Roshara Sanders

Sanders was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut.^[1][2][3] She has said her mother was addicted and homeless while pregnant with her and was offered a job by a local restaurateur to help her get off the streets.^[1] She has said she grew up in a house built by Habitat for Humanity.^[4][5]

Sanders graduated from Bullard-Havens Technical High School in Bridgeport in 2007 with a concentration in culinary. She was accepted to the CIA but was unable to afford tuition even with financial aid and decided to enlist in the army to fund her education.^[2] She served for six years in the 4th Engineer Battalion, including in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, and in the 395th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. After a roommate who had encouraged her to pursue her culinary interests was murdered by another soldier, Sanders enrolled at CIA under the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, commonly referred to as the GI Bill.^[1] She graduated in 2014 with a Culinary Arts Business Management BPS.^[2][6]

Sanders is gay.^[7][3]

Sanders worked in restaurants in Connecticut and became chef de partie at Oceana in Manhattan.^[1]

In 2016 she was named to the inaugural class of NBCBLK28 as one of 28 trailblazers under the age of 28.^[4] In 2017 she was named a celebrity ambassador for Habitat for Humanity and was the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation's 2017 Faces of Diversity Award winner.^[4] In 2018 she created a Veterans Day dinner at the James Beard House and was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 fellow.^[1][2][8]

In 2020, when she was 29, Sanders became the first Black woman to teach in the culinary department at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA).^[7][1]

In 2024 Food & Wine named Sanders, along with fellow CIA instructor Rupa Bhattacharya, to their list of seventeen "Game Changers" who were "shaping the future of food".^[7][2]

In 2015 she won an episode of Chopped.^[1][2] In 2025 she was a team mentor on Next Gen Chef.^[9]