By Tito Mike
A Kagay-anon Chef based in New Orleans, Louisiana has been named as one of the Best New Chefs for 2024 by one of America’s leading culinary magazines.
Nicole “Nikki” Cabrera Mills is listed among 13 peers from seven restaurants cited in the Food and Wine’s Meet The 2024 Class of F&W Best New Chefs in its special October 2024 digital issue.
“A high-wire act of crowd pleasers and eclectic, pan-Asian influences in one of the pickiest food cities on the planet,” reads the F&W citation on her portrait.
Heading the scouting committee for the 2024 class of Food & Wine Best New Chefs is new F&W restaurant editor Raphael Brionwith editorial staffers (like Editor in Chief Hunter Lewis) and BNC alumni (among them 2021 F&W Best New Chef Paola Velez).
Brion describes Nikki’s oeuvre in his article Gulf Seafood Gets a Filipino Glow-Up at This Must-Visit New Orleans Restaurant published on the same issue.
“Originally a line cook on the opening team at Pêche, Nicole Cabrera Mills was promoted to chef de cuisine in 2019 and gradually made the food her own. She took this modern New Orleans restaurant and, in a transformative high-wire balancing act, shrewdly introduced bright, pan-Asian flavors, resulting in a hypnotic firecracker of a menu that appeals to locals and tourists alike.”
“At Pêche, she made the connection between Filipino and Cajun food, citing a long history of Filipinos in Louisiana that dates back to the 1700s, and today, she gravitates toward familiar flavors from the Philippines. “Whenever I make a dish at Pêche, I pull flavors from my past,” Nikki said.”
“We are beyond excited to announce that our very own Nicole Cabrera Mills has been named one of FOOD & WINE’s Best New Chefs of 2024! This honor recognizes Chef Mills as one of the most talented up-and-coming chefs in the country,” raved Pêche Seafood Grill on its social media page.
“Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs class has shaped the future of American cuisine for 36 years, and we couldn’t be more proud to see Chef Mills join this incredible legacy.”
“This accolade means a great deal to me and my team at Pêche. This wouldn’t be possible without our talented and hard-working staff,” Nikki wrote to me in an email from New Orleans. “I feel very blessed to get recognized in an industry full of so many talented people. I also feel very fortunate to get to represent both New Orleans and the Philippines,”
Selection Process
“Collectively, we traveled to dozens of cities, logged tens of thousands of miles, and dined at hundreds of restaurants, searching for the most promising and dynamic chefs cooking today. What we found was 13 remarkable humans who represent the future of cooking in America,” Brion writes in the issue’s Letter to the Editor.
“And that future shines bright. This year’s Best New Chefs are all coming into their own with unique culinary voices that speak loud and clear. That trait has defined every Best New Chef since the first class in 1988 — one that included chefs who went on to shape the direction of cooking in America, like Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud.”
Chefs who have been in charge of a kitchen or pastry program for five years or less are eligible for the F&W Best New Chef accolade. The process begins with Food & Wine soliciting and vetting nominations from Best New Chef alums, food writers, cookbook authors, and other trusted experts around the country.
Next, Food & Wine scouts travel the country, each dining out in dozens of restaurants in search of the most promising and dynamic chefs right now. Food & Wine conducts background checks and requires each chef to share an anonymous multilingual survey with their staff that aims to gauge the workplace culture at each chef’s establishment.
Chefs also participate in Food & Wine’s Best New Chef Mentorship Program to empower themselves with the skills and tools they need to grow personally and professionally as leaders and to successfully navigate challenges and opportunities in their careers.
Long Road to The Big Easy
Born and raised in the Philippines, Nikki grew up in the fast growing city of Cagayan de Oro, where she finished her elementary and high school education with Corpus Christi School.
Her grandparents owned the Little Town Bakery in Malaybalay, Bukidnon where she grew up watching the production of fresh baked bread in an old fashioned wood burning stone oven.
Nicole’s family was known for growing and producing some of the sweetest corn in the area along with farm raised sheep, cattle, chickens and horses. Her mom Ella specialized in making and selling siomai and siopao at the family’s Shao Mai Dimsum stalls in Cagayan de Oro and Cebu.
After graduating from Ateneo de Manila University, Nikki moved to New York in 2001 to attend the French Culinary Institute in Soho upon the suggestion of her father Bobby.
Her culinary career began with Danny Meyer and Union Square Hospitality Group cooking at both Eleven Madison Park and Gabriele Kreuther’s the Modern at MOMA. She worked as a tournant for Chef Alain Allegretti at Atelier in the Ritz Carlton Central Park and later with Chef Dan Kluger at The Core Club.
After New York, Nikki moved to Los Angeles to work at the Thompson Beverly Hills with Chef Brian Redzikowski.
She moved back to Cagayan de Oro after L.A. to open Bourbon Street, a Creole concept bistro which was the first of its kind at the Rosario Arcade of Limketkai Center. After a few years, she and her husband Drew relocated to New Orleans for Drew’s new assignment in a chain of hotels. She later joined the Link Restaurant Group to be part of the opening team at Pêche Seafood Grill in 2013, and became its Chef de Cuisine in 2019.
In October 20-21, 2023 she discussed the theme “Where Is The South?” for Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi.
Nikki was previously featured on on The Entertainment Special August/September 2023 issue of Garden and Gun magazine, in John T. Edge’s Sublime Seafood where he described how she wonderfully brought together subtle updates that reflect her homeland, and how her cooking evolved to reflect the multiethnic makeup of her adopted city. In another article published in the 19 April 2023 issue of The New York Times Magazine, Eric Kim raved how her Citrus-Glazed Turnips elevates the humble turnip (singkamas) to a sleeper hit in a city renowned worldwide for its Creole cuisine.
On October 10, 2024, Nikki will host one of food and beverage stations in The James Beard Foundation’s Taste America at The Sazerac House presented by Capitol One, a nation wide initiative to bring together chefs, special guests, and diners from across the USA to celebrate the local independent restaurants in the heart of their communities.
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