Latest news with #JamesBeardFoundationAward
Mint
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
I really want to cook goat blood curry, says chef Vijay Kumar
Ruth Dsouza Prabhu In an exclusive interview, the James Beard Award 2025 winner talks about his time growing up in the village, catching fish for his mother, struggles to source the right produce, and how the famed snail curry made it to the Semma menu Chef Vijay Kumar; (right) the dish 'nathai pirattal' or stir-fried snails at Semma. Gift this article 'There's no such thing as poor person's food or rich person's food, it is food," said chef Vijay Kumar while accepting the James Beard Foundation Award for the 'Best Chef in New York State' last month. Dressed in a veshti and chunky pearls around his neck, the 44-year-old's speech took over our Instagram feeds, as he unabashedly went on to share his journey 'as a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu" making it to the top, at the awards ceremony that recognises excellence in the culinary arts in the United States. Kumar steers the kitchen at the Michelin-starred restaurant Semma, in New York, where he serves nathai pirattal, a dish of spicy stir-fried snails that his grandmother cooked back home in the village. 'There's no such thing as poor person's food or rich person's food, it is food," said chef Vijay Kumar while accepting the James Beard Foundation Award for the 'Best Chef in New York State' last month. Dressed in a veshti and chunky pearls around his neck, the 44-year-old's speech took over our Instagram feeds, as he unabashedly went on to share his journey 'as a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu" making it to the top, at the awards ceremony that recognises excellence in the culinary arts in the United States. Kumar steers the kitchen at the Michelin-starred restaurant Semma, in New York, where he serves nathai pirattal, a dish of spicy stir-fried snails that his grandmother cooked back home in the village. Kumar was born and raised in a town called Natham in Tamil Nadu, and completed his schooling in Samuthirapatti. An ace student, he wanted to become an engineer. While his father was a government employee, his mother managed the farm. Due to financial constraints, Kumar had to leave the engineering dream behind and follow another passion, and that was cooking, at the State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology in Trichy in 1998. Three years later, he joined Taj Connemara in Chennai followed by a few other stints, until he got an opportunity to head to the US in 2007. Semma is a Tamil slang for 'fantastic', and has been the talk of the food world since it opened in 2021. Reservations are hard to get, and diners from diverse cultural backgrounds are encouraged to eat with their hands. It's not every day that a restaurant attempts to break the stereotypes associated with Indian food in the western world. Dindigul biryani at Semma. The menu reflects Kumar's humble Tamil farmer-family roots, and sticks to the original flavours. Take the snails that he serves with spongy kal dosa. He recalls being nervous in the initial days of serving the dish, but is proud to see how diners enjoy it the way his grandmother made it. More so, because back in school, it was not a dish that he would share with others. He thought it would be made fun of as poor man's food. That escargot was a French delicacy was a revelation much later in culinary school, he says. His face lights up talking about spiced goat intestines, wild rabbit leg, and tiger prawns cooked with a generous dose of green chillies, each a throwback to the times on the farm, and in his family kitchens. Also Read | Disfrutar versus Noma: A tale of two Michelin meals 'I am so sorry to have you working so late," is the first thing Kumar says when he logs in for a Zoom interview. It was 9pm IST, and 11.30am in NYC. The rush of the win was evident as he settled in for a chat. He shares that although celebrations were on, the team had a responsibility, especially now that the queues were longer with over 50 people waiting for a spot at the 12-seater bar in the restaurant. Edited excerpts from the interview: Take us through some of your favourite food memories. Growing up on the farm, we always had fresh ingredients to cook with. We'd grow or raise everything, including goats and chickens for consumption. During school vacations, all the siblings went to our grandparents' place, and since there were no buses, we had to walk three kilometres to get there. We'd go fishing, work in the paddy fields, or go hunting. My memories are all about cooking with fresh ingredients, in clay pots on open fire, and eating on banana leaves. Did you have a favourite dish growing up? My mom's fish curry. She is one of those perfectionists, like most Indian moms. If she buys fish, it has to be freshly caught. Otherwise, it must be fished by us from the river. Nothing else would do. She is picky about her ingredients, and I think I inherited that from her. That's what we are doing right now at Semma — going back to cooking the way I am used to. It was a shift in mindset, from wanting to be an engineer to going to culinary school. How did you cope? From my childhood, I always wanted to do my best at everything. It was a hard transition because one is always afraid of what society thinks. I didn't tell my friends that I was going to culinary school, and when they found out, they made fun of me. I had challenges, growing up in a village, and moving to big cities. My first language was not English, but I adapted. I persevered. So, where did it all begin? I started at a small place in Virginia as soon as I arrived in the US. Then I worked at the restaurant Dosa followed by Rasa in California in 2014, where I got my first Michelin star. Back then I was cooking contemporary Indian food. But I felt something was missing. We were deboning fish and turning down spice levels. I felt we were trying to fit into someone else's mold. I was fortunate enough to meet chef Chintan Pandya and restaurateur Roni Mazumdar of Unapologetic Foods in 2021, and partner with them to open Semma. I was given complete freedom to create the menu, which today represents the Tamil cuisine of my childhood. Tell us everything about the food at Semma. South Indian food is largely associated with idli and dosa, which is sad because it is a cuisine that's been around for thousands of years, and has not diluted with time. I have a responsibility to represent it. When we discussed the nathai pirattal, many were sceptical, but Roni said that it was about what I ate growing up. I didn't want the business to lose money because of such bold decisions, but they (Roni and Chintan) were clear about going ahead and being unapologetic about my roots. Our menu changes regularly. We had a venison curry for a while. Though deer hunting is illegal in India now, I remember going hunting for deer as a child. What I really want to do is make goat blood curry, another delicacy from my childhood, but I haven't had good luck acquiring fresh blood for it. Is there any diner reaction that has stayed with you? It's an incident that is both upsetting and memorable. One day, it was raining heavily and the restaurant was flooded. There was a maintenance issue, and water trickled down from the ceiling. A guest was at the table, and I went across to apologise. He brushed it off saying — 'don't worry about it, just give me an umbrella" — which he held on to and continued eating. For me, this is the power of good food. What is that one meal you turn to when you miss home? Rice and sambar, poriyal and appalam. There is so much emotion in that meal. Also Read | Can 'touchings' be the new tapas? Chef Regi Mathew thinks so Ruth DSouza Prabhu is a features journalist based in Bengaluru. Topics You May Be Interested In
Eater
18-06-2025
- Business
- Eater
The Newest Restaurant Openings in New Orleans, June 2025
As the summer looms, it's heartening to see a handful of new initiatives around town, crowned by the buzzworthy opening of the Kingsway from chef Ashwin Vilkhu. The Kingsway restaurant, chef Ashwin Vilkhu's first solo venture, started taking reservations on June 10 — an opening, delayed by a slew of building issues, three years in the works. Vilkhu's family is the culinary force behind Saffron, the modern Indian restaurant opened by his chef father, Arvinder Vilkhu, in 2017. This year, the father and son were co-nominated for the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: South. Located just steps from Saffron, at 4201 Magazine Street, the Kingsway is personal for the second-generation chef, a medium for sharing his family's culinary origin story through chopstick-worthy childhood Asian dishes. The restaurant is named for Kingsway Drive East, the street where the family lived on the Westbank when they moved from New Delhi to New Orleans in the 1980s. New Orleans architecture and interior design firm Farouiki Farouki created a welcoming and elegant space throughout the light-filled dining room and glowing back bar. The four-course, $92 tasting menu conjures some of Vilkhu's favorite culinary memories, amplified by the chef's technique and his commitment to quality ingredients. Guests select from three to four dishes for each course, with options like the stellar gulf yellowfin tuna with the chef's five-year chili sauce and sticky rice and a crispy, wok-fried take on Mongolian beef, made with slices of leg of lamb. Colin Williams leads the cocktail program with a focus on Asian flavors, while sommelier Taylor Adams builds a wine list of hidden treasures to complement the canon of bold flavors. Chef Luci Winsberg, who began her culinary career under chef Sue Zemanick at Gautreau's, is now in the compact kitchen at RRNW, the Uptown neighborhood wine shop owned by Darrin Ylisto and Miriam Matasar. Winsberg, who was Zemanick's sous chef when she opened Zasu, dishes creative seasonal plates suitable for snacking or lunch, from tartines and dips to entree salads. She's also featuring farmed oysters from Justin Trosclair at Lady Nellie Oyster Farms. Melissa Stewart and her partner chef Baruch Rabasa are on the brink of opening their Applied Arts Coffee in Bywater. 'We are in the 'two more weeks' phase,' said Stewart, wading through the glacial pace of city permitting before they can open their doors this summer. Beyond the focus on sustainably and responsibly sourced coffee roasted to order, Rabasa will be creating beautifully composed smørrebrød (pronounced smore-bro) Scandinavian open-faced sandwiches that speak to Stewart's Norwegian heritage. Baruch's Mediterranean and Mexican roots will show up in pastries, salads, and the brand's specialty-grade coffee. Summer is the perfect time to check out Lost Coyote, a newish restaurant with a pool at 1614 Esplanade Avenue, on the edge of the historic Treme neighborhood. The owners are Colin Kennedy, whose years of management experience include a lengthy stint at Creole Cuisine Concepts, and chef Nicole Theriot Lauten, a Louisiana girl from down the bayou in Terrebonne Parish. A graduate of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, she calls her time working with chef Nina Compton at Compere Lapin and the recently closed Bywater American Bistro her most formative professional years. Formerly Joe Joe on the Ridge, a Mexican concept, Lost Coyote features an eclectic American menu of salads, small bites, and hearty entrees, alongside a bottomless mimosa brunch on weekends. Take a dip in the spacious pool for $20 a day, which includes a glass of bubbles and a towel. There's free onsite parking and bonus — a goat name Rosita out back. Coma Arepas, Origen chef and owner Julio Machado's ode to his country's national street food dish, will open at the St. Roch Market on June 19. The naturally gluten-free flat cornmeal cakes are as popular in Machado's native Venezuela as tacos are in Mexico. Arepas toppings include plantains, cheese, black beans, shredded beef or chicken, avocado, and more. This is Machado's second Coma Arepas location, the other is in Kenner at 3809 Williams Blvd. See More: New Orleans Restaurant Openings
Eater
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
How a James Beard Award-winning Texas Chef Is Reshaping New American Cuisine in the Houston Suburbs
Chef Thomas Bille doesn't just serve food — he tells stories. At Belly of the Beast, the intimate restaurant he runs in Spring, Texas, with his wife Elizabeth, Bille combines his Mexican American heritage, French culinary training, and family memories into dishes that are personal, playful, and genre-defying. From caviar-topped empanadas to birria tacos with crisp, cheese-laced edges, the menu is a heartfelt mash-up of fine dining and home cooking — and it's earned him both a Bib Gourmand nod from the Michelin Guide and a James Beard Foundation Award, which he won on June 16 at the Beards awards ceremony in Chicago. Bille's passion for food and fusion started early, inspired by his parents, who cooked often. His father, once chef of a French bistro who worked his way up from dishwasher, rarely took the family out to eat — 'unless it was for Chinese food or Pizza Hut,' he says. Instead, Bille tagged along at work, with cooks slipping him filet mignon and lobster Thermidor from the line. By age 10, he was cooking for himself, making French toast, eggs, and pepperoni grilled cheeses. Years later, as a single dad, he enrolled in culinary school, graduating at the top of his class before landing jobs catering and serving as the chef for top Los Angeles restaurants, Qantas Airways, and hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott. After serving as executive chef at Los Angeles's storied restaurant Otium and staging at Michelin-starred spots, Bille, Elizabeth, and their three kids relocated to Texas in search of a neighborhood with better schools, a lower cost of living, and the possibility of opening their own restaurant. The Billes first launched Belly of the Beast as a pop-up in 2018. The name was inspired by Bille's hectic experiences in hotel kitchens where the kitchen team easily cooked for more than 500 people a night. 'We'd say, 'Man, we're in the belly of the beast now,' Bille says. 'I thought, 'This would be a really cool name for a restaurant,' and I ran with it.' In February 2020, the Bille's opened a 24-seat counter-service spot in a converted house in Old Town Spring. Weeks later, though, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The Billes quickly pivoted, serving family meals to-go and offering outdoor seating. Still, a landlord dispute over the space's increasing rent resulted in the Billes closing Belly of the Beast in mid-2021. After a stint at the now-closed Chivos, where Bille launched a nixtamalized masa program, the couple reopened Belly of the Beast in November 2023 inside a humble strip mall — this time, on their own terms. Now, Bille is free to write what he calls a love letter to diners and his past. The menu includes odes to his Mexican American upbringing, Baja cuisine, and his eldest daughter's Persian-Armenian heritage. There's summery street corn agnolotti that combines the comfort of homemade pasta and elote flavors; birria tacos with cheesy, crisped edges and salsa rojo; a yam dish with tortillas that tastes like Mexican Thanksgiving on a plate; and potato empanadas with a silky mashed potato-Comte cheese filling. 'Everything's personal and coming from my heart and soul. What I serve here, you can't get it anywhere else but here,' he says. Defining the Belly of the Beast's cuisine can be difficult. The Billes call it New American but through the lens of a first-generation Mexican American who spoke Spanish at home, honored family customs, and immersed himself in diverse cuisines while growing up in Los Angeles. Simply put, it's his upbringing on a plate, he says. 'It's Mexican ingredients and Mexican techniques,' he says. 'But it's my own version of things.' As with many of his other dishes, Bille reached back into his past to conceive the potato empanadas, which draw inspiration from papas con queso and his mother's taco gorditos, hard-shelled crispy tacos filled with meat, cheese, crema, and lettuce. 'It's a delicacy that I and other children of immigrants eat,' he says. 'How can I elevate this humble dish?' Bille says he channeled his experience working for French chefs by making a nouveau version of pommes aligot, folding Comte cheese into mashed potatoes for a silky filling that is piled onto masa. His mother then molds those potato-packed masa pockets into empanadas and fries them. Similar to caviar service, Bille serves the empanadas with a side of crème fraiche, caviar, and chives. The street corn agnolotti, a Belly of the Beast fan favorite, nods to the esquites of Bille's youth — corn on the cob or sweet kernels in a cup served warm with mayo, cheese, lime, and chili powder. He transforms that memory into delicate agnolotti filled with sweet corn, glazed in a corn broth-butter emulsion, and topped with cotija, roasted kernels, and a homemade Tajin-influenced seasoning that uses his secret combination of dried chiles, lime zest, and powder. 'It's an elevated version of what I grew up eating — corn in a cup but pasta,' he says. The dish is only on the menu during summer, when corn is sweet and in season, making it a fleeting pleasure that's earned a cult-following. When Bille moved to the Houston area around six years ago, he says the city was a bit behind on the birria taco. The quesabirra wave had already hit Los Angeles starting in 2015, with places like Teddy's Red Tacos taking inspiration from Baja California. But for Bille, it was more than a trend. 'I grew up with birria being made with goat,' he says. 'I've been making birria all my life. We'd have a big giant pot every two months.' Bille says he started making the birria in a crockpot, stuffing it with Oaxaca and Chihuahua cheeses that would melt over the sides, creating crispy, laced edges. He debuted the dish at pop-ups and it quickly became a local favorite. From his original opening in February 2020 to the closing in June 2021, Bille estimates he sold 16,000 birria tacos. 'I made 98 percent of those personally,' says Bille, a tiring feat that made him want to take them off the menu entirely. Elizabeth encouraged him not to, and today, birria tacos are still a Belly of the Beast staple. Bille creates a paste from adobo, charred tomato, guajillo, Mexican chiles, cumin, allspice, clove, bay leaves, and other warm spices that he rubs onto a combination of beef cuts, including chuck roll and beef shank. The beef is marinated overnight and then pre-roasted in broth from the previous batch and cooked low and slow for at least four hours until the meat grows tender falls apart. Bille assembles the taco, stuffing homemade tortillas with the beef and cheese and frying them to create the signature cheese crust before it gets served with onions, cilantro, a salsa rojo, and a side of broth for dipping. Evolved from a highly guarded recipe, Bille compares this seasonal dish to Mexican Thanksgiving on a plate. 'In L.A., everybody had a yam taco, but they weren't great,' says Bille, so he created his own. Similar to preparation for a candied yam, Bille peels and purees yams before combining them with butter, maple syrup, piloncillo Mexican brown sugar, lime, and sea salt. He then packs the yam mixture into a tortilla and garnishes the taco with an earthy almond salsa macha, queso fresco, and chicken cracklings for textural contrast. The dish sold out at an event, with 700 tacos consumed that night alone. That same recipe lives on at Belly of the Beast, with the special That's My Yam plated and served with a side of tortillas during the fall. Though Bille considers himself more of a savory chef, he's given his take on one of the most iconic Latin desserts — the tres leches. The cake itself, made from a sponge cake batter, is soaked in milk, heavy cream, evaporated milk, condensed milk, and a splash of vanilla. The cake then gets topped with meringue, made from egg whites and passion fruit juice for a bright tartness, and torched for an added layer of flavor that Bille compares to burnt marshmallow. 'The char creates a nuance that cuts through the sweet and creates this bite,' he says. 'It's a pretty damn good tres leches.' See More:
Eater
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
James Beard Award-Winning Southern Chef Sean Brock Is Opening a Restaurant in West Hollywood
One of South Carolina's most celebrated chefs will open his first Los Angeles restaurant in West Hollywood later this summer. Sean Brock, best known for his Southern restaurants in Charleston and Nashville, will introduce Darling, a new restaurant featuring seasonal ingredients prepared over a live-fire grill in the former Soulmate space on Robertson Boulevard. The Charleston-based chef will also introduce Bar Darling, an adjoining cocktail bar that will serve cocktails while vinyls play over a hi-fi sound system. As one of the South's most notable chefs, Brock is a high-profile figure dedicated to showcasing Southern Cuisine. He grew up in Virginia's Appalachian mountains before finishing culinary school and becoming executive chef at Charleston, South Carolina's Husk from 2010 until 2018; he then became a partner at McCrady's Restaurant. Brock won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Southeast in 2010, and became a New York Times bestseller with his first cookbook Heritage , which also garnered a James Beard Award. After opening (and stepping away from) multiple Husk locations throughout the South, Brock opened Atlanta's Minero in 2015, then debuted Joyland in 2020. Joyland was his first solo restaurant, followed by a stream of openings, including a duo of Nashville restaurants centered around Appalachian food. Brock joins a handful of recent non-California-based chefs bringing their experience to Los Angeles, including the Jamaican-born Adrian Forte for Lucia in Fairfax, and chef Eyal Shani's Miznon. Darling will open in July or August across the street from Lisa Vanderpump's Sur and the trendy spinoff from Vanderpump Rules reality TV stars' sandwich shop, Something About Her. Related How Sean Brock Reinvented Himself (and His Restaurants) Sign up for our newsletter.
Associated Press
02-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Arrivato Imports Launches Ecommerce for Consumers Nationwide
Luxury food products now available through online ordering 'By serving Arrivato's products at your table, you can prepare meals with the best ingredients used by the best chefs.' — Arrivato Imports Founder & Owner Andre Melchionda ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, April 2, 2025 / / -- Arrivato Imports, a leading purveyor in the specialty and luxury food space, is proud to announce its worldwide luxury culinary ingredients are available for consumers nationwide. Initial online offerings for individuals seeking a one-of-a-kind culinary experience or for being the host with the most from the comfort of their homes will include top-tier caviar, fresh truffles, A5 Japanese Wagyu beef and aged balsamic vinegar. Limited run boxes will soon be available for customers. 'Our team is excited to provide these products, once only available to top chefs and restaurants, for people to experience the pinnacle of high-quality food from the at-home chef to hosting the renowned annual party and everything in between,' Arrivato Imports Founder and Owner Andre Melchionda said. 'By serving Arrivato's products at your table, you can prepare meals with the best ingredients used by the best chefs. These products are perfect for any celebration, gift, barbecue, dinner party, date night or a chill night at home with caviar, champagne and even fried chicken–don't knock it until you try it.' Arrivato works with many suppliers spanning the globe to ensure exceptional quality and ingredients such as truffles, Japanese wagyu, caviar and more. Arrivato currently collaborates with establishments garnering honors such as Michelin Stars, James Beard Foundation Award Winners, Forbes Five Star Resorts and AAA Five Diamond Winners. 'This is just the beginning of something incredible with our new product releases, seasonal product availability and recipes from Michelin-Starred chefs,' Melchionda said. Headquartered in Atlanta, Arrivato Imports collaborates and advises chefs and restaurant owners nationwide on products based on the establishment's needs. Arrivato handles ordering and sourcing the high-end foods for a seamless process starting from the kitchen to patrons' plates. To order Arrivato's fine products online and stay updated on new product releases and company news, visit Legal Disclaimer:
