May 07, 2026
Provided Image/Mawn
Phila Lorn, chef and owner at Mawn, said the banh chow salad, pictured, was inspired by his mother's recipe.
For some of the most decorated chefs in Philadelphia, the recipes that define their award-winning restaurants were passed down from their mothers.
With Mother’s Day on Sunday, chefs of award-winning eateries Mawn, Sao, Stina, Southwark and Ambra shared how their moms inspired some of their most beloved dishes and how they continue to pay homage to them in their careers.
MORE: First Mother’s Day celebration was held in Philly 118 years ago
Phila Lorn, owner of the Mawn in Bella Vista and Sao in South Philadelphia, credits his success in part to his mother, Sim Khim. She immigrated to the United States after escaping a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand in 1985 and raised her children in South Philly. Lorn’s first name, pronounced “pee-la,” is a reference to how she pronounced “Philly.”
Many of the recipes and techniques from Lorn's childhood have been incorporated into the menus at Mawn and Sao, which is named as a nod to his mother’s pronunciation of “south.” At Mawn, peanuts are often used as a topping on dishes, including the papaya salad and mahope samut, as a reference to Khim's tendency to use roasted peanuts when cooking for her family.
The restaurant's banh chow salad, which was named as one of the best dishes in the country by the New York Times last year, is also prepared and served the same way Lorn ate it as a child.
“It’s spelled and pronounced just how I pronounced the dish as a kid, right or wrong,” Lorn said in a statement. “[It’s] eaten as a salad instead of the hand-held taco style. It is also a personal style of eating just from growing up eating it that way — the lazy way. The sauce is a family recipe and one of the first recipes written out by my mother for Mawn.”
A mile down Broad Street, Stina has a Mediterranean-inspired scratch kitchen that cooks up recipes inspired by chef and owner Bobby Saritsoglou's roots in Greece.
Bobby Saritsoglou, chef and owner of Stina in South Philly, says his mother, Irina, has inspired some of his dishes.
Provided Image/Bobby Saritsoglou
His mother, Irini, grew up in a farming family in a small village in the Thessaly region. Saritsoglou said he remembers hearing stories about his mother being sent out to forage for snails for an affordable dinner. To prepare the meal, her family would gather around a large pan over an open fire and simmer the snails with butter, garlic, lemon juice and fresh parsley.
At Stina, Saritsoglou’s braised snail dish follows a similar process with a more modern twist. The snails are sautéed in garlic, lemon and parsley and incorporated into a butter sauce topped with ground za’atar for extra zing.
“Among the dishes on the menu inspired by my heritage, the braised snail dish carries the most meaning,” he said. “Not only is it uniquely traditional to my Greek culture, but the dish also represents the traditions shared by my mother and grandmother in Greece that shaped who I am today.”
Chris D'Ambro and Marina de Oliveira, the husband-wife duo who own the Michelin-recommended Southwark and Ambra restaurants in Queen Village, rotate their menus regularly to use seasonal ingredients. But D'Ambro said he always tries to find a way to pay homage to family recipes.
The pasta e fagioli dish, which occasionally appears on Ambra’s tasting menu, is directly inspired by his grandmother’s recipe, which D'Ambro called one of his favorite pasta dishes his "Nonna" made. Served with cannellini beans, pork sausage and crispy parmesan, D’Ambro also adds a contemporary flair to the dish to include kale ravioli stuffed with cannellini beans.
Chris D'Ambro, chef at Ambra in South Philly, said the restaurant's pasta e fagioli dish is inspired by his grandmother's recipe.
Provided Image/Ambra
Even if a family recipe is not featured in the limited menu options, D’Ambro and de Oliveira try to instill a similar sense of comfort that they experienced from their childhoods. The restaurant’s interior is adorned with hand-picked flowers and family heirlooms from the owners’ upbringings to remind them of home.
“We want guests to feel at home entering our space,” D’Ambro said. “So, it naturally made sense for us to incorporate the recipes we grew up with into our menu and bring the familial connection to the restaurant.”
