When Chef Tee Cozy strains up for the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 12, 2025, it’ll be the eleventh time the pinnacle chef from Cozy Noodles n’ Rice, a Thai restaurant in Wrigleyville, Illinois, has run the race. If there’s one factor obvious within the opening scenes of this new brief movie — the debut within the new PACE SETTERS sequence by iRunFar in partnership with HOKA — it’s that Chef Tee, who moved to Chicago from Thailand in 1996, loves his metropolis. He additionally loves working. And he brings that very same sense of affection to all he does.
[Editor’s Note: Click here to watch the full film on YouTube.]
With the looming Chicago Marathon, we be taught what the occasion means to Chef Tee, who got here to the U.S. in the hunt for alternative, and within the meantime, discovered neighborhood and that means in working. What began as one thing finished for train and enjoyable, working grew to become a central tenet in Tee’s life after a good friend inspired him to use for the 2014 Chicago Marathon. He nonetheless seems to be shocked when describing the expertise of getting accepted all these years later. After taking practically eight hours to finish that first marathon, he by no means appeared again. “I’ve to say working modified my life. It undoubtedly modified my life in the easiest way.”
Chef Tee in his restaurant, Cozy Noodles ‘n Rice. All photographs are screenshots from the movie “Chicago, Meet the Chef Who Loves You.”
However there’s extra to working for Tee than the straightforward act of placing one foot in entrance of the subsequent. It’s about neighborhood, friendship, setting objectives, and bringing love into every thing he does. The truth that working typically mirrors life, or life mirrors working, is just not misplaced on Tee when he says, “Operating might help me create one thing good in my life, too.”
Having raced the Chicago Marathon 10 instances now, Tee shares tales of the neighborhood that has gathered round him through the years. His household waits for him on the identical spot annually, his clients collect between miles seven and 9 to cheer him on, and he hosts a free carb-loading meal for any Chicago Marathon runner.
Chef Tee heads into his restaurant, Cozy Noodles n’ Rice.
Tee clearly goals to imbue every thing he does with love. In his restaurant, he says, “Everyone had meals, however should you can add up some love and happiness and fervour into your meals and serve it, and within the place you have got, I ought to have extra success too.” He explains, “In my tradition, we all know one another, we speak, we’re very honest. Right here, generally, if we don’t know one another nicely, we don’t present what’s in our coronary heart.” Tee exhibits what’s in his coronary heart. In his working, he’s fast to precise his gratitude for his working neighborhood, for the streets of Chicago, and for the folks within the metropolis.
Chef Tee and his working neighborhood.
This movie is a reminder that there’s a lot extra to working than meets the attention, and everybody who laces up a pair of footwear has their very own causes for exhibiting up. With earnestness, Tee reminds us of the significance of objectives, of exhibiting up for ourselves and our communities, and of current in an area of gratitude and appreciation.
Chef Tee working on the streets of Chicago.
[Editor’s Note: This article is sponsored by HOKA. Thank you to HOKA for its sponsorship of iRunFar, which helps to make iRunFar happen and free for all to enjoy. Learn more about our sponsored articles.]
