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Claudette Zepeda is an award-winning, San Diego-based celebrity chef and culinary entrepreneur known for her fearless style and bold approach to regional Mexican cuisine. A celebrated culinary anthropologist, Zepeda draws upon 20+ years of experience working in restaurant kitchens, as well as her extensive travels around the world and throughout Mexico that inform her vast knowledge of indigenous ingredients and cross-cultural expressions of cuisine. Zepeda's multi-faceted expertise is showcased in her role overseeing the creative vision as Founder of Chispa Hospitality, including food concepts in San Diego, Nashville, Australia, Mexico. Her latest restaurant, Leu Leu in North County San Diego, where she is the Executive Chef and Partner authors a love letter to San Diego and the Beach Bungalow culture of the space. In 2022-2023, she won the prize to be the first American chef to compete in London & Paris for the Taittinger Champagne Prix Culinaire, the first time ever the US participated in the 55 year competition history. Zepeda has also garnered national acclaim for her food, including received a glowing review from the New York Times, inclusion on Esquire’s 2018 & 2021 Best New Restaurants, Michelin Bib Gourmand list. Zepeda was also named both Eater San Diego and San Diego Union Tribune’s Chef of the Year in 2018, and was a James Beard Best Chef West semifinalist in 2019.
In 2019 Zepeda Founded Viva La Vida, LLC., establishing micro businesses with single mothers throughout Mexico’s seven regions to import their heirloom ingredients previously unavailable in the U.S. Through Viva La Vida, Zepeda helps Mexican women support their families without sacrificing their safety. Expanding into establishing a fund dedicated to helping Hispanic women break from generational poverty in the United States.
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