Chef Vijay Kumar, executive chef and partner at Semma in New York City, has won the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York State. The win marks a defining moment not just in his personal journey but in the broader recognition of regional Indian cuisines — particularly Tamil food — on the global culinary stage.
Kumar’s rise is the stuff of legend. Born in rural Tamil Nadu, in the village of Natham, he grew up watching his mother and grandmother cook daily meals with care and intention — a memory that continues to shape the heart of his cooking. His family couldn’t afford engineering school, so he enrolled in the Institute of Hotel Management in Trichy — a decision he once hesitated to share with friends, but which changed his life forever. His first job was at the Taj Connemara in Chennai.
In 2007, Kumar moved to the U.S. in search of better opportunities. After a short stint in Virginia, he spent 13 years in California, working at restaurants like Dosa in San Francisco and eventually heading Rasa in Burlingame, which became the first Indian restaurant in California to earn a Michelin star under his leadership. Still, Kumar yearned to cook food that felt true to his heritage — not contemporary adaptations, but the dishes he grew up eating. That desire led him to New York and to a serendipitous partnership with Unapologetic Foods.
Founded by Indian-American entrepreneurs Roni Mazumdar and Chintan Pandya, Unapologetic Foods has become a movement, championing authentic, heritage-driven Indian cuisines that break stereotypes and expectations. Together with Kumar, they launched Semma in 2021 — a restaurant that draws deep from Tamil Nadu’s rural heartlands. The name itself means “fantastic” in Tamil, and the experience lives up to that promise. Dishes like nathai pirattal (snails) — which Kumar once associated with poverty — have become unlikely signature hits. Every dish is unapologetically authentic and deeply personal.
“There’s no slow day or empty tables,” Kumar says. “Weekends or weekdays, we’ve been full since day one.” After the James Beard win, the waitlist has only grown longer.
Semma also made history as the first Indian restaurant to top The New York Times 100 Best Restaurants list — a rare recognition for Indian cuisine in America’s fine dining landscape. The restaurant’s food is described as being drawn from memory, from rituals rarely seen outside South India, and from uncompromising regional ingredients.
Reflecting on his journey at the James Beard Award ceremony, Kumar said: “The food I grew up on is made with care, with fire, with soul, and is now taking the main stage. I remember mornings in Natham. They were quiet with roosters crowing, kolams being drawn, and the smell of wood smoke in the air. Everything was simple and close to the land.”
Chef Vijay Kumar’s journey is more than a culinary success story — it’s a reclamation of heritage, an elevation of regional cuisine, and a statement that authenticity, when done with heart, doesn’t need to be translated — only tasted.
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