Henry Lu
Hometown: The Bronx, NY
Current city of residence: Houston, TX
Occupation/profession: Chef/Owner at JŪN and byKIN
A Bronx native, Henry Lu’s first foray into his future career in the kitchen was working at his parents’ Chinese restaurants. After getting a degree in art history, Henry enrolled in the French Culinary Institute, where he honed his skills, preparing him to work in some of the most renowned kitchens in Manhattan, including his stints as a sous chef at Pearl and Ash, where the restaurant earned two stars from The New York Times and was featured as one of Bon Appetit’s 2013 Top 10 Best New Restaurants and Williamsburg’s Llama Inn which also received two stars from The New York Times.Read More
Hometown: The Bronx, NY
Current city of residence: Houston, TX
Occupation/profession: Chef/Owner at JŪN and byKIN
A Bronx native, Henry Lu’s first foray into his future career in the kitchen was working at his parents’ Chinese restaurants. After getting a degree in art history, Henry enrolled in the French Culinary Institute, where he honed his skills, preparing him to work in some of the most renowned kitchens in Manhattan, including his stints as a sous chef at Pearl and Ash, where the restaurant earned two stars from The New York Times and was featured as one of Bon Appetit’s 2013 Top 10 Best New Restaurants and Williamsburg’s Llama Inn which also received two stars from The New York Times. He then spent three years as the executive chef at the Four Happy Men Hospitality Group, where he was featured in Eater New York’s 2018 Best Dishes and Food & Wine’s 2019 list of Things You Won’t Want to Miss. In 2020, Henry moved to Houston, where he partnered with “Top Chef” alum Evelyn Garcia to open their first restaurant, JŪN, in the Houston Heights neighborhood. Since opening, JŪN has been a 2024 James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant and named 2023 Best New Restaurant by Infatuation and the Robb Report. Henry and Evelyn work together on byKIN, a Southeast Asian-inspired catering, pop-up, and product line company and most recently they have been named 2025 James Beard Semi-finalists for Best Chef: Texas.