Joining the NANRO USA Fellowship as part of the 2025 cohort, Chef Suzanne Cupps spent more than fifteen years in New York's fine-dining kitchens before opening her own restaurant, Lola's, in early 2024. Within five months of opening, Lola's earned a two-star review from The New York Times; later that year it was named to the paper's list of the 14 Best New Restaurants of 2024. In 2025, she was named a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef: New York State. The name Lola is the Tagalog word for grandmother — a tribute to her paternal grandmother, who once escaped the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
Though the restaurant carries a Filipino name, Chef Cupps' cooking refuses a single national label. Her upbringing in South Carolina, her Filipino heritage, and the many kitchens and cooks she has grown alongside meet freely on the plate — with vegetables held at the center. For a chef who spends her days testing how far vegetable-forward fine dining can reach, the NANRO USA Fellowship visit to Korea offered a rare meeting point with Korea's own vegetable tradition and its long practice of fermentation.
