Biography
Vivian Howard is a world-renewed, award-winning Phoenix, professional head American Chef, restaurant owner, and television host. She was born on March 8, 1978, in Deep Run, North Carolina, a small town of Kinston in the United States. She is 44 years old and Pisces by her zodiac sign. She has an American nationality. Her father’s name is John Howard, and her mother’s name is Scarlett Howard. Her parents and her grandparents were farmers; they had a farm of their own in which they used to grow tobacco, cotton, soybeans, wheat, and corn.
| Name | Vivian Howard |
|---|---|
| First Name | Vivian |
| Last Name | Howard |
| Occupation | Chef |
| Birthday | March 8 |
| Birth Year | 1978 |
| Place of Birth | Deep Run |
| Home Town | North Carolina |
| Birth Country | United States |
| Birth Sign | Pisces |
| Parents | Scarlett Howard, John C. Howard Jr |
| Siblings | Leraine Tolston |
| Spouse | Ben Knight |
Education
Vivian Howard studied in a Moravian boarding school named Salem Academy at 14. After that, she went to Virginia Episcopal School for two years in Virginia, and in 2001, she graduated from North Carolina State University and received a BA in English Language.
Career
In 2004, Vivian graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York and also trained as Chef de Partie at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market and completed an internship at Wylie Dufresne’s WD~50. After graduating, Vivian Howard moved to New York City and started to work as a marketing executive for Grey Worldwide. But she quit her job after 18 months and started working at Voyage restaurant under the mentorship of Scott Barton, the restaurant’s Executive Chef.
Vivian Howard married Ben Knight, who was her co-owner at Voyage restaurant. They started a soup delivery business in Harlem. In 2005, Vivian Howard and Ben Knight moved to North Carolina and opened Chef and the Farmer in 2006 in a downtown building. The restaurant creates a sound impact on modern people about traditional southern dishes.
In 2012, the Chef and the Farmer building caught fire and was reconstructed in the summer of 2012. After the reconstruction of the building, the restaurant reopens with a different conception, attracting customers more and more. In 2013, they opened the Boiler Room, which served oysters and burgers catty-corner, but it was closed in May 2020. They opened Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria on December 12, 2017, in Wilmington, NC’s Warehouse District.
Book
Vivian Howard is also a well-known author. She authored her first cookbook, and its name is “Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South .”This book was published in October 2016, and it remained on the Bestseller List of the New York Times for about 2-3 weeks and more. The book was highly recognized and liked by the audience. As a result, it won four IACP Cookbook Awards in 2017, which include the Award for the Cookbook of the Year, Julia Child First Book Award, Outstanding Restaurant Cookbook Award, and overall Outstanding Cookbook Award in the general category.
In 2020, Howard released her second cookbook, and its name is, “This Will Make It Taste Good – A New Path to Simple Cooking .”The cookbook is made around a core collection of flavorful bases that become key components in the recipes section. She also began to write a column for the southern magazine Garden & Gun.
Television Host
Vivian Howard has also appeared on TV as a host and hosted the PBS television series “A Chef’s Chef’s Life” from 2013 to 2018. The show focuses on cooking eastern traditional dishes of North Carolina and the ingredients used in making the traditional dishes. In 2014, she won an award for cooking in the program.
In 2023, Howard wrote about the New York Times. She highlighted the foundational problems with the current restaurant business model that contributed directly to the post-pandemic temporary closure of The Chef and the Farmer.
Vivian Howard Net Worth
Vivian Howard is one of the most talented and professional chefs and a restaurant owner. She has achieved popularity, success, and wealth in her field. She is an entrepreneur who owns various types of business ventures, which serve as the source of her income. One of her most popular restaurants is “The Chef and The Farmer.” She has also published her cookbooks and received many awards and recognition for her work. She also appeared as a TV host, which eventually increased her net worth, but the primary source of her income was the restaurant business. Hence, according to the sources, Vivian Howard’s estimated net worth is approximately $10 million, but it is still under review and not confirmed yet.
