Dianna Daoheung

The Path

Dianna Daoheung trained at University of Central Florida and French Culinary Institute, a foundation that set her on a path that would move from classroom rigor to the urgency of real kitchens. Her early professional life did not begin in the dining room at all, but in advertising in New York, before she made the decisive turn into food. Once in the kitchen, she built her experience in places where discipline, speed, and precision mattered deeply. She worked as a Line Cook at Mile End, then as a Pastry Cook at Boulevard in San Francisco, before returning to New York City to serve as a Bread Program Assistant at Mile End. She later became a Sous Chef at Isa, continuing to refine the practical, hands-on fluency that would become central to her work. Today, Dianna is co-founder, Executive Chef and Head Baker of Black Seed Bagels (since 2014). The title captures the breadth of her role, but the spirit of it is even more tactile: she is at once an architect of flavor, a steward of process, and a maker whose attention begins with flour and ends with the final, crackling bake.

The Work Today

At Black Seed Bagels, Daoheung’s work remains rooted in the elemental pleasures of dough and fire. The bagels are boiled with honey, a detail that lends both character and identity, then baked with wood, giving them the signature texture and depth that have become the brand. From there, the menu expands into pastries and sandwiches, each made with proprietary dough and shaped by the same disciplined approach. It is a kitchen language that favors restraint over flourish, and precision over ornament—yet the results feel generous, warm, and unmistakably lived-in.

In Their Words “Having a baby makes me want to cook more dishes that are from Thailand. This kid is naturally going to be American, naturally going to be a New Yorker, but I think the one way I can pass my culture on is through food.” “I can’t speak Thai, but cooking Thai food, that’s my connection.”