Local chef competes in Favorite Chef competition

Local personal chef and caterer Xylina Green is in the top five of her group in Carla Hall’s Favorite Chef contest. She is relying on our community to vote for her to win $25,000, money that she plans to bring back to the Amelia Island commercial cooking community. She hopes to use it to open a commercial kitchen so that she, other personal chefs and food trucks can all have a place to prepare food. Green also intends to use the space for feeding people who would otherwise go hungry if not for her generosity.

For someone who offers a luxury (via her business Island Personal Chefs), Chef Green keeps herself down to earth by keeping perspective. 

“Island Personal Chefs was born in Kabul, Afghanistan,” Green said.

She was shipped there in 2018, near the end of her 11 years as a Master at Arms in the Navy Reserves.
“I went there, and I saw a lot of stuff, and then I realized I didn’t want to go back there again,” she said.

She chose to come back home to Amelia Island. Some of her earliest memories are watching her Grandma Catherine prepare Afro-Caribbean and southern cooking like shrimp and grits, now Green’s favorite dish to make. She remembers not even being able to see over the stove but getting to smell what would be enjoyed by family and friends. People were always coming over to the house to eat what Grandma Catherine made, so to Green, food means family and friends coming together. 

“I offer an experience to people, and good food along with it,” she said.

When clients hire Green, they’re hiring someone bright and down to earth to come into their home and cater to them — and only them. In her past, she was a chef in restaurants and front of house manager at Sliders Restaurant. There, she would have to scatter her attention around dozens of meals at a time. Now, she can put all of her focus into one meal at a time. 

“I have a tunnel vision for my customers,” Green said. Her only priority is “making sure my clients are happy. That they have the right menu, the right food, everything has to be perfect for them.”

Another thing that keeps Green humble is her decision in her late 30s to move the family and attend The Art Institute in Atlanta, earning a degree in culinary arts. She needed to do something she had a passion for, and she was driven by a desire to carry on her grandmother’s culinary legacy. In order to properly honor that legacy, she had to learn the craft of cooking. For example, she knew there was a special way to best hold a knife, but she didn’t know what it was. 

Even though Green doesn’t come from a luxury background, she has been noticed by fine company. She gained attention from the local Amelia Island chapter of the La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950. She was presented with the honor of joining the society as a professional chef, and she prepares the food for the Amelia Island chapter’s Christmas event.

Chef Green’s style is to create a cohesive menu around what her clients want, truly catering to their culinary desires. She said her grandmother didn’t allow her to help cook as a child, only prep ingredients, and now that she gets the stove, she takes advantage of it, offering a luxury experience without any of the arrogance. 
Green said, “I still don’t think I’m really good at this. I just cook.”

The Favorite Chef competition ends tomorrow, Thursday, July 20, at 10 p.m. You can cast your vote for Chef Green and our local cooking community at www.favchef.com/2023/xylina-green. Chef Green can be reached for her services as a personal or private chef by email at xylina@islandpersonalchefs.com or by phone at 904-903-6528.