Arjav Ezekiel was born in New Delhi, India, where he spent his childhood before his family moved to Portland, Oregon, when he was 12 years old. He\u2019s been surrounded by food and hospitality all his life. From an early age, Arjav developed a passion for good food and thoughtful and warm hospitality.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Kenyon College in Ohio, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he began his restaurant career in the dining room at The Source by Wolfgang Puck. He then spent several years at Komi, a Michelin-starred and James Beard Award-winning restaurant. In 2015, he moved to New York City to help open Danny Meyer\u2019s Untitled at The Whitney, where he met his wife and business partner, Tracy, before being promoted to the management team at the iconic Gramercy Tavern.<\/p>\n
In July 2021, following their move to Texas, Arjav and Tracy opened Birdie\u2019s, a small restaurant and wine bar in East Austin that serves a seasonally inspired fine-dining-caliber menu with a counter-service format. In 2022, Arjav was \u300a\u6642\u5c1a\u5148\u751f\u300b<\/em>\u2019s \u201cWine Guru of the Year\u201d and a \u8461\u8404\u9152\u611b\u597d\u8005<\/em> \u201cWine Star\u201d nominee thanks to his exceptionally thoughtful curation of the restaurant\u2019s wine program, which takes special care to mix classic and new producers with an emphasis on mindful farming and minimal intervention in the cellar. Birdie\u2019s represents Arjav and Tracy\u2019s shared vision for a reimagined restaurant model that places sustainability and equity at the heart of its business model. Birdie\u2019s has been named one of \u795d\u60a8\u597d\u80c3\u53e3<\/em>\u2019s and \u300a\u6642\u5c1a\u5148\u751f\u300b<\/em>\u2019s \u201cBest New Restaurants in America\u201d and was on \u300a\u7d10\u7d04\u6642\u5831\u300b<\/em>\u2019 2021 \u201cRestaurant List.\u201d In 2023, \u7f8e\u98df\u8207\u7f8e\u9152<\/em> named Birdie\u2019s Restaurant of the Year and in 2025, Arjav won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service. Outside the restaurant, Arjav is an avid basketball fan and loves to spend time with his two dogs and family.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":9044,"template":"","class_list":["post-9043","chef","type-chef","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chef\/9043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chef"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chef"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}