Chef Ting, a prominent Island chef, is moving into a vacant Oak Bluffs restaurant with plans to expand her catering business and help strengthen the Black cooking community on Martha’s Vineyard. 

In the former Bombay Indian Cuisine building across from Tony’s Market, Chef Ting plans to open the Black Joy Commercial Kitchen. Though she’s still in the middle of the permitting process, the space on Oakland avenue will be used by event caterers and private chefs.

Along with Lacey Williams and Jennelle Gadowski, Chef Ting founded the BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) Chef Collective to provide community and education to members of the group.

The Black Joy Commercial Kitchen will provide a space for the group to meet. Chef Ting says that the two kitchens in the building will be used as a space to learn and to test recipes in the future.

“We do this all the time, but we’re using a really tiny space doing it,” she said. “Being able to be in a much bigger space to do that is really exciting.” 

In addition to providing a community space, Chef Ting will use the space to expand the work of Black Joy Food Love, a catering operation that is an outgrowth of Black Joy MVY. Black Joy MVY is an Island-based organization that works to create events and spaces that benefit the community and health of the African diaspora. 

She is also considering, at some point, opening a restaurant in the space. In the mean time, Chef Ting is excited about the opportunities that moving into 7 Oakland avenue will offer. The increased space and additional equipment will allow the catering business to make more food faster. 

“This year, we added panipuri,” the chef said. “They’re good for you, but they’re a little labor intensive if you don’t have a lot of space. We have a frialator here, so I can put 400 panipuri discs in at one time and within 30 seconds they’re ready to go.”

She added that Bombay Indian Cuisine left a tandoor oven in the kitchen that she is looking forward to using.

Chef Ting’s menu is diverse, drawing on her time abroad. She began traveling when she was 15, and would connect with women by learning recipes wherever she went.

“One of the easy ways to connect with people anywhere in the world is over food, so I would ask them to teach me one of their beloved recipes,” she said. 

Her experience around the world also influences her future plans for a restaurant down the road. She wants the future restaurant to help address food insecurity on the Island, and one of the approaches she plans to implement comes from her time living in Tanzania.

“In Dar es Salaam, every Friday all of the restaurants provide an opportunity for people to participate in giving, to meet their religious requirement to be engaged in charitable acts,” she said. “Some of the families are there and they pay double, and some families pay nothing or what they can afford to pay. We’re excited to do something like that.”