A chef shaped by family and food
Angel Barreto grew up in a military family. As a child he wanted to be a history teacher or politician, an interest that came from his parents’ military careers. Food was still always nearby. While his parents were deployed, he and his sister spent summers with their grandparents, and he has said family and food were pivotal keystones of his life.
His heritage is a mix of traditions. His maternal grandmother owned a farm in Florida, where she cooked him breakfast from her garden every morning. In Chicago, his father’s large Puerto Rican family gathered weekly for Sunday supper.
The Korean connection
Korean food came to him through his mother. She loved recreating dishes from her time living abroad. In his last year of elementary school, he went to the base commissary with her to buy staples for the Korean dinners she cooked, which he calls the start of his love for Korean cuisine. In his own words on the Global Eats page, nothing surpassed his mom’s homemade Korean cooking.
Training and early career
After a brief office job that he quickly realized wasn’t for him, Barreto enrolled at L’Academie de Cuisine in Maryland, over his family’s initial reluctance. He began culinary school in 2009, when DC was still a “steakhouse city” and classes were taught by French chefs. Even then, he was already thinking about Korean food. He enrolled in 2011, graduated in 2012, and worked at Vermilion under Anthony Chittum before moving to Wolfgang Puck’s The Source.
He took his first trip to Korea in 2011. He then spent six years at The Source, working Korean-influenced dishes into the menu and serving them to executive chef Scott Drewno to taste. He rose to executive sous chef there.
Anju
In 2019, Drewno launched the Fried Rice Collective with Chef Danny Lee. They tapped Barreto as executive chef of their newest concept, Anju. Anju is a modern makeover of the original bi-level space of Mandu, the Lee family’s traditional Korean restaurant. Barreto’s goal was to explore how Korean food could keep evolving in a casual American context. The restaurant sits in Dupont Circle, in Washington, DC.
To prepare, he studied Korean food and history and took a trip to Korea sponsored by the Korean embassy. He then designed the menu as an introduction to the cuisine. He has pushed back on the idea that Korean food means only barbecue. He says that, just as with American food, Korean food has a large breadth and beauty.
Signature dishes
- Gochujang-glazed fried chicken: The chicken is brined with Korean long peppers, garlic, onions, salt and sugar. It gets a double coating, first all-purpose flour, then roasted soybean powder, potato starch and cornstarch. It is finished with a drizzle of Alabama white barbecue sauce.
- Yache mandu: An Impossible meat dumpling. The filling marinates for a full day before it is folded, crisped and topped with chili crunch.
- Jjampong: A Chinese-style Korean noodle soup. Anju’s version has crawfish, mussels, crab and tiger shrimp in a spicy broth with wok-roasted vegetables.
- Black sesame tres leches: Yakult-soaked chiffon cake with berries and black sesame whipped cream.
Awards and recognition
- 2019: Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema called him a talent to watch. Anju earned three stars from the Post that year.
- 2020: finalist for the RAMMY Award for Rising Culinary Star of the Year, and a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Rising Star Chef of the Year.
- 2021: named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs.
- 2022: James Beard nominations for Emerging Chef of the Year and Best Chef. He also won a 2022 StarChefs D.C.-Chesapeake Rising Stars Award.
- 2024: back on the James Beard list, this time for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.
- He is also a Culinary Ambassador for the United States.
A different kind of kitchen
Barreto is perhaps proudest of how he runs his kitchen. At 31, working 16-hour days at The Source, he had a mental breakdown. He says it came less from the hours than from the pressure of an old-school kitchen where people were yelled at, and he noticed he was starting to train others the same way.
At Anju he does it differently. He says the kitchen doesn’t yell and that staff mental health matters alongside the food. A Southern Smoke Foundation poster hangs in the locker room, and he tells staff a mistake is just a mistake. He credits his high staff retention to this culture. He advocates for mental health in hospitality and works to eliminate toxic kitchen environments.
He has also spoken about not being taken at face value. People have asked his partners whether he actually writes the recipes at Anju, and he says he still deals with this years in.
Beyond the kitchen
Barreto has found grounding in Buddhism, in hiking, and in his backyard garden. He credits his grandparents’ advice to be happy and enjoy the moments, since life is short. He has also taken his cooking to young audiences through the Global Eats program. There, he says he hopes kids can learn about a new culture in a fun and delicious way. The program features kid-friendly dishes such as Korean-Style Zucchini Namul, Kimchi Tofu Grain Bowl, Korean Pork Bibimbap Bowl and Gochujang-Style Chicken Lettuce Cups.
Personal background
Full name and parents: He is Angel Barreto III. His parents, Gloria and Angel Barreto II, both served in the U.S. military. They taught him not to let other people’s perceptions define what he could do. He is of Black and Puerto Rican heritage. His maternal grandmother, Martha Woods, was a Mississippi sharecropper who picked cotton until she moved her family to upstate New York. He remembers fishing with her and picking strawberries and figs. He grew up eating Korean food on an American base in South Korea and in his mother’s kitchen. One of her favorites was budae jjigae, “army stew,” made with ramen noodles, hot dogs and kimchi. He thought he’d follow his father into international relations, until a short internship at a lobbying firm changed his mind. Losing his grandmother during COVID reinforced his belief in caring for the people around him. As a Buddhist, he describes pausing to reflect on who he is and how he can do better. He cites a Maya Angelou line about not living with regret over years of useless virtue, inertia and timidity.
Career details
- The Source tasting menu: At The Source he served a seasonal six-course Korean tasting menu at a chef’s counter, with Korean barbecue dishes at the table. The response led Scott Drewno to offer him a position with the Fried Rice Collective.
- CHIKO: In 2017, Drewno and Danny Lee opened CHIKO, a fast-casual Chinese/Korean eatery. Barreto was its corporate chef and did catering while developing Anju’s recipes.
- Building the menu: He wrote over 65 recipes for Anju’s opening menu.
- Dessert: He also handles the restaurant’s desserts.
- Partnership: He became a partner in Anju in 2022, partly because of the acclaim it received at its 2019 opening. Anju is the second restaurant from The Fried Rice Collective, founded by Danny Lee, Scott Drewno and Drew Kim.
- Mama Lee: The Anju site was formerly Mandu, run by Danny Lee’s mother and sister. Barreto often calls Yesoon “Mama” Lee to ask how she makes dishes. The menu has a section called Mama Lee’s Classics.
More on the food
- Beyond Korean tradition: He has put collard greens in kimchi and made a Korean take on candied sweet potatoes. He also created a banana-pudding-style dessert from shaved banana milk ice, vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, bananas and dulce de leche ice cream.
- Battered branzino: The dish is a pan-seared fillet with radishes in a spicy braise, an herb salad of fennel, basil, mint and sesame oil, and a seasoned soy sauce called yangnyeom underneath.
- Menu range: He says the menu spans food from the 16th century to modern Korean cooking.
- Samgyetang: He was featured on a podcast episode about making samgyetang, a Korean chicken soup.
The diplomatic role
In February 2023, he joined the U.S. State Department’s American Culinary Corps, formed with the James Beard Foundation. It has more than 80 chefs and culinary professionals. He and Edward Lee, as “Blue Jacket” chefs of the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, created dishes for a state dinner and luncheon for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee.
The April 27 luncheon, the Korean president’s first visit in 14 years, served 300 people with Korean corporate leaders, diplomats and musicians. Barreto and three staff members prepared it. The menu had a Meyer lemon salad with burrata, asparagus and golden beets, a fried branzino fillet, and a peach cobbler with sweet cornbread. He was able to bring his parents.
Expanded honors
- In 2020, the magazine ranked Anju #1 on its “100 Very Best Restaurants” list. It was still on the list at #13 in 2023. On a podcast, he discussed what it means to be the first person of color to run a #1 restaurant in DC, calling it remarkable and disheartening.
- He won the 2020 RAMMY for Rising Culinary Star of the Year, and Anju was a 2023 finalist for Upscale Casual Restaurant of the Year. He was also named 2024 RAMMY Chef of the Year.
- That year he was also a James Beard “Taste Twenty” chef, a StarChefs Game Changer and a Men’s Health featured chef.
- A magazine listing shows him as a James Beard-nominated talent in the 2026 awards cycle. I couldn’t confirm his exact category or round, so check the James Beard Foundation site.
Recent projects
- Thailand culinary trip: He is hosting a seven-day Thailand tour with Modern Adventure from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4, 2026, including a Thai cooking class and a visit to Nang Loeng Market.
- Chef collaboration: On July 22, 2026, he joined Chef Amy Brandwein at Centrolina for a one-night, four-course tasting menu pairing Mid-Atlantic ingredients with contemporary Korean techniques.
- Southern Smoke: Anju hosted a fundraiser for the Southern Smoke Foundation, which gives money to struggling restaurant workers. He is also featured in the Southern Smoke Festival 2026 lineup.
- Youth mentoring: He has worked with local D.C. kids in a job program, telling them to pursue their passion and not take no for an answer.
Challenges he has spoken about
Some guests assume he’s a waiter, merchants in Korean stores have laughed at him, and people have questioned whether he actually writes Anju’s recipes. He describes himself as a student of Korean food rather than an expert, and says his goal is to be a propagator of Korean food and explain it to people.