Meet the Chef

Christopher Callender is a Jamaican-American chef, author, and founder of Cook & Vybz, a culinary and lifestyle brand connecting catering, private events, food products, and music. With more than 15 years of experience across restaurants, catering, and hospitality operations, he brings a creative eye and an operator’s discipline to experiences shaped by Caribbean flavor and culture.

He is also the creator of Jerk Reserve and Cheat Healthier, author of Cheat Healthier: Liquid Gold—Oxtail & Cocktails, and co-founder of Harlem’s Hush Harbor Collective.

Born in Oyster Bay, New York, and raised in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, Christopher’s upbringing connected him to different expressions of Caribbean-American life. Summers and holidays with family in Litchfield, Trelawny, Jamaica, deepened the connection.

His grandmother Adassa’s cooking became a lasting reference point. Her influence would eventually find its way into Jerk Reserve, including the seasoning that carries her name.

For Christopher, family history provides an ongoing source of creative direction. The ingredients he reaches for, the dishes he reimagines, and the welcome he wants guests to feel all carry something of that upbringing.

Before building a career in food, Christopher studied fashion design and marketing and worked with Betsey Johnson. That early chapter helped develop an eye for color, composition, and identity that still informs his work.

Hospitality began on the restaurant floor. Working in a Sicilian restaurant introduced him to service, bartending, management, and the daily coordination required to deliver a good evening.

His career expanded into leadership roles across restaurants and catering, from general management and event operations to leading a kitchen as executive chef. Each role deepened his understanding of how food, service, and thoughtful execution come together to create a memorable experience.

Those experiences taught him to see a meal from several perspectives at once: the guest anticipating it, the cook preparing it, and the team responsible for making the experience run smoothly.

A self-taught chef, Christopher developed his cooking through practice, professional experience, and exposure to different culinary traditions. His food reflects that path—Caribbean at its foundation, with an openness to ingredients and techniques that offer another way to tell the story.

Christopher’s interest in fitness prompted another line of exploration: how to connect the pleasure of eating with a more intentional approach to everyday life. During the pandemic, he created Cheat Healthier to explore that relationship through food and storytelling.

Jerk Reserve followed as an expression of Jamaican heritage through seasonings and sauces. Together, those projects revealed the range of his interests: personal well-being, family history, product design, and the ability of flavor to carry a story.

Today, Cook & Vybz brings that range into focus. It gives Christopher a platform to create across the full experience, from developing a dish and shaping a menu to considering the music and atmosphere around it.

As co-founder of Hush Harbor Collective in Harlem, Christopher contributes to gatherings centered on food, art, and healing. His work with the GALA Legacy Foundation extends his commitment to community beyond the table.

Across these pursuits, his understanding of hospitality continues to grow. It requires creativity, preparation, and the ability to pay attention—to a guest, a collaborator, a team, or the community a project hopes to serve.

Christopher is building a body of work that reflects the full range of who he is: a chef shaped by Jamaican family traditions, a creative with a background in fashion, an entrepreneur who understands operations, and a host who cares about how people feel in his company.