Meet Chef Saucy Jay
From watching my mother cook to building Saucy Jayyy — learn the story behind the food, the journey, and the brand.
That foundation eventually crossed over into my professional life.
I began working at QDOBA as a Shift Supervisor, where I gained hands-on culinary experience along with a strong understanding of food safety, restaurant operations, and management. Within a year, I became a General Manager.
I went on to spend approximately 12 years in restaurant management, eventually becoming a District Manager and overseeing multiple restaurant operations.
My love for food started long before I realized it was something I wanted to pursue.
Growing up, I was always in the kitchen with my mother, watching her cook. My mother was an amazing cook, and I still remember our family parties — everybody knew her food was going to be one of the highlights. By the end of the night, family members would be trying to take home whatever she had left.
At the time, I didn't think much of always being in the kitchen watching her. I was simply watching her do what I had seen her do a million times.
It wasn't until I moved out on my own that I realized how much of it had stayed with me.
I would FaceTime my mother and ask her how to make the foods I grew up eating. Once I got in the kitchen, cooking came naturally. I had already watched the techniques, the seasoning, and the process over and over again — I just didn't know I had been learning the entire time.
But even while building my career in restaurant management, I was always cooking.
For years, I would post the food I made for friends and family on social media. People constantly replied to my posts and sent messages asking the same thing: “When are you going to start selling plates?”
In 2020, I finally gained the courage to try. I launched Chef Saucy Jayyy with what was supposed to be a trial run. The response was incredible. The food sold, the feedback was amazing, and word began spreading quickly through social media and recommendations. Before long, I was delivering food throughout the five boroughs of New York City, New Jersey, and Long Island.
One of my favorite parts has always been watching people eat my food. I joke that I know the food is good when people stop talking because they're too busy eating. That feeling — seeing somebody genuinely enjoy something I created — is what continues to push me.
Today, Saucy Jayyy combines both sides of my journey: my love for cooking and the years of restaurant management experience behind it.
I used that experience to build the Saucy Jayyy app and website into something that operates much more like a fully functioning restaurant than a traditional food-ordering page — from daily menus and scheduled ordering to kitchen operations, customer loyalty, delivery, and the systems needed to keep everything running.
What started with me watching my mother cook eventually became something I could call my own. And I'm still building.
This is more than food.
It's family, experience, culture, creativity, and years of work coming together on one plate.
Welcome to Saucy Jayyy.
Brooklyn Born. Caribbean Inspired. Always Saucy.