A Place at the Table September 2019

This book features 40 top foreign-born chefs, including three Vilcek Foundation chef prizewinners: Marcus Samuelsson(born in Ethiopia), Fabián von Hauske Valtierra (Mexico), and Nite Yun (born in Thailand to Cambodian parents). Other luminaries in the book include winners of James Beard Awards and Michelin stars, such as chefs Dominique Crenn (born in France), Michael Solomonov (Israel), Corey Lee (Korea), and Emma Bengtsson (Sweden), as well as the next generation of game-changing foreign-born chefs from across the country, such as Daniela Soto-Innes (Mexico), Daniela Moreira (Argentina) and Tunde Wey (Nigeria).

A Place at the Table also includes a powerful foreword and introduction by two other famous immigrant superstars in the food world: Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi, and chef José Andrés. Brimming with gorgeous original photography and moving personal stories, the book also features nearly 80 recipes for making these chefs’ signature dishes at home. Many of these foreign-born chefs helm the country’s most exciting restaurants; all are helping redefine the future of American cuisine. Gathered into one volume, their stories make plain a simple fact: that immigrants are good for our kitchens—and our country.

The Vilcek Foundation honors immigrants’ extraordinary contributions to America. We, the Foundation’s President and Culinary Projects Director, spent the past two years getting to know the country’s leading foreign-born chefs and in early 2018 put out a national call for applications for our second cycle of culinary prizes. To help choose the winners, we met with some of the country’s leading restaurant critics, food writers, and top chefs to identify the enormously talented immigrants who are transforming American culinary culture from coast to coast.

In 2019, we presented $250,000 in prizes to four immigrants in the culinary arts, but we decided to honor many more. What you hold in your hands is the result: a celebration of forty of the leading foreign-born chefs in the United States, including three of our winners, many other lauded leaders, and dozens of rising stars who are changing American food—for the better.