Christina NguyenChristina Nguyen is an American chef and restaurateur. In 2024, she won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Midwest. Early lifeNguyen'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] CareerNguyen 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] RecognitionNguyen 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] Personal lifeNguyen is married to Birk Grudem.[6] References
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