Mei Lin (born November 29, 1985) is a Chinese-born American chef and television personality, best known as the winner of the twelfth season of the

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels * Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 * Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compa ...

television network's

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

series, ''

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

.'' After winning ''Top Chef'' in 2014, Lin worked as a personal chef for

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...

before going on to open her first restaurant, Nightshade in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

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 unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

's ''

Tournament of Champions A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

''.

Early life and education

Lin was born in

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

before moving to

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...

at three months old. She attended

Fordson High School Fordson High School is a secondary school located in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, in Metro 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 pa ...

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 The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

. 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 seen regularly on Food Network on shows such as ''Iron Chef America'', ''Burgers, Brew and 'Que, Food Feuds'', and ''The Bes ...

's Roast in

Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a Neighborhoods in Detroit, residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, "downtown" tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Michigan high ...

, before working at

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian chef and restaurateur. Early life 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 of his stepfather, Jos ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

location of

Spago Spago is 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," which i ...

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

Michael Voltaggio Michael Voltaggio (born September 29, 1978) is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. He is a Top Chef television series alum and the winner of season 6. His brother Bryan Voltaggio is also a celebrity chef. He resides in Los Angeles, Califo ...

'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 Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many me ...

, in the Los Angeles Arts District on January 2, 2019. 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 awar ...

finalist for Best New Restaurant. Nightshade officially closed in 2020 due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. In March of 2021, following delays caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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

fast-casual A fast casual restaurant, found primarily in the United States and Canada, is a restaurant that does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is a ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

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 has owned 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 ...

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 judges' 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 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 Semifinalist, Best Chef: California

Reality show cooking competition wins

* Winner, ''Top Chef: Boston'' * Winner, ''Tournament of Champions IV''

Other awards and honors

2019 Nightshade, Restaurant of the Year, Eater LA

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, Prawn Toast, Food & Wine Dish of the Year

References

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