"Every opportunity should be spent cooking without boundaries or barriers."
ABOUT CHEF ANDREW BLACK Chef Andrew Black, winner of the 2023 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest, and a 2022 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Chef, is a chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur in Oklahoma City. Arriving in OKC 17 years ago after being hired by the historical Skirvin Hotel as its executive chef, Chef Black settled in and has made his home in Oklahoma City as one of its leading small business owners and taste makers with 3 acclaimed restaurants in the growing hospitality group he co-founded, Culinary Edge Concepts. They include Grey Sweater, Black Walnut, and The Gilded Acorn. He is returning this summer to The Skirvin Hotel to open his new restaurant Perle Mesta on June 24, 2024.
Chef Black is the author of the cookbook Foraging in Oklahoma: Tales and Recipes from the Open Road, as told to The Oklahoman’s Steve Lackmeyer, and his work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Wine Enthusiast magazine (50 Best Restaurants 2022), Zagat Stories, and Thrillist, among others. Chef Black has partnered with Dorasti Premium Caviar to present his brand Grey Sweater Caviar, also featured in The Wall Street Journal.
Born in Jamaica to an Indo-Jamaican family, where roti was cooked on a handmade clay oven over an open fire, Chef Black was often tasked with building outdoor clay ovens for his grandmother as a child. From working his way through the island’s resort kitchens, to staging his way through fine dining restaurants in Europe, including the Ritz in Paris, Chef Black has been a trailblazer his whole career, and today is a respected and accomplished restaurateur, philanthropist and leader.
