Paul Qui Biography
Paul Qui is a Top Chef winner and James Beard Award winner from Texas. He won the ninth season of the reality television cooking competition Top Chef in 2011. Qui has also received the James Beard Award.
How old is Paul Qui? – Age
He is 41 years old as of 14 August 2021. He was born in 1980 in Manila, Philippines.
Paul Qui Family
He was born in Manila, Philippines, and grew up in the United States. He went to high school in Springfield, Virginia, and then went on to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, Texas.
Paul Qui Wife
Qui was charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend while intoxicated in 2016, but the charges were dropped in 2018.
What happened to Paul on Top Chef?
Later, he attempted to redeem himself by renaming his namesake Qui restaurant Kuneho, which he opened in 2012 with the cash prize he won on “Top Chef,” according to Eater Austin. Unfortunately, the company was unable to withstand the mounting pressure and backlash from critics, and Kuneho was forced to close.
Paul Qui Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $1.5 Million.
Paul Qui Career
His first forays into professional cooking landed him a job with Tyson Cole, chef/owner of Austin’s Uchi and Uchiko restaurants. Cole became Qui’s mentor during his time in the kitchen, and Qui eventually worked his way up to become the chef de cuisine and executive chef at Uchiko.
Qui was one of 29 contestants on Top Chef Season 9 in 2011, which was filmed in various locations throughout Texas. He won eight of the season’s sixteen elimination challenges and went on to win the championship. Top Chef’s head judge, Tom Colicchio, stated that Qui was the most talented chef in the show’s first 12 seasons. Following his victory, he returned to Austin and opened his flagship restaurant, Qui, as well as East Side King, a venture with business partner Moto Utsunomiya that showcases various Japanese-inspired dishes via food trucks. Thai Kun, another of Qui’s restaurants, was named one of the best restaurants in America by Bon Appétit magazine in 2014. Qui debuted Pao by Paul Qui at the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, in 2016. His new Houston restaurant, Aqui, received a rare four-star rating from the Houston Chronicle in 2018, but it closed at the end of the year amid controversy.
Qui opened TacQui, an Asian-fusion restaurant in Dallas, in May 2018, but it closed six months later. In March 2019, Qui announced the opening of a second East Side King location in Denver, Colo., inside the Avanti Food & Beverage food hall. However, just days after the announcement, Avanti’s owners decided to cut ties with Qui due to the ongoing controversy surrounding his 2016 assault arrest.