Angela Solita Dimayuga (born 1985) is an American

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

. She was an executive chef at Mission Chinese Food New York, and help build the restaurant in the early years. Dimayuga was included in the

Zagat's The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...

"30 Under 30" List in 2015 as an upcoming culinary star and was also part of 2015 class of

Eater Eater may refer to: * Eater (band), an English punk rock group * "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself'' * ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford * ''Eater'' (w ...

Young Guns. She was nominated for a

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

in 2016 and named a 2017 Rising Star Chef for her work at Mission Chinese Food New York. As of 2018, she worked with The Standard hotel, which opened in London in 2019.

Biography

Angela Dimayuga was born and raised in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

into a

Filipino-American Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New S ...

family, she is one of six siblings. Her father was born in

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( tl, Lalawigan ng Batangas ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region on Luzon. Its capital is the city of Batangas, and is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and La ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and her mother was born in

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga ( pam, Lalawigan ning Pampanga; tl, Lalawigan ng Pampanga ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac ...

, her parents met when her mother was touring with the Filipino national folk dance troupe. She studied hotel and restaurant management at

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

(Cal Poly), and humanities at

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

and

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

(SFSU). Dimayuga joined the NYC culinary scene in 2007, when she moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. At age 22, she started as a

line cook A chef de partie, station chef, or line cook is a chef in charge of a particular area of production in a restaurant. In large kitchens, each chef de partie might have several cooks or assistants. In most kitchens, however, the chef de partie is t ...

at "'Vinegar Hill House" in Brooklyn. She credit's Vinegar Hill House's Jean Adamson as a mentor, who helped launch her career. She is a multi-disciplinary food industry creative, who worked as Mission Chinese Food's executive chef in New York. She is also a contributor to ''Bon Appétit'' magazine, a food stylist, media personality, and interested in the intersection of politics in her work. In April 2018, Dimayuga was hired as creative director of food and culture for the

Standard International The ''Standard'' was an English-language weekly newspaper whose first issue was published in Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the ...

hotel group. Angela Dimayuga has been dating artist Ashley Lukashevsky since 2021. Together, the pair has one son, Potion Lukayuga.

Mission Chinese Food

In 2012 she was cold-called by

Danny Bowien James Daniel Bowien (born 1982) is a chef and restaurateur. He is the founder and owner of Mission Chinese Food in New York City and Brooklyn and co-founder of Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco, California. Bowien is a James Beard Award winne ...

to help open the first New York City iteration of his San Francisco restaurant, Mission Chinese Food. Dimayuga helped design the menu and interiors for Bowien's subsequent three

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

restaurants: Mission Chinese Food on Orchard St, Mission Cantina, and the new Mission Chinese Food (after the closure of the Orchard Street location) on East Broadway. Dipping into her Filipino roots, Dimayuga's menu at Mission Chinese Food was what she called "New American"; a cuisine not simply about Asian fusion or even Asian-American, but rather, reflective of the kind of hybrid dining, relevant to today's New Yorkers. At MCF, Dimayuga was not only the executive chef, but helped to contextualize the restaurant within the culture of the surrounding Lower East Side and Chinatown neighborhoods, through various artist collaborations. Dimayuga commissioned a network of creatives to design work for the restaurant and its external pop-ups and collaborations. In addition, she selected musicians to play in the restaurant, as well as worked with friends and fellow artists to design a signature streetwear line for the restaurant. In late October 2017, she resigned from Mission Chinese Food claiming " ersphere of ambition is just different and bigger."

IvankaTrump.com

In 2017, she was contacted by the website IvankaTrump.com asking if she would be willing to do an interview, this interaction had "a viral response" after it was posted on Instagram. Dimayuga wrote with help from activist Shakirah Simley, a thoughtful response turning down the offer and her reasons why. She was quoted as saying:

Notable collaborations and events

Dimayuga has worked with and created collaborations and pop-ups for La Buvette, restaurant Noma, Le Chateaubriand, Frankie's Prime Meats, Dimes, Lyle's,

Pok Pok Pok Pok was a group of Thai restaurants based in Portland, Oregon, founded and led by chef Andy Ricker. Pok Pok won both local recognition and major industry awards, with ''The Oregonian'' describing the restaurant as "one of those quintessentiall ...

, Sqirl, Night + Market,

Saison Saison ( French, "season," ) is a pale ale that is highly carbonated, fruity, spicy, and often bottle conditioned. It was historically brewed with low alcohol levels, but modern productions of the style have moderate to high levels of alcohol. ...

, Lil' Deb's Oasis, Attica, Husk, among others. * In 2016, Dimayuga appeared on the television show ''Eat the World with

Emeril Lagasse Emeril John Lagassé III ( ; born October 15, 1959) is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author, and National Best Recipe award winner for his "Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili" recipe in 2003. He is a regio ...

'', as herself. * Working with MCF's beverage director, Sam Anderson, she designed the sets for the beverage experience for Red Bull Music Academy New York's 2017 festival. Events included Fluxo: Funk Proibidão, Trade Show USA, and Sacred Bones 10 Year Anniversary. * Working with Opening Ceremony over a number of collaborations over the years, designing "The Dip Jean," with Alex Aiku, and a dinner for Creative Time's annual benefit dinner in 2017. * Collaborating on an insect and food-related editorial shoot with artist Anicka Yi (2016 Hugo Boss Prize Winner) for the September issue "A Magazine Curated By" Eckhaus Latta * Working with Felix Burrichter and Michael Bullock (Editors of PIN-UP magazine), for a Design Week 2017 pop-up called "Rear View". * In 2017, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab and Dimayuga are working together on a creating

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

boxes and related health protocols for restaurants. * Dimayuga paired up in cooking with

Dominique Crenn Dominique Crenn (born 1965) is a French chef. she is the only woman chef in the United States to attain three Michelin stars, for her restaurant Atelier Crenn, in San Francisco, California. Biography Crenn, originally from Locronan, was adopte ...

at the 2017 Harlem EatUp!, an annual food festival in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

, New York. * She has done event work for City Harvest, Tasting Table, Food Book Fair and many more. * She has appeared the

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

on the

Heritage Radio Network Heritage Radio Network is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit covering the world of food, drink and agriculture. The member-supported radio station has more than one million monthly listeners in over 200 countries. History In 2009, largely insp ...

, Radio Cherry Bombe: Episode 87: New York's Next Wave.

Awards

Under her watch, MCF was awarded 2 stars and "Restaurant of the Year" in 2012 by ''The New York Times''. In 2015, she was named "Best Chef" by ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

''. The

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based national non-profit culinary arts organization named in honor of James Beard, a prolific food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, who was also known as the "Dean of American Cookery." The prog ...

named her a "rising star chef" in 2016. In 2017, StarChefs publication named her one of their rising stars. In 2016, she was the keynote speaker at Restaurant noma's global, "MAD Food Symposium". Her speech, "Burning the Candle at Both Ends," focused on the maintenance of work and life balance as a chef.

References

External links

"Mission Chinese Food Chef Angela Dimayuga’s Pantry Is All About the Fancy Snacks"
from

GQ magazine ''GQ'' (formerly ''Gentlemen's Quarterly'' and ''Apparel Arts'') is an American international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though articles on ...

, April 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dimayuga, Angela Living people American chefs American women chefs 1985 births People from San Jose, California Bon Appétit people LGBT people from California American people of Filipino descent California Polytechnic State University alumni Alumni of the University of Strathclyde San Francisco State University alumni American LGBT people of Asian descent 21st-century American LGBT people 21st-century American women LGBT chefs