From Bethesda Magazine: Montgomery County’s homegrown chefs
Meet four culinary stars who have built successful careers in the communities where they grew up
By
Sofia AppolonioAugust 7, 2026 11:27 a.m.
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Kevin Hsieh
High school: Gaithersburg High School
Year graduated: 2013
Current job: Owner and executive chef at Bao Bei
Kevin Hsieh’s first job in the restaurant industry began where many others peak. In 2022, he created his Bao Bei brand and started selling his Taiwanese street food at local events and markets, then transitioned to running a ghost kitchen for three years. In August 2025, he opened Bao Bei’s brick-and- mortar location in Rockville. The 30-year-old Gaithersburg resident says his favorite item at work to make is the restaurant’s swirly buns, which are a brown sugar based mantou (soft, fluffy Chinese steamed buns).Outside of work, Hsieh enjoys dining at Sichuan Jin River in Rockville. To up-and-coming chefs, Hsieh says keep yourself motivated. “I would say you need to get comfortable with failure and things going awry. Feels awful in the moment, but once you begin to reflect on your past mistakes you realize how much you’ve grown and you start looking forward to all the chaos and hardships to come,” he says. His plans moving forward are focused on expanding his business and franchising. “Bao Bei world conquest,” Hsieh says.
Dimitri Moshovitis
High school:Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg
Year graduated: Left in 1995 to pursue a culinary career (would have been class of 1997)
Current job: Co-founder of Cava and Wildgoat Hospitality Group (Bouboulina, Cava Mezze, Julii and Melina) and executive chef of Cava Mezze
It was during high school as a busboy at Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse in Gaithersburg that Dimitri Moshovitis first got a taste of working in restaurants. Originally from Darnestown, he became the co-founder of Cava, a Mediterranean fast-casual chain with around 450 locations. Coming soon: Maurizio’s, a new restaurant in Potomac, set to open by the end of the year. “It’s gonna be Italian cooking our style, with clean flavors and lots of the classics reimagined,” he says. Moshovitis, 47, is a fan of Il Pizzico in Rockville and open-fire grilling for his family in their North Potomac backyard.
Rebecca Wuren
High school: Bullis School in Potomac
Year graduated: 2017
Current job: Owner and head chef at Nosh Grill House; owner of East Dumpling House and East Grill Karaoke
Rebecca Wuren’s journey in the culinary world began with her parents. Growing up in Potomac with a chef for a father and a restaurateur for a mother, Wuren earned a hands-on education in the industry as a dishwasher in her parents’ restaurant. “I would watch the chefs working the wok. I thought it was the coolest thing. From afar, it looked like a dance. Every movement is perfectly in sync and beautifully executed against the flames. I asked my dad to teach me, but he refused,” she says. With her parents now retired, Wuren, 26, continues their legacy of creating a culinary space for the Chinese community with their Rockville restaurants, East Dumpling House and East Grill Karaoke, as well as her own Nosh Grill House, also in Rockville. Soon she’ll open a new contemporary Chinese restaurant in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood with flavors honoring her birth city of Harbin, China. When she’s not working, the Potomac resident enjoys dining in family-owned and locally owned restaurants in the area. “There are fewer and fewer chefs specializing in Chinese cuisine today, especially women,” Wuren says. “Representation matters, and I take great pride in being part of a new generation of chefs continuing this craft.”
Aaron Silverman
High school: Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville
Year graduated: 2000
Current job: Founder/creative director of Rose’s Luxury, Pineapple & Pearls, Little Pearl and private event company Extra Fancy
As the winner of a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, Aaron Silverman continues to showcase his culinary achievements at his Washington, D.C., restaurants Pineapple & Pearls, Rose’s Luxury and Little Pearl, and through private event company Extra Fancy. A graduate of the now closed L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Silverman began his career as a host at Geppetto’s, an Italian restaurant in Bethesda that’s no longer open, and reflects on his trajectory to becoming a restaurateur as “standard” for chefs. “That being—an unusual amount of twists and turns to get to where I am today,” he says. For up-and-coming chefs, Silverman’s advice is to keep asking themselves “why—a lot.” The 44-year-old, who lives in D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, continues to enjoy making Rose’s Restaurant Group’s strawberry pasta.
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This appears in the July/August 2026 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine