Mei Lin (born November 29, 1985) is a

Chinese-born American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...

chef and television personality, best known as the winner of the twelfth season of the

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television network's

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

series, ''

Top Chef ''Top Chef'' is an American reality competition television series which premiered on Bravo on March 8, 2006. The show features chefs competing against each other in culinary challenges. The contestants are judged by a panel of professional ch ...

.'' After winning ''Top Chef'' in 2014, Lin worked as a personal chef for Oprah Winfrey before going on to open her first restaurant, Nightshade in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 2019. She became engaged to her fiancé Andrew Skala on January 14, 2023. On April 9, 2023, Lin won the fourth season of

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

's '' Tournament of Champions''.

Early life and education

Lin was born in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, China before moving to Dearborn, Michigan at three months-old. She attended

Fordson High School Fordson High School is a secondary school located in Dearborn, Michigan, United States in Greater Detroit. It was completed in 1928 on a parcel of land which was then the village of Fordson, named for Henry Ford and his son Edsel Ford. It is a par ...

and attended

Schoolcraft College Schoolcraft College is a public community college in Livonia, Michigan. History Schoolcraft College was established in 1961. Originally named Northwest Wayne County Community College, the name of the college was changed because of the length. ...

Career

After receiving her certification from Schoolcraft College, Lin worked as a cook for the Detroit Lions. Following her time with the Lions, Lin was part of the opening team for chef

Michael Symon Michael D. Symon (born September 19, 1969) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is of Greek, Sicilian, and Eastern European descent. He is seen regularly on Food Network on shows such as ''Iron Chef America' ...

's Roast in Downtown Detroit, before working at

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur. Early life and career Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

location of

Spago Spago is chef Wolfgang Puck's flagship restaurant worldwide, known for serving California cuisine. Spago is Puck's first restaurant venture. Name and history The word "spago" is Italian for "string" or "twine". The plural would be "spaghi," whi ...

. Following her tenure at Spago, Lin joined the opening team for ''Top Chef''

Michael Voltaggio Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

's ink. in Los Angeles, where she worked as a sous chef until her appearance on ''Top Chef.'' After winning ''Top Chef'', Lin worked as a personal chef for Oprah Winfrey and contributed recipes to Winfrey's cookbook, ''Food, Health & Happiness''. In 2019, Lin opened her first restaurant, Nightshade, in Los Angeles. In 2020, Nightshade was named 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 ...

finalist for Best New Restaurant. In March of 2021, following delays caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Lin opened her second restaurant ''Daybird'' in Los Angeles. Lin describes it as the first fast-casual

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

hot chicken restaurant in the United States.

''Top Chef: Boston''

Lin competed in the twelfth season of Bravo's ''Top Chef'' in 2014. In the series finale, filmed on-location in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, Lin faced off against challenger Gregory Gourdet. Lin's fourth course, strawberry lime curd with toasted yogurt, milk crumble and yogurt-lime ice, was particularly noteworthy. During the Judges Table segment, judge

Tom Colicchio Thomas Patrick Colicchio (; born August 15, 1962) is an American celebrity chef. He co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, and formerly served as a co-owner and as the executive chef. He is also the founder of Crafted Hospitality, whic ...

hailed it as "the best dessert I have ever had on ''Top Chef'', period, and one of the best desserts I've had in my life." Colicchio's fellow ''Top Chef'' judge

Hugh Acheson Hugh Acheson (born November 5, 1971) is a Canadian-born chef and restaurateur. He owns four restaurants in Georgia, and serves as a judge on the reality cooking competition show ''Top Chef'', and as an Iron Chef on Iron Chef Canada. Early life ...

echoed his sentiments, calling the dish "blow-you-away amazing" and declaring Lin "a chef's chef."

''Tournament of Champions''

Lin competed in the fourth season of Food Network's Tournament of Champions in 2023. After an initial round where her dish scored 84, Lin went on to garner judge's scores of 90 points or more in the final four rounds of the contest. In the final round, she defeated Season 2 Champion

Maneet Chauhan Maneet Chauhan (born 27 October 1976 in Ludhiana, Punjab) is an Indian American chef and television personality. Previously the Executive Chef of several notable restaurants in Chicago, Nashville, and New York, she is featured as a judge on ' ...

by a score of 91-89. Lin's four dishes that garnered 90 points or greater from the judges represented four of the top six scores in the competition.

Awards

James Beard Foundation Awards

2020 James Beard Foundation Award Best New Restaurant Nomination for Nightshade

2020 James Beard Foundation Award Semifinalist, Best Chef: California
Additional Awards + Accolades * Winner, ''Top Chef: Boston'' * Winner, ''Tournament of Champions IV''
2020 Nightshade, 46 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles, Conde Nast Traveler

2019 Best Culinary Debut, Robb Report

2019 Nightshade, Best New Restaurants, Food & Wine

2019 Nightshade, Best New Restaurants in America, GQ

2019 Nightshade, Best New Restaurants in America, Eater

2019 Nightshade, Restaurant of the Year, Eater LA

2019 Nightshade, Prawn Toast, Food & Wine Dish of the Year

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lin, Mei 1985 births Living people American chefs American people of Chinese descent American women chefs Top Chef winners Chefs from Los Angeles