BJ Chester-Tamayo

BJ Chester-Tamayo grew up in Meridian, MS. With her parents H.S. & Alcenia Chester. She grew up in a home filled with love and a lot of family bonding over many meals. After High School, she moved to Memphis with her military husband whom she later divorced. As a single mother, with a one son, she went back to school and graduated. BJ received a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in May 1996 from LeMoyne-Owen College. In August 1996, her only child, Will A. Tamayo III, was killed in a motorcycle accident. It changed her life. BJ’s world as she once knew it, changed forever and so did she. BJ took the memories from her childhood; of happiness and families being brought together around good food and started to form a new world, Alcenia’s. In 1997, she opened Alcenia’s Desserts & Preserves (named after her mother (now deceased) and granddaughter). As a child, BJ did not cook, she learned from her mother as an adult. She had a desire to manufacture desserts & preserves, but quickly found out that people wanted more of Alcenia’s. Thus, the reason you have soul food at Alcenia’s today. BJ’s desire is for God to use her food to heal and connect with many people, regardless of their race or income. “My food not only represents Memphis but it represents the world” is one of her many sayings. People visit Alcenia’s from all over the world; Africa, Mississippi, Hong Kong, California, Japan, Texas, Maine, Paris, Ohio are just a few. B.J. has self-published two cookbooks. Alcenia’s “Healing the Soul” and Soul 2 Soul “From Alcenia’s to the world”. She’s also been featured in countless television and print works. In her downtime you can find BJ spending time with her family and friends. Whom according to her, are going to “drive her to drink”.