About Chef Jon Davis

Jon Davis is the head chef of City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi. Raised in Memphis, Davis began cooking professionally while a student at the University of Mississippi. He took his first kitchen job at Boure’ and went on to work in seasonal kitchens in Cape Cod before returning to Oxford where he has held roles at Saint Leo, The Blind Pig, and The Graduate, and presently City Grocery, where he was named head chef in 2024.

Davis sees food as both personal and cultural—an opportunity to evoke memory and emotion, stating, “Whatever I put on a plate, I want it to tell a story. I want there to be some type of component of ‘This is what I feel,’ ‘This is who I am’ …”

He was named 2025 King of Mississippi Seafood and will represent the state at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans. He also won Judges’ Choice at the 2024 Natchez Food & Wine Festival.