Cheetie Kumar is an India- and Bronx-raised Southerner, musician, award-winning chef and restaurateur of Ajja and Big Cat restaurants in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Ajja, located in the city’s Five Points neighborhood, draws inspiration from the diverse foodways and cultures, bright spices and herbs, and cooking techniques of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and beyond. Ajja builds on the legacy of Cheetie’s previous restaurant, Garland, and continues telling the rich story of North Carolina’s growers, farmers and purveyors in a vibrant indoor-outdoor neighborhood restaurant.

After opening in June 2023, Ajja quickly earned a James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist nomination for Best New Restaurant. Ajja was also named an Esquire Best New Restaurant, Eater’s Best New Carolinas Restaurant 以及羅利最好的餐廳 Axios. In 2025, 本地風味 named Cheetie North Carolina’s Best Chef.

In spring 2026, Cheetie and a collective of experienced Raleigh operators, including her husband Paul Siler, Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand recipients Angela Salamanca and Marshall Davis of Mala Pata, among others, and Justin Pasfield of Locals Seafood and other projects, opened Big Cat in Raleigh’s East Mordecai neighborhood. Anchored on the corner of Brookside Drive at Glascock Street, Big Cat is a multi-concept operation featuring day-to-night offerings for the surrounding family-centric neighborhoods it serves.

Cheetie’s refined and thoughtful cooking, filled with equal parts imagination, rebellion and soul, earned her two James Beard Foundation Award nominations (and six semifinalist nods) for “Best Chef: Southeast” for her multi-cultural menus.

As a child in India, Cheetie could often be found in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother watching and learning as they prepared daily meals. Her family held strongly to their culinary heritage, thoughtfully passing on generations’ old techniques and authentic preparation since most recipes were not written down and much of this knowledge was lost in the partition. When Cheetie was eight years old, the Kumar family relocated to Bronx, NY. About that time, Cheetie shares: “I was immersed in a world of various ethnicities and new cultures. Struggling to forge an identity in a new country, food and cooking were the languages that bridged my family and new friends. My desire to reconnect with the ‘Northwestern provinces’vof my family’s heritage helped inspire the menu direction at Ajja.”

After high school, Cheetie attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she majored in Psychology with minors in History and Comparative Literature. While there, she also earned a solid education in music production, show, band management, and promotion while working at the University’s radio station and as part of the school concert board. It was those experiences that led to her move to Raleigh, NC, to pursue a career in music. In Raleigh, Cheetie found a community filled with creative musicians and artists, and she also discovered a culture rich in agriculture, racially diverse food sources, and a culinary history that is as complicated as it is delicious.

Cheetie is a self-taught cook who studied recipes while pursuing her career as a guitarist in bands The Cherry Valence and more recently, Birds of Avalon, alongside her husband and business partner, Paul Siler. The years they’ve spent on tour, and as the owners of the music venue Kings and adjoining cocktail bar, Neptune’s Parlour, taught Cheetie the value of the independent, artistic spirit that is the backbone of the Raleigh community where she and Paul find inspiration and are happy to call home.

Cheetie曾被介紹過 這 《紐約時報》, 《南方生活》 和 《華爾街日報》, among many other national publications.  She is active in food advocacy and serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Independent Restaurant Coalition as well as the Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Southern Foodways Alliance.  She also serves on the board and the Government Affairs Committee of NCRLA. Cheetie is part of World Central Kitchen’s Chef Corps, a global network of culinary leaders who champion World Central Kitchen’s work providing fresh meals following crises.