Nicole PonsecaNicole Ponseca

Restaurateur and James Beard Award Finalist, Nicole Ponseca, is best known for bringing Filipino food to the American mainstream. First with Maharlika, and then with Jeepney. Ponseca is a pioneer in exposing discerning New York diners to Filipino flavors. The popularity of her two restaurants translated into a best-selling debut cookbook called "I Am A Filipino" and received a James Beard Award nomination for Best International Cookbook in 2019. It's also on the best cookbook lists of 2019 by The New Yorker, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times Book Review, Houston Chronicle, Food52, PopSugar, and more.

Born in Philly and raised in San Diego, she spent 20+ years in New York City. She is a graduate of the University of San Francisco. In her past life, she was an advertising executive working with Fortune 500 clients by day. At night, she was hustling as a restaurant hostess-server-bartender, determined to learn as much as she could about the restaurant business. Her first solo foray into the restaurant scene began with a wildly successful series of pop-up engagements when the concept of a pop-up was still brand-new to most people. Fast forward a few years later and Ponseca was one of the 1.3% of female-owned businesses that exceeded the multi-million mark in revenue (as estimated by the NY Times). Rarer still is her position and success as a woman and person of color in a male-dominated industry.