Alvin Cailan (born 1983) is an American chef, author, and television host. He is the host of

First We Feast First We Feast is an online food-culture magazine and YouTube channel. The site co-produces the YouTube series ''Hot Ones''. The company began as off-shoot of Complex Media, its parent company until 2024. In 2024, BuzzFeed sold Complex to NTWRK, ...

’s The Burger Show which airs on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

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. Cailan launched Eggslut, a food truck that specialized in egg sandwiches. The food truck quickly became popular and often had waits that stretched to two hours long. Eggslut has brick-and-mortar locations, including at Los Angeles'

Grand Central Market Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation) ...

and Venice, Glendale, and Las Vegas. Cailan was named the head chef of Umami Burger in 2021.

Early life and education

Alvin Cailan grew up in

Pico Rivera Pico Rivera is a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California. The city is situated approximately southeast of downtown Los Angeles, on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin, and on the southern edge of the area known as the ...

, California in a Filipino household. To keep him out of trouble, Cailan’s parents got him a job washing dishes at a retreat house, a kitchen that fed 150 people every day. By the time he was a senior in high school, Cailan was cooking and serving as kitchen manager. Cailan studied business at

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public research university in Fullerton, California, United States. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the California State ...

. He worked for a construction company. The company was corrupt and paid Cailan two years severance so he would not be a

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

regarding the company's business practices. He then moved to Oregon and attended the Oregon Culinary Institute.

Career

After culinary school Cailan worked at

Olympia Provisions Olympia Provisions (formerly Olympic Provisions) is an American meat and restaurant company that produces artisan charcuterie based out of Portland, Oregon. Background and history Founded in 2009 as Olympic Provisions, the company began as Oreg ...

in Portland, Oregon; followed by

Bouchon A bouchon () is a type of restaurant found in Lyon, France, that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, coq-au-vin, "salade lyonnaise" duck pâté or roast pork. Compared to other forms of French cooking such as '' nouvelle ...

, and

The French Laundry The French Laundry is a three-Michelin star French cuisine, French and California cuisine, Californian cuisine restaurant located in Yountville, California, Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in 1 ...

Yountville Yountville ( or ) is an incorporated town in Napa County, in the Wine Country of California, United States. Located in the North Bay region of the Bay Area, the population was 3,436 at the 2020 census. Almost a third of the town's population l ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. In 2011 Cailan founded Eggslut, an egg sandwich food truck in Los Angeles, with his cousin. In 2013, Eggslut opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Los Angeles's

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

declared Eggslut the most

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med restaurant in the world, and ''

Bon Appétit ''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center ...

'' named it one of the Top 50 best Restaurants in the United States. As of 2025, Eggslut has a number of stores around the world including in Tokyo, London, Kuwait, Korea and Singapore. Cailan's cookbook titled ''Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream'' was published by

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Financial District, Boston, Boston Financial District. It was fo ...

in August 2020. In 2021, Cailan was named the new head chef of Umami Burger.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cailan, Alvin 1983 births Living people American chefs American restaurateurs American television chefs American people of Filipino descent California State University, Fullerton alumni People from Pico Rivera, California 21st-century American businesspeople American cookbook writers Businesspeople from Los Angeles American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Chefs from Los Angeles YouTubers from California

Early life and education

Career

References

Further reading

External links