The most significant moments in life don’t always take your schedule into consideration—just ask Fariyal Abdullahi. At 10:23 a.m. on January 24, Abdullahi, the executive chef at Hav & Mar, was in the middle of filming a television segment when her phone started buzzing and just wouldn’t quit.

Abdullahi was doing what she often does—working a long day, even though she wasn’t at her restaurant. (And to be clear, she’s typically at Hav & Mar five days a week, and frequently working on projects for the restaurant when she’s off-site.) On this particular day, however, she was judging Food Network’s Chopped.

Abdullahi is used to juggling multiple gigs, events and obligations. But the morning of January 24 was different. It was discombobulating trying to process what was happening, she says. Her phone blew up with congratulatory texts. But she didn’t have much time between shoots to properly react to the news that she had just become a James Beard Awards semifinalist for Emerging Chef.

“I had maybe 30 seconds in between them resetting the cameras and repositioning everything,” Abdullahi tells Observer of the moment she found out. “And they’re like, ‘Okay, judges, you’re on camera.’ So I put my phone away, and the buzzing kept going.”

During one break between shooting, fellow judge Tiffani Faison (who also knows a few things about balancing a busy restaurant career with prominent TV work) effusively congratulated Abdullahi. Moments later, filming started up again—Abdullahi was on set for 11 hours that day. Right before they wrapped, while Abdullahi was furiously replying to texts, the Chopped team gave her congratulatory flowers. The newly awards-nominated chef then left, and went to a low-key dinner with a friend.

When you work as hard as Abdullahi does, the glamour and the grind are inextricably linked—she did,........

© Observer