Our first stop takes us to Cheeni, Durham, which has made a name for itself since opening in 2023, earning three James Beard nominations.

But for Chef Preeti Waas, success isn't measured in awards.

Born and raised in South India, she believes in making the world better one homemade meal at a time.

- My story of cooking is more the memory of cooking than it is somebody actually teaching me how to cook.

[pan sizzling] I learned, absorbed, from my aunts, from my older sister.

I was so interested in cooking I took classes from a neighborhood auntie.

She didn't even have a stove, like we know of.

Everything was on the floor.

We sat on the floor, we chopped on the floor, you know, we did all of that at ground level, really, and gosh, when I think about some of those recipes, it makes me laugh.

I still have the book in which I hand-wrote recipes from that class.

Cheeni, Durham came out of the blue for me.

It is not something that I was looking for.

It was a scary leap to go from a smaller space into a prominent space in downtown Durham, and now here I get to play, [pan sizzling] I get to run a full service restaurant, where I've never even worked in one of those before.

I didn't know how this worked, but I figured it out.

So mine's not your typical story.

[upbeat music] I grew up in Madras, India, it's now known as Chennai, but my family is Punjabi, which is northwest Indian.

India is such a vast region, and especially back then, you would think you're in different countries, north, south, east, west, they're that different, but we lived like Punjabis at home, our everyday food was very Punjabi, but still very integrated in with South India, which was our home.

Punjab is definitely represented on the menu in our Raja platter, in our Rani platters, and even on the Raja platter, we have got Amritsari Fish, and Amritsar is a city in Punjab, and it has a very distinctive marinade.

Can you tell I'm salivating as I'm talking about the fish?

I really love it [laughs].

Indian ingredients and vegetables are so specific, and I'm so thankful we have a wealth of options in Durham, Raleigh, and in Morrisville.

I go to the newly opened Bombay Central Market, so the things that I get at the market are baby brinjals, okra, bitter gourd, curry leaves sometimes.

So bitter gourd is very, very bitter, so we remove the seeds and we make little disks out of this, and we make a chaat out of it, which is unusual.

[customers chattering] - So warm.

- So warm.

- Oh, my God.

Typically, this is like, really bitter, like the actual vegetable, but you can't taste the bitterness at all.

My god, this is brilliant.

- She never eats this, karela.

- I never eat karela because I'm not a fan, but this tastes like bhindi, kurkuri bhindi.

Oh, my god, - Thank you.

- it's so good!

- It's so good, - Thank you.

- yes.

- The Bar Beej is an undertaking that happened by an accident.

We inherited this really beautiful space, and the space came with a really beautiful bar, and initially, we just did not have the bandwidth to have a bar, but we knew that it was something that we would love to kind of incorporate into Cheeni and Cheeni's imagery.

Beej is now our bar, and it has been a conscious effort to create a bar program featuring regional Indian ingredients.

It is a bar that is sourced from our kitchen.

We make almost everything in-house, give or take the alcohol, and it's also an effort to really include local spirits and community in every glass.

- How are you?

- Good.

What can I do for y'all?

- What I hope for when people walk in the door is that it feels familiar, right, it feels like home, it feels like a space that they don't have to be fussy in.

The food is not fussy, they don't have to be, quote, unquote, "on their best behavior."

It's not fine dining, but it's refined dining according to me.

[lively rhythmic music] - You'll find Cheeni at 202 Corcoran Street, Suite 100, in Durham.

To find out how they're bringing more to the menu and plan your meal, check out their website, cheenidurham.com, or call 919-908-0220.

They're open every day for dinner.