NITE YUN
2019 F&W Best New Chef
Restaurant at the Time of Award
Nyum Bai, Oakland, California
Legacy
From award-winning restaurants to an upcoming cookbook, Nite Yun is a modern champion of the bold, comforting flavors of Khmer cuisine.
IT’S BEEN SIX YEARS since Nite Yun became a 2019 F&W Best New Chef, and she’s still stunned. At the time of the award, Yun was running Nyum Bai, her Cambodian (also known as Khmer) restaurant in Oakland, California. “I was completely shocked because I was just hustling, trying to maintain a business, learning, and making mistakes in the kitchen,” she says. “To be named a Best New Chef was just so wild.”
Yun’s cooking pays homage to her heritage and her mother, who fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia…