Hello and welcome to Famous Friday! This week we will acknowledging Nyesha Arrington who is a multiracial chef. She was born October 18th, 1981 in Los Angeles, California to her mother Sophie, who is of Korean decent and her father John who is for African American decent. She began cooking from a very young age as she was exposed a large variation of foods growing up in such a diverse household. As a child she was very active and involved in sports such as soccer, softball, and martial arts. From her martial arts trading specify she learned detectaron and disciple which are still skills that she uses today in the kitchen. She went to Lancaster High School from the years 1996-2000. Preceding this she went to The Art Institute of California in Los Angles. Here she graduated with an Associates degree of Science and Culinary Arts in 2003. Previous to this in 2002 she began working as a cook. Arrington got a mentorship from Chef Josiah Citrin where she worked as a saucier at the restaurant Melisse. From this she learned many valuable skills that she would later on carry with her throughout her career. She became a Sous Chef in 2004 at Melisse and before 2011 she worked for a variety of restaurant one of which is the Leona. In 2011 she worked for the Wilshire restaurant and received the title of Rising Star by Chef Brad Johnson. That year she also was showcased on 2 reality TV shows one of which was Top Chef, and the other was a food network run series called Chef Hunter. She won the Chef hunter competition that season. In 2013 she won the competition Knife Fight and the following year in 2014 came back as a guest judge. In 2017 she started a restaurant partner with a Santa Monica native and in 2018 she started her second restaurant called Arrington LLC in the greater LA area. Currently she is a judge on the Next Level Chef reality TV show and is a large supporter of the Santa Monica farmers Market.
Anna Garrison
Project RACE Teens Co-Vice President