There is a meal Aisha Ibrahim ate in San Francisco in 2011 that changed the direction of her ambition. She was a young cook already several years into the gruelling apprenticeship that fine dining demands when she sat down at Korean-American Corey Lee’s Benu, then newly minted with three Michelin stars, and saw kimchi on the menu. “It really just made me understand that there was space for my story in this profession,” she says. “It took me a long time to feel comfortable even trying to cook fine dining Filipino cuisine, and once I had the courage to start, it just kept going and going.” (Article continues after the video.) Video: That courage has taken her far. Born in Iligan City, Aisha emigrated to the United States at age 6, eventually landing in West Virginia—about as far from the world of Michelin stars as geography can arrange. Her earliest..
