As a small child, Kevin Mitchell learned the importance of cooking within his
Grandmother Doris’s kitchen. Since then, He has become one of Charleston’s most
recognizable and accomplished chefs. As a chef instructor, culinary historian, and
scholar of historical foodways of the American South, Chef Mitchell works tirelessly to
preserve southern ingredients and champion the historical significance of African
Americans in the culinary arts.

Upon earning his AOS degree from the Culinary Institute of America in 1991 and his
Bachelor of Professional Studies degree in 1996, Chef Mitchell further refined his skills
in notable restaurants throughout the country. In 2008, he became the first African
American Chef Instructor at the Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical
College.

Among Chef Mitchell’s passion for good food, he expertly shares the stories behind the
uniquely regional dishes we enjoy today. In his own words, it is vital to “connect the food
to the people” and remember the once enslaved chefs and cooks “on whose shoulders
we stand for creating the food we now know as Southern cuisine.”

This was especially true in 2015 upon the 150th anniversary of Nat Fuller’s Feast. The
original 1865 event, held by once-enslaved Charleston chef and caterer Nat Fuller at his
then-famous Bachelor’s Retreat Restaurant, gathered together black and white patrons
for a racially integrated banquet. It was the first formal gathering of its kind to be held in
South Carolina after the Civil War. Commemorating this remarkable occasion, Chef
Mitchell acted as the Chef Coordinator for the anniversary event, masterfully recreating
dishes from the original menu including pickled vegetables, shrimp pie, and roast
partridge.

Chef Mitchell continues to enrich and refine his expertise in historic southern cuisine.
Earning a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi in 2018, his thesis, entitled
“From Black Hands to White Mouths: Charleston’s Freed and Enslaved Cooks and their
Influence on the Food of the South” will serve as a guiding text for HCF’s forthcoming
interpretive phase of its Nathaniel Russell House Kitchen House Project.

He sits on numerous boards and advisory committees including a national board
member of Slow Food USA, a member of the Southern Foodways Alliance (of which he
was also a Nathalie Dupree Graduate Fellow in 2016, board member of the Carolina
Gold Rice Foundation, and the Charleston Wine and Food Festival to name a few.
Most recently, Chef Mitchell was named a South Carolina Chef Ambassador for the year 2020, a leadership position he held through 2020 and 2021. In 2019 Chef was
contracted by the University of South Carolina Press to write a book that addresses
South Carolina products and dishes. He wrote this book with Dr. David Shields, a
professor at the University of South Carolina. The book was released in October 2021