Alexander Smalls

Chef Alexander Smalls is the visionary of the award-winning restaurant The Cecil and its sister restaurant Minton's, serving as its co-owner and Executive Chef.  The Cecil, NYC's first Afro-Asian-American restaurant, was named "Best New Restaurant in America" by Esquire magazine in 2014.  He has received great acclaim in the New York City restaurant scene, including cooking at the James Beard House, being named one of Zagat's "19 NYC Restaurant Power Players You Need to Know" and being honored with the Legacy Award in 2014 by The Amsterdam News, one of the oldest African American newspapers in the country.  Alexander is also a world-renowned opera singer and the winner of both a Grammy Award and a Tony Award for the cast recording of Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin, with the Houston Grand Opera. Passionate about his involvement with non-profit organizations, he is on the Advisory Board of The Union Food Lab at Columbia University, and through his restaurants, he is involved in C-CAP (Careers through Culinary Arts Program).  Alexander is also a former board member and Artistic Director of Opus 118 at the Harlem School of Music.