About Irene

Irene Shiang Li (she/hers) opened Mei Mei Street Kitchen in 2012 and Mei Mei Restaurant in Boston in 2013 with her big brother and sister, Andy and Mei. She has spent the years since driving the industry forward in ethical sourcing and fair and transparent employment practices. A Boston native and Cornell University graduate, Irene has worked on farms, taught in prisons, and watched perhaps hundreds of hours of YouTube videos on food and cooking. She is an Eater Young Gun, Zagat 30 Under 30, and Forbes 30 Under 30 winner, and six-time James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef semi-finalist. She recently received the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award. Now, Irene and her team are evolving Mei Mei into a packaged dumpling company offering virtual and in-person dumpling making classes and farmers’ market retail items.

She serves on the boards of Project Bread, the Haley House, The Food Project and Lovin' Spoonfuls. Irene recently served as the Program Manager for CommonWealth Kitchen's Restaurant Resiliency Initiative, putting her experience to work in supporting BIPOC restaurant owners in the City of Boston.

In 2021, Irene was part of the inaugural cohort of the Visible Hands fellowship, a program supporting BIPOC and female tech entrepreneurs in the early stages of building their businesses. She is building Prepshift along with her business partners Dylan Gully and Carla Cornejo, to support restaurant owners and workers to improve training, culture, and retention, making restaurants work for everyone.

She is the co-author of Double Awesome Chinese Food from Roost Books and Perfectly Good Food from W.W. Norton.

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