This week, Mockingbird Kitchen’s Chef Chrissy Sanderson was included on USA Today’s list “50 States: 50 Female Chefs.”

Mockingbird Kitchen in Fayetteville, which celebrates its second anniversary this month, serves new American cuisine and is regularly listed among the best restaurants in Northwest Arkansas.

Located at 1466 N. College, Mockingbird Kitchen utilizes local and seasonal ingredients, and the restaurant showcases Sanderson’s rich culinary experience in a charming, modern cafe-style setting.

According to the restaurant’s website, Sanderson graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in political science, but after walking across the threshold of Bordinos restaurant she discovered a path to her future career. After working two years at Bordinos as a pastry chef, prep cook and bartender, she attended The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. 

She returned to Fayetteville and became the executive chef and co-owner of Bordinos for the next eight years, catapulting the intimate fine dining restaurant to a remarkable destination restaurant.

Sanderson began instructing a Culinary Arts course at Northwest Arkansas Community College in 2007, and from 2013 to 2014 she played an important role in establishing the Walmart To Go Deli concept as a consulting chef with Bentonville Butcher and Deli.

At Mockingbird Kitchen, which she co-owns along with Leigh Helm, Sanderson offers personal recipes passed down from her mother and grandmother. USA Today describes her menu as “innovative yet comforting.”

Sanderson also serves on the Fayetteville Advertising & Promotion Commission, the governing body of Experience Fayetteville, which is responsible for marketing the city to visitors and achieving a positive economic impact through tourism.