Christina Nguyen

Christina Nguyen is Executive Chef and co-owner of Hola Arepa and Hai Hai restaurants in Minneapolis, MN. She and her husband Birk Grudem started Hola Arepa as a food truck in 2011 and established a permanent home for it a couple years later. In 2015, Hola Arepa was named one of Bon Appetit’s 50 Best Restaurants, and brunch dish Tostada Chilaquiles was featured on the cover of Food & Wine Magazine. They opened Hai Hai, their second restaurant, a few years later. Hai Hai has been featured in the Best New Restaurants in America lists of Eater, Thrillist and Esquire Magazine in 2018. Christina was also named Esquire’s Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2018. A finalist for a James Beard Award in 2019 and 2020 and a semifinalist in 2018 and 2023, Christina won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest for Hai Hai in 2024.