Tanya Holland closed her acclaimed West Oakland restaurant Brown Sugar Kitchen several weeks ago, without much fanfare. The nationally known chef had been mulling over the idea for a while, she said, but needed to find the right moment.

After temporarily shutting the 10-year-old space in May, then turning it into a test kitchen open a few days each week, Holland decided it was time.

“I spent 10 years there. Ten years of my life. That’s a long time,” she said. “It’s just time to move on as a chef. There’s a lot of reasons, but I felt like the restaurant was no longer challenging me. At this point in my career, I want to do something that’s going to be new and challenging for me.”

Holland said there is a potential pair of new owners waiting in the wings for the Brown Sugar Kitchen space. She said the buyers are chefs of color, but did not provide other details, as the sale is not final.

Holland, one of the Bay Area culinary scene’s most recognizable faces, is also among the country’s most celebrated black chefs. Her elevated soul food, based around chicken and waffles, made her a household name during the past 10 years. In that time, she’s become a cookbook author, had her name as an answer on the long-running “Jeopardy” game show, and recently was a contestant on “Top Chef.”

The accolades, the attention, successes and the failures in her career all can be traced to the little shop on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, Holland said. It gave her a platform on which she could grow.

Now she wants to offer other chefs of color a chance to create their own legacies in the East Bay.

“I’m working with them now as a mentor. I know this area, the good and the bad. I know the concepts that can work here and what might not work,” Holland said of the would-be owners. “I want to pass this knowledge on to someone who might be like I was, just looking for an opportunity.”

Holland is also turning her attention to several forthcoming projects across the Bay Area. Among them are outposts of her fast-casual Brown Sugar Kitchen Counter at San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Warriors’ Chase Center Arena in Mission Bay.

Holland has another Brown Sugar Kitchen Counter in the works in Uptown Oakland. The restaurant is located in the 13,600-square-foot space left vacant by Picán and Ozumo on Broadway.

“The Broadway location will be open before the Ferry Building. I’m thinking like mid-November, as long as everything goes according to plan,” she said. “Construction is still going on there and we’re at the point where we’re going to be putting in fixtures and things like that.”

As to her former flagship, Holland said she hasn’t really taken time to mourn its closure, nor does she plan to.

In the last days it was open, realizing she had inventory to dispose of, Holland said she called friends to come pick up macaroni and cheese and containers of fried chicken so the food wouldn’t go to waste. In a way, that was her goodbye, feeding those closest to her in the simplest, easiest terms.

“I’m moving forward,” Holland said. “This is a new chapter for me. I’m excited to see where it goes.”

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips