Atlanta is known for being the Black Hollywood. It’s all about The Who’s Who and the Next Big Thing. It has introduced us to some of the most sought out things such as night life, Reality TV Shows, and the best restaurants. One of Atlanta’s newest hot spots, The Old Lady Gang, was also introduced to us by Todd Tucker and Kandi Burruss on the hit Bravo reality show The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Also known as OLG, the restaurant has its patrons lined up and down the street six days out of the week. Initially, people flocked to the restaurant in hopes of catching a glimpse of a few Atlanta starlets, but once they realized the cuisine is just as famous as its owners, the question starts to arise as to who are the famous hands responsible for preparing the food?
Chef Jaaion Barnes, originally from New Orleans, reluctantly moved to Atlanta 12 years ago with a head full of culinary creativity and the desire to share his passion. Times proved to be hard at first as he saw first hand how managing your money in Atlanta can be tough. Once he got into the swing of things he realized that Atlanta might just be the place for him. Chef Jaaion worked at many different restaurants in the Atlanta area and helped to put his creative influence on their menus and became “The Fixer”. During a brunch that he would frequently cater at Euro Hookah Lounge, he exchanged business contacts with one of the attendees. A month later he received an invite to a business meeting at none other than the Kandy Factory. Chef Jaaion was a little taken back considering he had no idea that he had been invited to meet with Atlanta Housewife and Xscape group member Kandi Burruss and her husband Todd Tucker. Chef Jaaion went from working in restaurants such as Cheesecake Factory and DS#17 to being influential in the building process as well as being the executive chef of “OLG”. Continuing with the growth of his brand, Chef Jaaion recently left the OLG to pursue a few of his other goals and interests. Chef Jaaion has fallen in love with sharing his story with the world. You will be able to catch Chef Jaaion this fall in the Aspire TV show The Graduate. Currently, he is also working with BravoTV on the show Made in America.
