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Growing up in Buffalo, New York, Chef Mary Attea credits her Lebanese father with two things: always having baba ganoush in the fridge and raising a family that celebrated every meal and always finished their plates. The youngest of four, she often harkens back to her time at the family dinner table as the origin of her love for food and hospitality. 

Though food was always a central part of her family life, Chef Mary didn’t venture into the industry until she started bussing tables at a small restaurant in New York to make ends meet. She had moved to the city to start graduate school for criminal psychology, but quickly realized her interest in the restaurant was much stronger than her draw to the classroom.

After spending some quality time eating and drinking around the city while working front-of-house at the legendary Aquagrill, Chef Mary enrolled in ICE’s Culinary Arts program and set off on her path to becoming a chef. 

She then landed her first job right out of externship at Annisa. Under iconic West Village chef Anita Lo, Chef Mary gained not only enviable kitchen experience, but a strong mentor in Chef Anita. Chef Mary's role as Annisa sous chef earned her a spot as a semifinalist for the Eater Young Guns award in 2014. As she helmed the kitchen, Annisa also earned a third New York Times star and maintained its Michelin Star. 

After the restaurant closed in 2017, Chef Mary took some time to plot her next move, traveling and bouncing around different kitchens to help out her chef friends in need of an extra pair of hands. She finally decided that, for her next career move, she wanted to learn to master pizza and pasta. Luckily, her network of friends included one of New York’s most respected chefs, Hilary Sterling (now of Ci Siamo) who, at the time, was turning out some of the best Italian food in New York at Vic’s.

Chef Hilary welcomed Chef Mary with open arms, eventually offering her the position of sous chef. After working at Vic's, Chef Mary spent just under a year at High Street on Hudson in her first Executive Chef position before the stars aligned for her to accept the role that has put her on every culinary map: Executive Chef of The Musket Room. 

Timing, it turned out, mattered in more ways than one. Shortly after accepting the challenge of coming on as the new Executive Chef to completely overhaul the menu and theme — steering it away from the New Zealand food that had won it a Michelin Star — the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lock down began, completely shuttering the restaurant for four months. While it was a scary time for the industry, Chef Mary found a massive silver lining in that it gave her plenty of time to thoughtfully reimagine the restaurant’s offerings. 

By all accounts, that was time well spent, as they not only retained their Michelin star, but Chef Mary and her food landed on almost every industry list as a chef to watch, including a James Beard Nomination for “Best Chef: New York State,” a glowing review from (at the time) New York Times critic Pete Wells and a place on his 2023 “100 Best Restaurants in New York City” list. 

Since then, Chef Mary has joined forces with her pastry chef, Camari Mick, to open a French-Italian bakery across the street from The Musket Room called Raf’s. Its opening has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response from customers and critics alike. Her personal star has also continued to rise to some of the most prestigious places in the hospitality industry, including a place as a semi-finalist for the "Best Chef: New York State" James Beard Award in 2023, named as honoree for the C-CAP 2024 gala, and chosen as one of only 13 chefs to be named Food & Wine’s 2024 Best New Chefs — a list that has come out annually since the late 80s.