Though I had met Tamisha while working at Newman’s Fish Market and was immediately drawn to her thick British accent and contagious enthusiasm, I did not know how very fortunate we Eugenians are to have her among us until I ate her barbecue. Beef ribs, tender, succulent, falling off of the bone with just the right amount of smoke and seasoning, a half smoked and grilled chicken with perfectly cooked and juicy breast and thigh meat (this is a hard thing to accomplish!), a lemon icebox pie with crispy buttery graham cracker crust and a light yet decadent lemon custard filling, white and red barbecue sauce…each thing I tasted was more delicious than the last. I knew I wanted to talk to her and hear her story.
Tamisha Heacox-Jackson was raised by her respectively Caribbean-Creole and Acadian mother and father in San Francisco. “I come from a family of chefs. My grandfather and father were both professional chefs, cooking for hospitals and restaurants. My dad made the best barbecue. At seven years old, I was his student. I studied his every move. I worshipped him. His barbeque could not be rivaled by any of the finest spots in the Bay Area.” Her family took food very seriously and when they went out to eat, they went to the finest restaurants in San Francisco and ordered adventurously and abundantly.
The thick British accent comes from over ten formative years spent living in England, where she went to university. On her visits home, she worked for a catering company. One memorable day, she recalls cooking for over 3,000 people at a party in Morgan Hill. There was a huge grill set up and they needed to make hamburgers. No one else on staff felt confident at the grill, but after years of watching her masterful father, Tamisha knew she could do it. In the sweltering heat, a wet towel wrapped around her neck, she ran up and down the grill, flipping and finishing burgers. For many people, such a strenuous and stressful feat would be enough to scare them away from the food industry permanently, but for Tamisha, the rush and the capability that kept her calm through the chaos resonated deeply and she knew she would become a chef.
While attending the Oxford School of Drama to acquire a masters degree in theatre arts, Tamisha worked long hours as a pub cook. She recalls waking up at five in the morning and chopping cases of cabbage to fill 10 gallon buckets with coleslaw. It was at this pub that she learned her speed and discipline. She left the pub to become a waitress at a fine dining establishment down the street. As a waitress, she became beloved to the back of house staff because she could sell any dish. A sharp memory and a genuine love for the food made her ability to describe and sell the most complex and nuanced dishes unstoppable. The chefs recognized her drive and brilliance and shared their culinary secrets with her. All the while, Tamisha continued to pursue her career in acting, working for the BBC.
Camp Costanoan in Cupertino, California hired Tamisha as a drama teacher one summer. Over 900 campers with a vast range of disabilities attend Camp Costanoan every year, knowing that their needs will be met, and that they will be treated with love, care and respect. At Camp Costanoan, Tamisha, as usual, ended up in the kitchen. The camp director noticed her passion, talent and work ethic and she was hired to help run the entire show. Tamisha met her future wife at Camp Costanoan. “It was running through me like a lightning bolt, the passion I was feeling, all that I was learning about myself. It was a pivotal experience for my life, how I learned to truly lead with empathy and understanding.” Tamisha returned to London in the fall and to the shock of all of her friends and coworkers, she packed her bags to move stateside.
Tamisha worked for around 150 different companies and establishments including Fox, Wolfgang Puck, Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus, Sony and eventually landed a dream job offer as the head chef of garde manger for Pepperdine University, helping manage a kitchen that feeds over 10,000 people every day. In 2012, her dear friends and fellow temple members hired her to cater their son’s bar mitzvah, having fallen in love with her homemade lox. While hustling at her numerous jobs, Tamisha found time to cater bar mitzvahs and various other events, and to finish her culinary degree at the top of her class at Le Cordon Bleu.
Though the position at Pepperdine was prestigious and desirable, it was also demanding. Tamisha realized she valued spending time with her wife and finding financial stability over staying in Los Angeles in a high-powered job, and so the couple moved to Eugene, where her wife grew up. “I left my dream job, all of the prestige and power to come to Eugene and figure it out,” she recalls. And figure it out, she did.
Upon arrival in Eugene, Tamisha sought an executive chef position in a high end kitchen. She found a job as the executive chef at the Waterford Grand, an assisted living and memory care facility. For 18 months, she worked to provide high quality food for those living there while maintaining her own style and flavors. Though her dream was to fully employ herself and make Mishjacks Catering her one and only gig, she knew she needed some time to get to know the local food scene, meet the vendors, establish relationships, and get to know the unique demands of the palates of Eugene.
On June 1st, 2019, Tamisha hosted her first pop up dinner at Noble Estate Winery. “This was my chance to put it all out there and catapult the catering business. The seven course tasting menu was ambitious and I was cooking everything live on site. I called my little brother up and said, ‘I’m gonna buy you a plane ticket, the family name is on the line and we’re gonna show ’em what we do!’” Despite some back of house chaos, the night was a hit and landed her another gig catering a wedding. Each job offer brought her new clients and she was finally able to put all of her time and energy into her own business. In response to the pandemic, Tamisha started to offer pop up dinners delivered to your door.
Mishjacks Catering was running out of Erin’s Table in downtown Eugene. In April, Tamisha partnered with Erin’s Table and First Christian Church to feed homeless families and just finished up a fundraiser with Springfield Young Readers, raising over $2700 to feed more than 500 families who were negatively impacted by the Holiday Farm Fire. Just this Spring, Tamisha found her very own kitchen space in downtown Eugene. Now that she has a kitchen of her own, she is starting to build a strong and talented team that will allow her to continue to expand her offerings.
Tamisha’s time at Camp Costanoan required her to meet immense and varied dietary needs and gave her a very compassionate and loving perspective on what it means to feed and nourish people. She is always willing to meet the dietary restrictions of her clients and offers vegetarian, gluten free and vegan options for her pop up meals as well. Her passion for high quality ingredients has ignited her love for Eugene and the Willamette Valley. She not only seeks organic, biodynamic and local ingredients, she works tirelessly to find the very freshest and best ingredients available and prepare them with love and skill. Through years of hard work, curiosity, passion, love, and drive, Tamisha has finally found her home in Eugene running Mishjacks Catering and we get to enjoy the literal fruits of her labor.
