‘Nothing much will change about Mawn. We can’t fit any more people.’
Five questions with Mawn’s James Beard-winning chef Phila Lorn
Monday was a very late night for Phila and Rachel Lorn, as they celebrated his win at the James Beard Foundation Awards in Chicago. Lorn won the Emerging Chef category, a highly competitive accolade given to chefs who show exceptional talent and “are likely to have a significant impact on the culinary world in the future.” (The award used to be the Rising Star Chef of the Year with an age cap of 30, but the Beards ditched that several years ago.)
Lorn, 39, grew up in South Philadelphia, the youngest of five children of Cambodian parents who came to the United States as refugees. Right out of high school, he started as a food runner at 1225 Raw in Center City. One day while Lorn was cutting scallions, a line cook called out sick and he got thrown into cooking. From there, he never stopped.
Lorn was there for four years until 2011, when he joined Hiroyuki “Zama” Tanaka at Zama, the Rittenhouse Japanese restaurant, where he met Rachel, who grew up in East Falls.
They opened Tanaka’s second restaurant, CoZara, in University City, working there for four years before he joined chef Christopher Kearse at Will BYOB in 2017. That fine dining experience inspired him to want to open a restaurant of his own.
After he knocked around (to Stock in Fishtown and Barbuzzo in Center City), the pandemic sent him to Terrain in Glen Mills and later to Mighty Bread Co. after a chef’s residency with Jose Garces at Volvér.
I caught up with Lorn on the couple’s way to the airport back to Philadelphia. He and Rachel have to be back to work Wednesday, and come Thursday, customers will be lining up outside for lunch. The restaurant’s 1,300 dinner reservations are usually gone in three minutes from the time they’re posted on the first of the month. Imagine what will happen now — at least until their new restaurant, Sao, opens this summer.
What will you do with your Beard medal?
“A full photo shoot with [son] Otis [age 3½] wearing it. Then we’ll frame it and put next to the Tasties Pig” in the house.” (Mawn won Delicious City podcast’s Trendsetting Tastemaker award in 2023.)
Do you think Philly got a fair shake at the Beards?
“My Philly ego would say that we should’ve taken the whole thing and yelled out, ‘Go Birds!’ That being said, the hospitality industry is a competitive sport. Everyone takes it dead serious and everyone who won definitely deserves their flowers. We’re all just taking turns.”
What do you think your win will mean for the lines for lunch at Mawn? Perhaps you’ll expand days?
“Nothing much will change about Mawn. We can’t fit any more people. We need Wednesday morning for major prep, and our people love a four-day workweek. We’ve gotten to know what we have to work with and we intend to keep it there on Ninth Street for as long as possible. The lines will just be a part of our lunch operation, but I promise to do everything we can to make sure everyone will have an opportunity to dine with us. Only thing we ask is that everyone understand our shape.”
Does earning a Beard change anything for you?
“Receiving the Beard changes my mindset. I have a brighter platform now to hopefully put some shine on people that look like me. I’m a child of a genocide. I have to let my therapist know that my impostor syndrome went away.”
What award do you want to win next?
“We don’t do things for awards. We don’t wake up and say, ‘Hey, what’s gonna get us a trophy?’ That’s hustling backward. We are a mom-and-pop shop through and through. But to answer your question: My better half deserves recognition for hospitality. The city deserves to realize that Rachel is a mastermind and that women rule the world.”