Irene Shiang Li is a Boston-based chef and restaurateur and a winner of a 2022 James Beard Leadership Award. The youngest person to win the award (32), Li is also a six time finalist in the Rising Star Chef category.
A self taught chef, Li founded Mei Mei as a food truck, Mei Mei Street Kitchen, with brother Andrew and sister Margaret in 2012. They opened Mei Mei Restaurant a year later in 2013, and Mei Mei now operates as a dumpling company, teaching virtual classes and selling packaged dumplings at farmers markets with their headquarters in Suoth Boston.
With Lily Huang and Tracy Chang, Irene co-founded Project Restore Us in 2020, which is a nonprofit that sought to use a restaurant's supply chain to help feed immigrant and working-class families.
Prepshift is a coaching, consulting, and workforce training business that Irene co-founded with Dylan Gully and Carla Cornejo. Originally created as an online tool to help restaurant owners run their businesses, Prepshift is now a technical assistance partner to the City of Boston, City of Cambridge, and other entities.
Mei Mei means little sister in Mandarin.
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A young Boston restaurateur who’s helping to change the game
1990s births
Living people
Year of birth uncertain
Place of birth missing (living people) Chefs from Boston American women restaurateurs American women chefs James Beard Foundation Award winners