Executive Chef
Rishi Kumar
Culinary Director & Co-Founder, MIRRA
- Discipline
- Executive Chef
- Venue
- MIRRA · Restaurant
Made By record
Awards & recognition
2 total
1 winner
Portrait of Rishi Kumar
i. Biography
Rishi Kumar is a Singapore-born, globally trained chef and co-founder/culinary director associated with MIRRA in Chicago, where the restaurant has earned a Bib Gourmand and was named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America (2025). He and partner Zubair Mohajir later opened Mariela in Chicago’s Loop on May 6, 2026, expanding their restaurant group’s footprint with a coastal dining concept. In 2026, he was also identified as a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes.
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The Sunday email
Read about chefs like Rishi Kumar in the Sunday email.
Every Sunday we send a lead story and up to four more about the chefs, winemakers, sommeliers and hoteliers behind the restaurants, bars, wineries and hotels we cover.
Recent stories
Free. One email a week, and you can unsubscribe from any issue.