Christina Nguyen | |
|---|---|
| Education | Self-taught |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Spouse | Birk Grudem |
| Culinary career | |
| Cooking style | Venezuelan street food, Southeast Asian street food |
Current restaurant(s)
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Award(s) won
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Christina Nguyen is an American chef and restaurateur. In 2024, she won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Midwest.
Nguyen's parents, who both grew up in Saigon, Vietnam, immigrated separately in 1975 to the United States as refugees. [1] [2] [3] They met as students at the University of Minnesota. [3] Nguyen has a brother. [3]
Nguyen opened a food truck, Hola Arepa, in 2014. [2] She opened a bricks-and-mortar restaurant also called Hola Arepa, which serves Venezuelan street food, in Minneapolis. [1] [4]
Nguyen opened Hai Hai in Minneapolis, which serves Southeast Asian street foods, in the late 2010s. [1] [5] The restaurant had previously been a night club. [6] [3] National Geographic said it had 'rocketed to prominence as a "new-school” Asian-inspired restaurant. Its menu is almost entirely unlike any of its peers—it’s filled with under-the-radar dishes you can’t order anywhere else, and evolves constantly'. [7]
Nguyen won the James Beard James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Midwest in 2024. [1] She had been nominated for the award several times and had been a finalist for the award previously. [1] [2]
Nguyen is married to Birk Grudem. [6]