Food & Wine cites Nikki Cabrera Mills’ work as a ‘high-wire act of crowd pleasers and eclectic, pan-Asian influences in one of the pickiest food cities on the planet’
CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – A Kagay-anon chef based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, has been named 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 in Food & Wine’s “Meet The 2024 Class of F&W Best New Chefs” in its special October 2024 digital issue.
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“A high-wire act of crowd pleasers and eclectic, pan-Asian influences in one of the pickiest food cities on the planet,” reads the Food & Wine citation on her portrait.
Heading the scouting committee for the 2024 class of Food & Wine Best New Chefs (BNC) is new Food & Wine restaurant editor Raphael Brion, along with editor-in-chief Hunter Lewis and BNC alumni, including 2021 Food & Wine BNC Paola Velez.
Brion describes Mills’ oeuvre in his article Gulf Seafood Gets a Filipino Glow-Up at This Must-Visit New Orleans Restaurant, published in 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, the Kagay-anon drew a connection between Filipino and Cajun cuisines, inspired by the long history of Filipinos in Louisiana, which dates back to the 1700s. Today, she continues to gravitate toward the familiar flavors of her Filipino heritage.
“Whenever I make a dish at Pêche, I pull flavors from my past,” Mills said.
Selection process
Chefs who have been in charge of a kitchen or pastry program for five years or less are eligible for the Food & Wine Best New Chef accolade. The process begins with Food & Wine soliciting and vetting nominations from Best New Chef alumni, 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. Food & Wine conducts background checks and requires each chef to share an anonymous multilingual survey with their staff 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
Born and raised in the Philippines, Mills grew up in the fast-growing city of Cagayan de Oro, where she completed her elementary and high school education at 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.
Her 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 mother, 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, Mills moved to New York in 2001 to attend the French Culinary Institute in Soho at 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, Mills moved to Los Angeles to work at the Thompson Beverly Hills with Chef Brian Redzikowski.
She then returned to Cagayan de Oro to open Bourbon Street, a Creole concept bistro that 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 as part of the opening team at Pêche Seafood Grill in 2013 and became its Chef de Cuisine in 2019.
In October 2023, she discussed the theme “Where Is The South?” at the Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi.
Mills was previously featured in the August/September 2023 issue of Garden and Gun magazine’s “The Entertainment Special,” 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 April 19, 2023 issue of The New York Times magazine, Eric Kim raved about how her Citrus-Glazed Turnips elevated the humble singkamas (turnip) to a sleeper hit in a city renowned worldwide for its Creole cuisine.
Mills will host a food and beverage station at The James Beard Foundation’s Taste America at The Sazerac House and presented by Capital One. The nationwide initiative, taking place on October 10, will bring together chefs, special guests, and diners from across the US to celebrate local independent restaurants at the heart of their communities. – Rappler.com
