Andrew Black

Growing up in Jamaica, cooking outdoors with his grandmother once made an Oklahoma City chef think he spent his youth living with more poverty than promises for tomorrow. Not anymore. His nomination as a semifinalist for the 2022 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Chef (Chef Andrew Black/Black Walnut & Grey Sweater restaurants | Discover Oklahoma TV) coincides with Andrew Black gaining a new perspective on his childhood experiences.

“We were eating everything organic. We had all fresh fruits, vegetables and animals, everything. We were farm-to-table. We just didn’t know it as kids. Now that I look back, I was rich and didn’t know it,” says Black, founder of Culinary Edge Concepts.

The chef and owner of Grey Sweater, Black Walnut and The Gilded Acorn received recognition from the prestigious culinary organization nine months ago. Since then, he’s thought about how some culinary trends popular today were staples in his Indo-Jamaican family. “I saw this restaurant that only cooks with wood right now. I’m thinking that’s how we grew up,” Chef Black continues. “My grandmother and I made a wood fire every morning at 6. That’s how we made breakfast, lunch and dinner, and now it is a thing.”