013: Tanya Holland - Award-Winning Chef, Author & Restaurateur

What's Burning

Tanya Holland is the founder of Brown Sugar Kitchen restaurant and author of Brown Sugar Kitchen and New Soul Cooking cookbooks. She is also the Chef/Chair of The James Beard Foundation Awards.

Her Oakland based restaurant received multiple Michelin Bib Gourmand awards. Tanya is an in-demand public speaker who frequently leads the conversation on inclusion and equity in the hospitality industry.

She competed on the 15th season of Top Chef on Bravo, was the host/soul food expert on Food Network’s Melting Pot and has appeared on The Today Show, The Talk, CBS This Morning, Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family, VH1′s Soul Cities, Sara Moulton’s Cooking Live, The Wayne Brady Show, TV One’s My Momma Throws Down, and PBS’ The Great American Chef’s Tour. Tanya may be heard on the critically-acclaimed “Tanya’s Table” podcast, produced by MuddHouse Media. On it, she’s interviewed numerous celebrities including: Alice Waters, Danny Meyer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Danny Glover, Bonnie Raitt, Phil Rosenthal and more.

Tanya has served as co-president of the prestigious Les Dames d’Escoffier Bay Area chapter, and was honored by the City of Oakland when June 5, 2012, was declared “Tanya Holland Day.” A year later she was awarded the Key to The City. Internationally, she served as a Culinary Diplomat for the US State Department in Kazakhstan and Mexico and has taught classes in France for gastronomic travelers.

Tanya received her Bachelor of Arts in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Virginia, and a Grande Diplôme from La Varenne École de Cuisine in Burgundy, France.

On this episode of What’s Burning, Tanya Holland’s chat with Host Mitchell Davis includes conversation around knowledge as power, the importance of searching for a mentor and creating generational wealth through financial access.