Victor Albisu

Chef/Founder

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Victor Albisu is the chef/founder of Taco Bamba, a wildly popular chain of taquerias with locations in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 

In 2015, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington honored Albisu as Chef of the Year, and in 2020 and 2016 he was nominated for a James Beard Foundation award as Best Chef Mid-Atlantic. With more than a decade of experience in fine dining and upscale French, American, and Latin American restaurants, Albisu combines his culinary education with his Latin American heritage to bring a unique style of cuisine to his restaurant concepts.

Outside the kitchen, Albisu is active in global culinary relief initiatives, including extensive work with CARE and World Central Kitchen, for whom he was a founding board member and has traveled to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Peru, among other destinations. Albisu co-founded Smile on the World, a non-profit group of chefs and doctors who provide aid and medical care to underserved communities, and with whom he co-led a relief trip to Peru in early 2020. In 2015, Albisu competed on Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay and bested the host and grill master with his signature dish, steak & eggs. Albisu has also appeared as a guest judge on Telemundo’s Top Chef Estrellas and the FOX TV series Hell’s Kitchen.