Avishar Barua sits on a couch next to his mother, Jayasree Barua, better known by her nickname, Joya. One of her arms lays across his shoulders, and a smile radiates from her face like a warm glow.
Avishar was already a Food Network alumnus by the time he opened Joya’s Café, a Bengali-American daytime restaurant named after his mother, in September 2022. But this isn’t why Joya beams at Avishar. It is, she says, because of how proud she is of her son.
“He cares for other people,” says Joya. “His employees, everybody.”
Located in the heart of Worthington on High Street, Joya’s is a restaurant which happened (almost) by surprise.
Following his appearances on Bravo’s “Top Chef” in 2021 and Food Network’s “Beat Bobby
Flay” in 2022, Avishar moved into Joya’s eventual location at 657 High Street, never intending for it to be a restaurant.
“It actually was supposed to be my office,” says Avishar. “People were requesting us to do
private dinners, host cooking demos, and things like that. So, we were going to have an office
space for a chef and a counter to be able to do those.”
Avishar, who also owns Agni in downtown Columbus, noticed that Worthington locals
recognized him from his television appearances, and were anticipating a restaurant opening at the new location.
“People in Worthington are very curious,” Avishar says. “They recognized us and wanted to
know what was going into this spot. We tried to tape up the walls, and that made people more
curious.”
With demand from the public growing, Avishar slowly began offering smaller services, which
evolved into a restaurant with daytime dishes such as a breakfast sandwich, tacos, and fried rice.
“We started doing coffee, and that got really popular, and then we decided to do street food,”
says Avishar. “We wanted to make it a spot people could come to in the mornings and just hang out.”
Avishar found inspiration for the menu from the foods he grew up eating, his experiences
traveling abroad and extensive research on food and culture. It was important for him to bring a new kind of culinary experience to Worthington.
“We didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. There’s a lot of places that do breakfast
and brunch in Columbus,” says Avishar. “I wanted to do my own thing. When you go and travel abroad in other countries and you eat at the street food stands, you always get a charred flavor, and we try to do that with most of our dishes.”
Avishar grew up in Worthington as a child, and has warm memories of the welcoming
atmosphere. He is glad this is where Joya’s is located. “It felt like coming home,” he says.
But Avishar, admittedly, didn’t grow up with an interest in cooking, Bengali cuisine or his
mother’s recipes.
For Avishar, his passion for food, and becoming a chef, was an accident that happened while
attending The Ohio State University. Avishar began cooking out of necessity for himself and his friends, and found that he loved learning about how food can connect people.
“It’s a great way to understand a culture and share that with somebody else,” says Avishar.
After graduation, he decided to attend culinary school. Avishar worked his way through
apprenticeships and found success as an executive chef. He received great reviews, and
television networks began reaching out about opportunities for him to join cooking competition shows.
“We filmed “Top Chef” in 2020 and I filmed “Beat Bobby Flay” in 2021,” says Avishar. “It was
a very interesting experience. It was stressful.”
Avishar didn’t watch his episodes, but Joya describes the experience of watching her son on
television as "tense."
“I didn’t know what was going on because they’re not allowed to talk about it,” says Joya. “I was just holding my husband, asking him, ‘What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen?’”
Though Avishar didn’t win on “Top Chef,” he did, in fact, beat Bobby Flay. He has received
calls from other shows asking him to participate, but hasn’t accepted any new offers—yet.
Joya’s Café continues to bring in crowds daily, and while there are currently no plans to expand with more locations, Avishar says he may be open to the idea in the future.
But for Joya, the real happiness comes from seeing her son succeed, give back to his community and care for others.
“He’s such a good man. I want him to chase his dream, whatever he dreams about,” says Joya. “He makes me so proud.”
“He’s such a good man. I want him to chase his dream, whatever he dreams about. He makes me so proud.” -Joya
“We didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. There’s a lot of places that do breakfast
and brunch in Columbus. I wanted to do my own thing ... [Cooking] is a great way to understand a culture and share that with somebody else.”-Avishar
