Meet Jessamine Starr | Chef/Caterer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessamine Starr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessamine, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Currently I attribute my success to the ability to be a chameleon. I’ve been in the food business for over 15 years and had so many different iterations and side projects. While there has always been the Good Food Truck there has also been watermelon snow, curry delivery, pantry boxes, the restaurant Ett and now Gathering Table. All those parts have had their time in the spotlight and still conglomerate together to make what I serve and present today.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My current love is my newest buisness- Gathering Table- a charcuterie and crudite buisiness I use all local and edible florals and greenery. This means each table is unique to the day. Creating each table is similar to a painting; a local landscape in a very literal way. I never know exactly what they will look like because what I gather each day can be so different. Not only are creating them a delightful surprise but so is the gathering of the greenery each day. It’s really delightful to witness all the micro seasons of the natural world and then use them as my ‘paint’ on my tables. I also find great delight that these works of art are meant to be consumed and only last seconds before eaten.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Currently I would begin on a walk around the neighborhood – Ormwood Park for me, but it could be almost any Atlanta neighborhood early before it gets too hot to pick all the berries that line the streets. Currently mulberries, blackberries and seriviceberries are everywhere. I can easily gather a healthy handful on most blocks. I’m pretty much a homebody when it comes to eating but if I were going out I would definitely grab a sourdough bagel from Evergreen Butcher and Baker. For lunch I can’t deny my favorite restaurant of all time- Nam Phoung on Buford hwy. I adore their lotus root salad which pairs perfectly with a treat from Matcha Mikko down the street. I love their shave ice topped with matcha soft serve. That’s enough eating out for me so I would probably pop home and make a sandwich (my go to is a strange mix of beets, sweet pickled jalapenos, avocado, sauerkraut and lemony sardines) to go and find a good spot to eat it and people watch- the beltline in the old forth ward is great for people watching.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Concrete Jungle- Kathryn Kennedy

Website: gatheringtableatl.com goodfoodtruckatl.com

Instagram: gatheringtableatl goodfoodtruckatl

Facebook: gatheringtableatl goodfoodtruck

Yelp: good food truck

Image Credits
jessamine Starr