NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
New York, NY, June 20, 2025: Chef Vijay Kumar, the culinary force behind Semma in Greenwich Village, was named Best Chef: New York State at the prestigious 2025 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards, held in Chicago on June 16. The honor marks a historic moment, as Kumar is believed to be the first Tamil chef to win this award, one of the most coveted in the American culinary world.
In an emotional acceptance speech that has since gone viral, Kumar reflected on his journey from rural Tamil Nadu to one of the highest stages in American gastronomy.
“When I started cooking, I never thought a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu, from a village, would make it to a room like this,” Kumar said. “There’s no poor person’s food or rich person’s food. It’s food. It’s powerful.”
The heartfelt message was met with resounding applause and has since resonated across social media, with many praising the chef for highlighting issues of representation, identity, and the transformative power of food.
Kumar’s restaurant, Semma, has become a culinary sensation in New York City. Since joining the kitchen in 2021, the chef has earned widespread acclaim for his unapologetically authentic take on regional South Indian cuisine. Dishes like nathai pirattal (snail curry) and Dindigul biryani reflect his Tamil roots and have earned the restaurant a Michelin star, as well as the top spot on The New York Times’ list of best NYC restaurants for 2025.
Born and raised in Tamil Nadu, Kumar began his culinary career in India before moving to the U.S., where he trained and worked at the Michelin-starred Rasa in California. At Semma, he made it a point to preserve traditional recipes passed down through generations, resisting the pressure to Westernize flavors.
Born and raised in Natham, a small town in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu, Kumar grew up in a farming family surrounded by rice paddies and coconut trees Summers were spent in his grandparents’ remote village, Arasampatti near Madurai, where he learned to forage for snails and hunt, helping cook simple meals over open fires. Financial constraints diverted him from engineering school to the State Institute of Hotel Management in Tiruchirappalli—a stepping stone to a career in prestigious kitchens like Taj Connemara in Chennai and various cruise ships
His culinary path led him to the U.S., where he first helmed kitchens in California—working at Dosa in San Francisco and Rasa in Burlingame, the latter earning a Michelin star in 2016. Feeling creatively confined, he drove across the country in 2021 to New York to partner with Roni Mazumdar and Chintan Pandya (of Unapologetic Foods), founding Semma to cook the authentic rural Tamil cuisine of his childhood.
The 2025 James Beard Awards were a triumphant night for New York City chefs and restaurants, with several wins across categories. Yet it was Kumar’s win—and his powerful words—that stood out as a defining moment.
