As the first vegan chef to win a TV cooking competition, Chloe Coscarelli has helped vegan food gain more widespread acceptance. Coscarelli earned a degree at the University of California, Berkeley, where she realized she was more interested in baking elaborate cakes for friends than she was in her classes. After a summer internship at a San Francisco vegan restaurant, Millennium, she moved to New York to study at the Natural Gourmet Institute and pursue her culinary dreams. In 2010 she became the first vegan chef to win Cupcake Wars, and in the wake of that success published three cookbooks: Chloe’s Kitchen in 2012, Chloe’s Vegan Desserts in 2013, and Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen in 2014. In 2015 she opened a restaurant in Greenwich Village, “By Chloe,” which immediately attracted lines stretching around the block. Coscarelli plans to open two more New York restaurants in 2016.