanders’ accomplishments are winning Food Network’s “Chopped,” being named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and earning a spot on Food & Wine’s 2024 Game Changers list. She is a partner in a 36-room boutique hotel project in Bridgeport, which is scheduled to open in 2027.

The hotel, purchased by investors who brought her in, will have a speakeasy restaurant, market place, lounge and “strong breakfast program,” she said.

“I believe Bridgeport is turning around,” she said. “The hotel will bring a spotlight to Bridgeport. In the next 10 years (Bridgeport’s) going to look different. ”

She also completed an ambassadorship at the acclaimed Harlem restaurant, Red Rooster, under celebrated chef Marcus Samuelsson, and is a featured chef at James Beard House in New York.

Her Pan-American Diaspora Table at Gather55 will be served throughout August. Sanders will be in the Gather55 kitchen on Aug. 12 and meet with guests.

The culinary journey will trace the movement of people, traditions and flavors across North America, South America and the Caribbean.

The menu also tells a story of memory, migration, resilience and celebration, a Gather55 spokesman said.

The meal features an heirloom cherry tomato and Bing cherry salad with whipped ricotta, citrus dressing and okra gremolata. It continues with a skillet cornbread trio with onion jam butter, chipotle adobo lime butter and guava butter, followed by a seared lamb chop, mojo rojo fried potatoes and charred scallion relish. For dessert, the menu offers a spiced rum carrot cake with cream cheese mousse, dark rum glaze and warm spices.

The dessert she calls, “Somebody’s Grandmother Made This” because the dish was shared with her by a Black student whose grandmother made it. There are many stories in that meal, Sanders said.

She may tell the story of how the rum trade was a major financial driver of slavery and how so many slaves died or were injured in the process. That makes the carrot cake part of the African American struggle, she said.

Sanders said she’s been in the kitchen since age six, as her mother brought her to work with her in a kitchen.

Diagnosed with PTSD after her military service, Sanders said cooking helps keep her centered and happy.

“Food is healthy. Food is medicine. Food brings people together,” Sanders said.

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