About Our Founder

Tracy Chang is the chef/owner of PAGU restaurant in Cambridge, MA. She is a Boston College and Le Cordon Bleu Paris alum. She trained with three star Michelin chef Martin Berasategui in San Sebastian, Spain and at O Ya in Boston, NY Times’ 2008 Best Restaurant in the country. She has been a teaching fellow and guest lecturer at the Harvard Science & Cooking Program, hosting chefs such as Ferran Adria, Jose Andres of World Central Kitchen, David Chang of Momofuku, and Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery.  

She is an alum of the James Beard Foundation Bootcamp for Policy & Change, James Beard Foundation Womens’ Entrepreneurship Leadership Program, a 2020 James Beard Best Chef Northeast semifinalist and 2023 James Beard Outstanding Restaurant nominee. She is also a 2020 Star Chefs Rising Stars Game Changer. Chang has presented at the CIA Worlds of Flavor in Napa, Science and Cooking World Congress in Barcelona as well as to tech and pharmaceutical companies including Takeda, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. She has made appearances on Chronicle, Food Network, WBUR, and National Public Radio (NPR). In 2023, Chang was appointed to the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Chef Corps. 

Chang co-founded two nonprofit initiatives, Off Their Plate (OTP) and Project Restore Us (PRU) to provide essential worker communities with food and groceries. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) she created for her restaurant PAGU, as well as for Off Their Plate, have been compiled into a comprehensive guide by the James Beard Foundation, World Central Kitchen and the Aspen Institute. Chang’s work with both organizations has garnered her international recognition (the Basque Culinary Center named her the top 10 nominees of the Basque Culinary World Prize) and invitation to the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. 

Chang resides in the Boston area with her husband, two kids, and pug, Pearl. When she’s not at the restaurant, she enjoys spending time cooking with her family, for her 99 year-old mentor, the legendary WWII veteran, civil rights’ activist, entrepreneur and Renaissance man, Marvin Gilmore, and hosting friends for dinner.