Semma

Spice as a family tool

Spices go to the grinder because Vijay Kumar, chef at Semma in Greenwich Village, New York City, still trusts the method he watched at home. His mother and grandmother were the first teachers he names, and he has said the menu comes from childhood, from helping them in the kitchen and seeing how they built flavor before it reached the pan. At Semma, that memory does not sit apart from the work. Kumar turns it into a professional language: heat kept clear, coconut used with purpose, curry leaves and chiles allowed to carry their own force.

His technical base came through the State Institute of Hotel Management in Tiruchirappalli, then through kitchens in California before New York. He was chef at Rasa in Burlingame until 2021, and became opening chef and chef-partner of Semma in 2021. The line from Tiruchirappalli to Burlingame to Greenwich Village matters because the cooking has not softened on the way. Kumar works as executive chef and co-owner, inside both the kitchen and the responsibility of the house, with Tamil Nadu as material rather than theme.

Ferment, leaf, ghee, heat

The program at Semma is built for regional South Indian cooking, with an à la carte rhythm of small plates, medium plates, larger dishes, rice and breads. The bench work shows in the details: rice and lentil batter for Gunpowder Dosa, banana leaf around Meen Pollichathu, ghee roast on lamb chops, tiger prawn drawn through green chili, fenugreek and curry leaves. Mulaikattiya Thaniyam, a sprouted mung bean dish with coconut and smoked chili, points directly back to Kumar’s childhood table.

Heat is not a garnish here. It arrives in layers, sometimes sharp with gunpowder spice, sometimes rounded by coconut milk, mustard, turmeric or salna. The lobster masala, Attu Kari Sukka and dosa sit alongside dishes such as Kozhi Allepey, Goanese Oxtail and Dindigul Goat Biryani, each one carrying a different register of spice, fat, sourness and grain. Semma holds 1 Michelin star, has appeared on the World’s 50 Best list at 41, and is tied to Kumar’s 2025 James Beard win for Best Chef: New York State. Those numbers belong to this room, but the kitchen’s argument remains older than the awards.

The room around the pass

The dining room keeps the work close. Dim light, patterned tile and warm wood make a narrow, busy frame for food with a longer memory than the address. Plates move through an energetic room where the counter, the pass and the tables stay in constant conversation.

Semma replaced Rahi, but its discipline is more specific: Tamil Nadu cooking brought forward without apology or translation into familiar American cues. The restaurant can feel intimate and loud at once, with dosa on many tables and the smell of curry leaves arriving before a plate lands. If the room has a signature texture, it is that nearness, the sense that spice, batter, leaf and hand are all still active when the Gunpowder Dosa reaches the table.