Ember & Smoke

04/01/2026

https://youtu.be/UiUXt13lhEU?si=muJcNJ9h0vgshup7

11/08/2025

Salmon with Basil Coconut Cream Sauce 🔥

11/08/2025

11/08/2025

Pan seared Salmon with a Basil Coconut Cream Sauce

10/12/2025

Ember & Smoke ✨

This season, skip the crowded restaurants and bring the experience home.

🔥 Modern elegance. Soulful flavors. A table filled with memories.

From intimate dinners to family style spreads, staff parties to cooking classes Chef Samad will curate the perfect experience.

Now booking! Plan ahead before the calendar is full!

📩 Contact us today to reserve your date
👉 email [email protected] | visit our website www.emberandsmoke.org

10/08/2025

🔥 The Story Behind the Flame

Some chefs just cook. Chef Samad Mickens prepares memories.

From Newark to New Haven, from soul food kitchens to Mediterranean fire pits, Samad’s journey has always been about more than recipes. It’s been about people — families, friends, communities — and the memories they make at the table.

Trained at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, Samad spent over a decade working across fine dining, casual kitchens, and everything in between. But he knew his true calling wasn’t just serving dishes in restaurants — it was curating unforgettable experiences where food is the centerpiece of connection.

That’s how Ember & Smoke was born: a personal chef experience where fire, flavor, and storytelling collide. Think Argentinian asado kissed by smoke. Lebanese spices layered into live-fire Mediterranean plates. Elegant seafood towers alongside soulful Creole flavors. Every menu he creates is crafted not only to impress the palate, but to stir the soul.

Samad believes food should feel like it was created just for you — whether it’s a wedding anniversary dinner for two, a graduation feast for fifty, or a corporate retreat where colleagues become family around the table. His philosophy is simple:

“I don’t just plate food. I prepare memories.”

Through Beyond the Salt Foundation, his nonprofit venture, Samad also channels this passion into training the next generation of chefs and giving back to their communities. For him, every plate has a purpose — to nourish, to celebrate, to connect. So when clients invite Chef Samad into their homes, corporate gatherings, or event venues, they aren’t just hiring a chef. They’re bringing in a storyteller who turns flame into flavor, and flavor into memories that last forever.

10/08/2025

Ember & Smoke isn’t just a name — it’s a story.

Born from the fire of resilience and the artistry of flavor, Chef Samad Mickens built Ember & Smoke to honor the beauty of connection that comes from gathering around food and good company.

What started with a passion for live-fire cooking, soulful cuisine, and hospitality, has become a full culinary experience that brings the restaurant to you.

👨🏾‍🍳✨ Whether it’s an intimate dinner at home, a private event with on-site chef service, or a hands-on cooking class where you learn to plate, season, and savor every detail — Chef Samad transforms your space into an unforgettable dining experience.

Each dish tells a story inspired by his journey through the culinary world, infused with global flavor, and served with heart. Because at Ember & Smoke, food is more than a meal. It’s a memory in the making.

🔥 Private In-Home Chef Services
🔥 On-Site Dining Experiences
🔥 Personalized Cooking Classes

Book now to bring the art of fire and flavor to your table.
📩 DM to inquire about menus, packages, and dates or visit emberandsmoke.org

10/07/2025

There’s a moment when a spark becomes something more — when it stops being just fire, and starts becoming purpose.

For Chef Samad Mickens, that moment is found here, where flame meets soul, and every ember carries a story.

Cooking over live fire is one of the oldest art forms known to humankind — a ritual passed down through generations. It’s creation and communion, discipline and devotion. And it’s a reclaiming of a legacy — one built on skill, innovation, and creativity that has shaped cuisines across the world.

At Ember & Smoke, this is more than cooking. It’s honoring history while crafting the future — blending ancestral knowledge with modern artistry. Every dish is a reflection of passion, perseverance, and purpose.

Because when you find what sets your soul on fire, you don’t just feed people —
✨ You inspire them.
✨ You remind them what’s possible.
✨ You turn the ordinary into art.

This is the beauty of doing what you love — and letting it speak through the flame.

💨🔥 Welcome to Ember & Smoke — where fire tells the story, and love writes the recipe.

08/02/2025

Ember & Smoke If you missed Ember & Smoke this weekend not to worry, you can place an order for next weekend as soon as Sunday night!

05/28/2025

🔥 Introducing Ember & Smoke

Dear Friends,

We’re launching our next culinary adventure—Ember & Smoke!

Expect the same uncompromising quality and bold flavor you know and love from BTS, now reimagined through the Argentinian Live Fire method.

Led by Chef Samad, we’re bringing you fire-kissed dishes and flavor-packed sauces that will light up your palate and leave you craving more.

Stay tuned for launch updates, pop-ups, and a sneak peek at the menu.