Top Chef Star Nyesha Arrington Shares Her Favorite Home-Cooked Meal: "It Hugs the Soul"

Although she takes inspiration from her own family's flavor profiles, hailing from both Mississippi and Korea, the chef truly draws upon the techniques of countries around the world. "I love to tell stories of not just my ancestors and my background, but really of a multicultural lens — that's really what excites me," she said. So what specifically does the chef love to incorporate? "Maybe the respect of ingredients from Japan, or a spice from India, or a braising technique from French cuisine." In fact, Arrington has made it her "aspiration in life to build that repertoire, which makes [her] style of cooking so unique."

Arrington's family is full of artists, including her father and sister, who are both musicians, and her mother, who channels her creativity as a seamstress. When it comes to the chef, she explained that she's "a big proponent for understanding processes and building the borders" but has a brain that "loves to color outside the lines," just like her artistic family members. That being said, Arrington is all about traditions, too: "People in this new digital age always talk about the disruption of spaces, but I think it's good to understand the classic way to do something and ask, 'How am I going to put my spin on it?'" And her 15 years of experience have only taught her more about learning and rule breaking. In fact, Arrington explained how she's spent the past decade and a half honing her craft and "learning how to be a good leader and then adapting [her] style" to tell stories through food.

We really relate to Arrington's idea of a perfect home-cooked meal. "My favorite things to cook at home are stews," she said. "I love making stocks, sauces, and stew-y things. I just love how those types of dishes hug your soul. Personally as a single woman, I like to cook food that lasts me a while. I'm way less likely to cook one protein, one side of vegetable, one little starch — for me, if I'm going to cook, I'm cooking cooking. I'm going to make food for the week." And the dish is all about creativity, too, as there is "an amazing artfulness when designing a pot of stew." Arrington describes making a big pot of stew or braise, putting "a pot on and [layering] the flavors," while "roasting the vegetables or braising some sort of meat." Whatever she chooses to put in, it's all about "things that take hours to cook on the stove." Truly the perfect cozy meal!

"I think for me, coming up, it was really difficult a lot of times being the only Black female in these very Eurocentric kitchens," she told POPSUGAR. "It was a very difficult space for someone like me who has the chops, has the mental capacity, has the grit, perseverance to want to be the best, but damn well knowing there's a glass ceiling over my head. It became very frustrating." Fast forward to the current moment, and the chef didn't just want to pay "lip service" to the social unrest, instead asking herself, "How do I do better?"

It's no secret that Arrington has had a major career evolution, going from Michelin-trained cooking-show contender to opening two fine-dining restaurants, that's setting herself up for a different kind of success in the cooking world. "I'm a chef, but in my core, I'm a businesswoman," she said. "I think it really comes from my dad also; he said something to me at a very young age, which was, 'Aim for the moon and hit the fence post, but never aim for the fence post and hit the dirt.' So I took that as, I can never dream big enough. Learning to be vulnerable, learning to be open, not being afraid . . . my ultimate goal really is to break that systemic idea that people like me can't win."

While describing her "huge evolution of self," the chef recalled her time spent in some of the most arduous kitchens in the world, where "just to be showing up and having representation was important" to her. Now a true mentor to a young woman named Peyton Johnson who worked at her restaurant Native, the chef continues to branch out in unexpected ways. With appearances on MasterChef, Tournament of Champions, Guy's Grocery Games, Eater's Plateworthy, and Selena + Chef with Selena Gomez, plus her addictive restaurant-news podcast, Happy Mouth, and her recent collaboration with Shake Shack on her limited-edition Aisoon burger, there doesn't seem to be anything Arrington can't do.