Chef. Founder. Surfer. Creatress of the Jersey Shore, and beyond.
"From behind a stove in Belmar to a surf trip in Nicaragua to a bistro in Spring Lake, I have never stopped building things that matter for people and planet."
Chef · Restaurateur · Founder · Activist · Surfer · Mom
Forty years of building
things that last.
Jersey Shore native. Self-taught chef. Driven by the ocean, the community, and the belief that great food and great business should make the world better than they found it.
She grew up in Belmar. The ocean was her best friend. Everything else followed.
Marilyn Schlossbach is a self-taught chef, restaurateur, founder, and community activist whose work has shaped the Jersey Shore food and culture scene for more than four decades. Born and raised in Belmar, she has always been as much a product of this coastline as a builder of it.
Her culinary career began by accident in 1982. A cook did not show up at her brother's restaurant in Avon-by-the-Sea, she stepped in, and never really stepped back out. From that night forward she has opened more than fifteen restaurants, transformed neighborhoods, fed communities through crisis, launched a nationally award-winning beauty brand, and remained one of the most authentic voices in New Jersey hospitality.
She travels the world on her surfboard and brings everything she finds back to the table. Her food is honest, local, and deeply connected to place. So is everything else she builds.
Her latest chapter is Maree Kitchen + Bar in Spring Lake and Oshin Oil, the moringa-based beauty elixir born from a decade of quiet work in her kitchen and a surf trip that changed everything.
A 120-year-old warehouse. A living cultural institution.
Whitechapel Projects in Long Branch is one of the Shore's most singular cultural spaces: a 120-year-old warehouse transformed into a communal center for food, drink, art, music, and events.
Marilyn has been a foundational part of Whitechapel's story, helping shape what it is as a space and a community. Her connection to it runs deep.
Visit whitechapelprojects.comThe work that runs alongside everything else.
Food For Thought By The Sea
Marilyn's nonprofit providing culinary job placement, surf lessons, community gardening, and environmental education. Delivered 3,000+ meals weekly during COVID.
foodforthoughtap.comEnvironmental Advocacy
Long-standing partnerships with Clean Ocean Action, Surfrider Foundation, the American Littoral Society, and Waves for Water.
Youth and Education
Community surf lessons and gardening with the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County. Executive board member of the NJ Restaurant and Hospitality Association.
As seen and heard.
A selection of recent and notable coverage.
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