Jet Tila family includes wife Allison Tila as well as their children Ren and Amaya. Jet presently lives in Calabasas by way of Silver Lake.
Tila is an American celebrity chef, restaurant developer, restaurateur, and author. He likes to call himself a culinary storyteller. He found his niche as an Asian chef at the correct time, as there was a massive demand for it.
Jet went to culinary school to hone his skills and later worked for a corporate food-service firm. It taught him more about having a system and scale. He also competed in Iron Chef America but lost only by a few points.
Since then, the chef has become a Food Network regular and appeared in many of their shows.
Jet Tila Spent His Childhood In Southern California
Tila was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, by Thai Chinese immigrant parents.
His ancestry can be traced back to Hainan, the southern Chinese island province. This small island is known for its Hainan Chicken Rice and that they controlled the food and beverage industry during the Singapore Raffles era.
According to AFAR, Tila has taken trips to Hainan and even tasted many iconic dishes there. He learned the secrets of Asian cuisine from his Cantonese grandmother.
Jet calls it his good fortune and birth luck that he was born into a household of Thai food. His Cantonese grandma and Mexican aunt taught him a lot about culture and food, and the neighborhood where he grew up was a melting pot of various culinary traditions.
Jet’s food today represents the neighborhood he grew up in, Los Angeles, including Thai Town, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and Koreatown.
Jet Started His Career With His Parents’ Business
Jet grew up working in the Thai grocery store that his parents owned. He used to sweep the floors, pack groceries, and also operate the butcher’s band saw, as per the Los Angeles Times.
He was uninspired during his youth and even dropped out of high school in his senior year. Tila found it challenging to connect to his fam’s drive and passion. He later began teaching cooking classes, which is how he found his one true passion.
Tila Now Calls Calabasas His Home
Jet and Ali decided to move to Calabasas as they wanted more space in a quiet community after having two kids and living through a pandemic.
Tila told Visit California, Thai Town, which is six blocks from Hollywood Blvd. between Western and Normandy, is his California love. He spent a lot of time there and even watched the Thai community set up and thrive.
Jet Tila Wife Allison Tila Is A Cookbook Author
Jet Tila married wife Ali Tila on May 9, 2011, in Vegas. They had been dating for over two years at that point.
How Did They Meet?
Tila and Ali first crossed paths in his cooking class. It was at Sur la Table at one of his knife skills courses, where the two first met. She was there with her mom, and the mother-daughter duo took many of Jet’s classes.
Soon after, Ali left her teaching job and went to pastry school. In an interview with the Long Island Weekly, Jet said that food brought them together. The two even wrote the cookbook, “101 Epic Dishes.”
The two work really well together and have complementary skill sets. Ali is more detail-oriented, whereas Jet is fantastic with big-picture vision.
Who Is Ali Tila?
Ali is a pastry chef, business manager, and cookbook author. She was born on June 3, 1974, as Allison Courtney McKee.
Based on her LinkedIn profile, Ali has been the Managing Partner of Team Tila Corp since January 2012. She co-owns and manages their entire culinary business, including their culinary consulting business and restaurants.
She has appeared in several shows, including Today, Cutthroat Kitchen, Beat Bobby Flay, KTLA 5 morning news, and The Kitchen. Allison and Jet were judges on Ben & Jerry’s Clash of the Cones in 2021.
She is also an education specialist with two teaching credentials and formerly worked as an educator for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Ali graduated with a Master’s degree in early childhood special education from California State University in Northridge.
Tila is also a devoted mom who loves making sweet treats for her kids and loved ones.
Tila Has Two Young Children
Jet has a daughter Amaya Tila and a son Ren Tila with his partner. Amaya made her TV debut with Hallmark Channel and showed off her knife skills in 2018.
Ren was born in June 2015 and is currently 47 years old. Amaya celebrates her birthday every year in November.
In 2021, the Tila’s celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with an adorable leprechaun trap, soda bread, and Guinness chocolate cake. Jet posted about it on his Instagram and mentioned their ways of celebrating the holiday with the kids.
Amaya and Ren live relatively private life but do make appearances on their mom and dad’s social media pages.
Jet Tila Parents Are Thai Chinese
Tila was born to parents Pramorte Tila And Marasri Tilakamonkul on February 6, 1975.
His mother and father immigrated to the United States separately in 1966 during the 60s wave of Thai citizens moving to the US. Pramorte and Marasri arrived in Southern California, and the pair eventually met.
They opened the first Thai grocery store in the US as they were unable to find Thai ingredients in Chinatown in 1972. It was called Bangkok Market and was an authentic Thai grocery store, and many of California’s best chefs shop there.
Pramorte and Marasri eventually opened the Royal Thai restaurant in 1978. They initially relied on Califonia farms for fresh produce and later began growing it themselves in Mexico. Jet was in grade school when he started working in the market.
Jet Tila Net Worth 2023
Per Celebrity Net Worth, Jet Tila has a net worth of $1 million dollars. He is a regular host, competitor, and judge on Food Network.
Tila has appeared on Rachel vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off, Chopped, Ready to Cook, Beat Bobby Flay, Iron Chef: America, Guy’s Grocery Games, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and Cutthroat Kitchen.
Jet is one of the richest celebrity chefs in the United States. He was named the Culinary Ambassador of Thai cuisine in 2013. He also holds several culinary world records, including the world’s biggest stir fry, which was 4010 pounds and had to be cooked in a 14-foot wide frying pan.
Jet went to Le Cordon Bleu to learn more about the culinary and help him better understand the skills required in cooking. After earning a degree at the prestigious French culinary school, he completed a training course at the California Sushi Academy.
He has a fast-casual restaurant called the ‘Dragon Tiger Noodle Co,’ with three locations in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada. Tila also has a cafe at Google in their Silicon Valley offices. He is also a partner with Pei Wei, a fast-casual Asian chain restaurant.
The celebrity chef also has a thriving Asian food line through Schwan’s Home Service. Jet also has a number of successful cookbooks.
He loves sharing recipes and cooking tips on his YouTube channel, which has over 194k subscribers.