She describes the experience of being filmed as "nerve-wracking." Niki Nakayama of n/naka has been recruited to take part in a Netflix documentary on the world's most innovative and artistic chefs. She says, "I don't really care to be out there, to be the face of the restaurant."Ī cultivated relationship with the media and branching into food-based media projects seem almost de rigueur for today's chefs. Still, Tran is exceedingly uncomfortable in the limelight. In five years, the restaurant has gained rave reviews from countless Yelpers, foodie bloggers and revered food critic Jonathan Gold. Word of mouth and social media ramped up demand for the self-taught chef's creative pan-Asian fare, and Starry Kitchen eventually moved into a brick-and-mortar location. It was just for fun, and then it blew up," she says. After getting laid off from her advertising job, Tran began hosting a weekly supper club for friends at her North Hollywood apartment. One of Niki Nakayama's culinary creations.Īnother unconventional success story belongs to Thi Tran, 37, the chef-owner of Starry Kitchen. "I think when people see myself, or someone like Carole, they might think we're not absolutely serious about what we're doing because we don't fit that 'chef' persona," Nakayama says. After meeting her, he described the food as "cute, and so feminine," a backhanded compliment that infuriated her. Nakayama tells me a story about a famous chef who recently dined at her restaurant. The percentage of men in top chef positions? A whopping 80 percent.
White chefs in management and executive positions make up 54 percent of the total. Now, consider the numbers for head chefs, the ones who are highest-paid and hold the most decision-making power. In 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 45 percent of cooks working in restaurants are white, and 60 percent of the overall total (across all racial categories) are male. In the 1980s and '90s, Martin Yan, Ming Tsai and Iron Chef Morimoto beamed from our television sets. I think when people see myself, or someone like Carole, they might think we're not absolutely serious about what we're doing, because we don't fit that 'chef' persona.Īs early as the 1970s, notable Asian chefs had penetrated mainstream American culture, and it's been men who've dominated the picture: Michael Chow partied with models and socialites before opening his eponymous fine-dining restaurants in Miami, Beverly Hills and New York Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki popularized communal dining and campy teppanyaki entertainment with his chain of Benihanas. They prep and cook together, shoulder to shoulder, five days a week. The restaurant is a family affair her life partner Carole Iida, 37, joined n/naka as the sous chef earlier this year after shuttering her own restaurant downtown. As the restaurant's chef-owner, she's responsible for recipe development, plating and presentation, managing staff and inventory, dealing with customers and vendors, all while keeping an eye on the bottom line. Niki Nakayama, 40, runs n/naka, a kaiseki (Japanese formal dining) restaurant in west LA. Chinese-American restaurateur Joyce Chen was one of five trailblazing chefs commemorated by a limited edition set of USPS Forever stamps this year, but top honors awarded to contemporary Asian-American female chefs such as Cara Stadler and Anita Lo seem few and far between, perhaps symptomatic of a broader gender bias in the industry. But there's a glaring absence in this most recent celebration of Asian-American chefs: women.
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