How a Tamil Nadu-born chef armed with sambhar and rice conquered New York’s fine-dining world

South Indian chef Vijay Kumar didn’t need truffle oil or caviar to win one of America’s top culinary honours. All he needed was sambhar, rice, and the conviction that the food he grew up eating in his Tamil Nadu village deserved a global spotlight.

At the 2025 James Beard Awards, the chef behind New York City’s Michelin-starred restaurant Semma won the title of Best Chef: New York State — a landmark moment not just for him, but for regional Indian cuisine as a whole.

Raised in Arasampatti, a farming village in Madurai, Kumar’s earliest food memories involved open-fire cooking, foraged snails from nearby paddy fields, and pepper-laced rasam bubbling on the stove. That same rustic, soulful food is now being served — proudly and without apology — to packed dining rooms in Manhattan’s West Village.

There’s no butter chicken on the menu at Semma, no naan, no compromises. Instead, guests are introduced to unapologetically bold Tamil dishes like nathai pirattal (snail curry), vazhakkai varuval (crispy raw banana), and milagu mutton — all served with the kind of pride that makes you sit up and pay attention.

When Kumar took to the stage in a traditional white veshti, he made it clear this was more than just a personal win. “The food I grew up on — made with care, with fire, with soul — is now taking the main stage,” he said. It was a powerful moment. This was Tamil cuisine — earthy, intense, and emotionally rich — being honoured not for its exoticism, but for its authenticity.

His restaurant Semma (which means “fantastic” in Tamil slang) has been shaking things up since it opened in 2021. Co-founded with restaurateurs Roni Mazumdar and Chintan Pandya, the idea was simple: serve real Tamil food the way it’s cooked back home — seasonal, slow, and from scratch. No frills, no fuss, just flavour. Even the drinks carry a cultural punch — with curry leaf–infused gin cocktails named after Tamil movie catchphrases.

Kumar’s win isn’t just about food — it’s about visibility, about rewriting who gets to succeed in the fine-dining world. As Padma Lakshmi put it, his story is one of grit, resourcefulness, and self-belief. She called him a beacon of hope — for chefs, for creatives, for anyone whose roots are deep and whose dreams are bigger.

By choosing to wear his culture on his sleeve — and his veshti — Kumar has done more than win an award. He’s started a quiet revolution, one sambhar-scented plate at a time.