Chef Vijay Kumar Wins Laurels for Breaking Stereotypes

Vijay Kumar, the 'Best Chef in New York', talks about the inspirations behind the food at Michelin-starred Semma

- Ruth DSouza Prabhu

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 recognizes 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 stir-fried snails that his grandmother cooked back 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.