Melba Wilson is a

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

-based restaurateur (Melba's), caterer, cookbook author and a

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

personality. Wilson has been called both the queen of soul food and comfort food. Bill de Blasio appointed Wilson to the COVID-19 Small Business Advisory Council and she is president of the board of directors for The NYC Hospitality Alliance.

Biography

Wilson is the niece of Sylvia Woods, the founder of Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem. She was hired to organize the restaurant's 25th anniversary celebration in 1987. Wilson is credited with starting their popular Sunday gospel brunch. She went on to work at

Windows on the World Windows on the World was a complex of dining, meeting, and entertainment venues on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the North Tower (Building One) of the original World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. It included a restaurant calle ...

and Rosa Mexicano before opening Melba's in 2005.

TV appearances

As well as appearing on the Food Network shows ''

Beat Bobby Flay ''Beat Bobby Flay'' is an American cooking competition show on the Food Network. It features various chefs competing against Bobby Flay. The show is taped in front of a live audience. Format In the first round, two guests, often a celebrity che ...

'', ''

Worst Cooks in America ''Worst Cooks in America'' is an American reality television series that premiered on January3, 2010, on Food Network. The show takes 12 to 16 contestants (referred to as "recruits") with very poor cooking skills through a culinary boot camp, t ...

'', and ''

Throwdown! with Bobby Flay ''Throwdown! with Bobby Flay'' is a Food Network television program in which celebrity chef Bobby Flay challenges cooks renowned for a specific dish or type of cooking to a cook-off of their signature dish. At the beginning of each show, Flay rec ...

'' (the latter in which her chicken and waffles dish beat Flay's in season 4), Wilson has appeared on shows such as '' 60 Minutes'' and '' The View''.

Publications

*''Melba's American Comfort: 100 Recipes From My Heart to Your Kitchen'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Melba Living people 20th-century births People from Harlem African-American chefs African-American non-fiction writers American women restaurateurs American cookbook writers Restaurant founders Year of birth missing (living people) American women chefs Women founders Writers from Manhattan