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Vijay Kumar of Semma wins James Beard Best Chef award
James Beard awards are often known as the Oscars of the food industry.
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Staff Reporter - Sun, 29, Jun 2025
- 05:22 EDT
- 26
Vijay Kumar was born in Madurai and studied at the Taj Connemara hotel in Chennai / Semma website
Chef Vijay Kumar has been awarded the 2025 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Award, Best Chef: New York State. Kumar is the executive chef of Semma in New York. He is celebrated for bringing authentic Tamil Nadu cuisine to the global stage.
Semma is a Michelin-starred Indian eatery renowned for its distinctive take on South Indian cuisine by chef Vijay Kumar. Semma’s menu highlights include the Gunpowder Dosa, Valiya Chemmeen Moilee (Lobster Tail), Goanese Oxtail and the Meen Pollichathu (Banana Leaf Wrapped Branzino).
This year's winners were recently announced at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
A veshti (traditional tamil attire) clad Kumar accepted the award and said, "When I started cooking, I never thought a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu could make it to a room like this."
During his acceptance speech, Kumar talked about his humble beginnings and how it all started in Tamil Nadu's paddy fields, cooking snails.
Kumar's food offers an emotional tug of nostalgia for many diaspora diners, and stands as a testament of Indian food to the ones dabbling in the cuisine for the first time.
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