Medegine Guillaume is steadily making a name for herself in the food industry. This Harlem-born, Haitian-American chef wants to spread the beauty of her heritage while making healthiness a priority.
The esteemed member 2023 James Beard Cohort already has a lot on her plate. As an event manager for Columbia University and its dining department, Guillaume is up around 3:30 am before she heads to the Ivy League institution to start her work day.
Her entry into the culinary arts was not a childhood passion. It was sparked by the struggles she saw local, diverse restaurants go through. Now, her inspiration extends beyond successful entrepreneurship, to shine a light on the cuisine of her Haitian immigrant community. As this group has become a recent target of prejudice-fueled attacks, Guillaume sees her mission as all the more important.
The Culinary Institute of America-trained chef spoke to BLACK ENTERPRISE about being a pioneer for diversity and equity in the culinary sphere, and how this fuels her to show a different perspective of her heritage.
Guillaume wears many hats beyond her chef’s one at Columbia University, taking numerous opportunities outside her typical 9-to-5. She’s set to participate as a featured chef for the NFL’s fundraising event for the new Super Bowl weekend. Before then, she’s preparing her first-ever pop-up in Philly this month.
However, this direction toward the culinary arts came from experiencing quality food while studying abroad in Paris.
“So I say to everyone that I never dreamt of being a chef, that was never my goal,” Guillaume says. “I never thought I would go to culinary school and cook anything like I grew up with. My mom cooked, but then we had KFC back in the day. That was like our thing, yeah. We weren’t making fresh ingredients in the way people are doing things now, or eating healthy.”
While venturing to find mom-and-pop restaurants that offered diverse foods from the Caribbean, she noticed these eateries were not operating at their fullest capacity.
“After a while I was like, I’m gonna open up a restaurant. And then I’ve heard horror stories of people saying that, ‘Oh, like the chef walked out on the line,’ or maybe you don’t get respect from your crew, because you don’t know what you’re doing yourself. So then I say, ‘Let me try it and go to culinary school so I can learn the technique properly’… I’m going to be the change that I want to see, that’s not represented in my community, or even well-represented in other areas.”
This personal mission eventually merged into a political message. After Donald Trump spouted false accusations regarding a Haitian community’s eating habits in Springfield, Ohio, Guillaume believe prejudiced stereotypes like these make her work so important.
“That’s exactly why I became a chef because I don’t want that narrative out there,” she said. “That’s not what we’re about. Our food is delicious. Our cuisine is great if you’ve had it, if you had the pleasure of having it. So that fuels me up even more to go about what I’m trying to accomplish. And this is why, most recently, I’ve been doing all these things. I’m seeing you guys, all these opportunities to kind of spread that message that that’s not what Haiti is about. Haiti is a beautiful country. Haitian people are hardworking, and they don’t deserve any of that nonsense.”
Preparing culinary delights from her native country, Guillaume, a Harlem native, found her voice, stating her opportunity, which the James Beard Foundation fueled her to advocate through this medium.
“I think that
we’re coming together, especially a lot of us, other Haitian chefs,” she explained. “They are putting dinners together. They are forming groups and things like that to see how we can combat it and share a different message. I think that’s what we’ve been able to do so far. I mean, I know there’s been rallies and things of that nature, but it has put fuel on my back to go for it and show like I said, a different perspective.”Beyond inspiring the next era of Black revolutionary chefs, what’s next in her journey? Her restaurant –with a Haiti-ingrained menu—and an Asian fusion. Guillaume is in the planning stages for her biggest goal. However, she believes all her experiences thus far have prepared her for it.
“I know that when I went to school, it was very challenging for me because there weren’t a lot of us that looked like us. I worked harder to practice a technique I needed to learn, but I realized after graduation that you need to have that tough skin. It needs to have that mindset. My goals were not deterred by what anybody said or what I felt like my abilities were, even if I doubted myself, it didn’t stop me from pushing forward and meeting people and cooking and working …”
She attributes this wisdom to fellow chefs who inspire her, including Chef Fariyal at Hav & Mar, a seafood house in New York City established by Marcus Samuelsson.
“The people I learned from encouraged me as well to push forward and to do things right and then to know that I can do it. It was very challenging to execute food prep and do all this stuff and then have service, but they showed me how to do it properly. Then after a while, like, ‘Oh, I can do this. I can do it with my eyes closed.’”
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