The People · Page 118
The artisans of taste.
Chef
Yu Chiu Kwan
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Yu Chiu Kwan’s work at Hoi King Heen is built on precision, discipline, and fidelity to craft. In Hong Kong, where expectations are exacting and the pace is unforgiving, his…
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Chef
Yu Hsuan Cheng
Taipei, Taiwan
## The Climb Technique is the anchor in Yu Hsuan Cheng’s work. At École Grégoire-Ferrandi, the foundation was set for a career built on rigor, form, and control. From there, the…
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Yudi Teuku
Jakarta, Indonesia
## Coming Up Training at SMU 1 Panton Labu gives Yudi Teuku’s profile its first fixed point. The record is spare, but that sparseness is useful: it points to a foundation built…
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Yuichiro Watanabe
Tokyo, Japan
## The Climb Osaka Abeno Tsuji Culinary Institute provided the discipline behind Yuichiro Watanabe’s early formation: repetition, precision, and the expectation that small details…
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Chef
Yuji Haraguchi
New York City, New York, United States
Yuji Haraguchi works across ramen, breakfast service, and fish sourcing in New York City, with Yuji Ramen in Brooklyn and OKONOMI / Yuji Ramen in the city. The common thread is…
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Chef
Yuki Hayato
Paris, France
Chef pâtissière at Pâtisserie Rayonnance in Paris, Yuki Hayato also worked as chef pâtissière at Pages (Paris). In Paris, where patisserie is often framed like fine art, Hayato’s…
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Yuki Izumi
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up At Hi-Collar in New York City, Yuki Izumi started behind the coffee bar, where service runs on timing, composure, and repetition. The work sharpened an eye for detail…
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Chef
Yuki Onishi
Tokyo, Japan
## The Climb Ramen counter work is learned through repetition under service pressure: stock monitored, noodles timed, bowls assembled while the guest waits within view. Early…
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Chef
Yun Fuentes
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
“I wanted to make a restaurant that represented our culture and traditions in the middle of where the best restaurants are,” says Yun Fuentes, the Puerto Rican chef and co-owner…
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Chef
Yusuke Namai
Tokyo, Japan
## The Climb Training at Ode gave Yusuke Namai his first hard lesson in repetition, attention, and kitchen discipline. That early work established the base of his cooking:…
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Chef
Yusuke Shimodaira
Tokyo, Japan
Beef cookery gives this profile its frame: one restaurant, one central ingredient, and a working discipline built around heat, texture, aroma, and timing. At Kintan in Tokyo,…
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Chef
Yuto Aoki
Sapporo, Japan
# Yuto Aoki ## The Climb Technique and pace were set early at Le Baerenthal and Restaurant Hiramatsu Hiroo, where Yuto Aoki built the habits that professional kitchens demand:…
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Chef
Yuval Litmanovich
New York City, New York, United States
Japanese soul. New York energy. ## Coming Up He moved from Sous Chef at Brasserie M&R to Head Chef at Bindella, then chef at Green Fig, and later Executive Chef at Hungry Llama.…
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Winemaker
Yvan Dufouleur
Nuits-Saint-Georges, France
Yvan Dufouleur’s record is deliberately narrow: one estate, one title, one place. That kind of sparsity tells its own trade story. At Domaine Guy et Yvan Dufouleur in…
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Winemaker
Yves Cuilleron
Chavanay, France
## The Path Viticulture at Burgundy gave Yves Cuilleron the discipline that underpins the rest of the work: reading a site, respecting seasonality, and understanding that the…
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Winemaker
Yves de Suremain
Mercurey, France
## The Essentials Since 2005, Loïc — the eldest son — has had charge of the wine estate, while the family’s Burgundian roots in Mercurey reach back seven generations. In 1993,…
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Winemaker
Yves Zen Ruffinen
Susten Leuk, Switzerland
## The Climb Cave de la Pinède, founded by Yves Zen Ruffinen in 1988 in Finges, a hamlet in the municipality of Leuk, is the fixed point in a career shaped by seasons rather than…
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Chef
Yvonne Kam
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
## The Climb University of British Columbia is the starting point in a finance career that moved through corporate and professional services with deliberate pace. Yvonne Kam’s…
View →Founder, Kettl
Zach Mangan
Los Angeles, California, United States
Zach Mangan is the founder of Kettl, a Japanese-tea company built around direct relationships with producers and a shorter international supply chain. Kettl operates retail cafés…
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Chef
Zach Midgett
Lincoln, Nebraska, United States
Executive Chef work at Casa Bovina in Lincoln, Nebraska, demands control of pace, consistency, and team alignment; Zach Midgett’s style is built around those conditions. The work…
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Chef
Zach Prifti
Edgartown, Massachusetts, United States
New American cooking at The Terrace at The Charlotte Inn is framed by seasonal sourcing, careful composition, and the restraint required to make refinement feel practical rather…
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Chef
Zachary Golper
New York City, New York, United States
Zachary Golper has been Chef/Owner of Bien Cuit in Brooklyn, New York, since 2011, and the role sits at the center of a practice built around bread and pastry arts. That work is…
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Zack Zeidman
São Paulo, Brazil
The kitchen runs on classical European technique, but it is tuned for something more elusive than precision alone: a Brazilian dining room that expects warmth, ease, and polish in…
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Chef
Zak Walters
Los Angeles, California, United States
Oklahoma gives Zak Walters both origin and present work: oysters and seafood at Sedalia’s Oyster & Seafood, a co-owned project in the state where he was born. The material thread…
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Chef
Zamani Sibelo
Mana Pools Region, Zimbabwe
## The Path Bulawayo Hotel School gave Zamani Sibelo the first structure around his work: precision, hospitality, and the discipline required to keep a kitchen steady. The…
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Chef
Zareen Khan
San Francisco, California, United States
The point of entry for Zareen Khan’s cooking is geographic as much as it is familial: Karachi, Bombay, and Punjab sit behind the work, and that lineage shows up in the way her…
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Winemaker
Zaya S. Younan
Saint Pey D Armens, France
"We vinify with heart because making wine is an art, not a hobby." The line sets the register of Zaya S. Younan: methodical, exacting, and unwilling to reduce wine to procedure.…
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Winemaker
Željko Adžić
Kutjevo, Croatia
Željko Adžić’s work is anchored in Kutjevo, and in wine terms that matters less as biography than as provenance. Place comes first in his thinking, then grapes, then wine: a…
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Zhang Liqun
Beijing, China
Zhang Liqun is the executive chef of Liqun Roast Duck in Beijing, a figure whose career has been shaped by the patience, repetition, and exacting standards of Traditional Peking…
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Chef
Zhang Yong
Tokyo, Japan
Zhang Yong received the SevenRooms Icon Award in 2026, a recognition that put a formal marker on a career built less on fanfare than on sustained, exacting work. As founder of Xin…
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Chef
Zhexi Lee
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
## Beginnings In 2021, during the pandemic, Eat and Cook was co-founded by Zhexi Lee and university friend Soh Yong Zhi. The restaurant was built around local ingredients,…
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Chef
Ziggy Gruber
Houston, Texas, United States
His work sits in the preservation of Jewish deli tradition: formal training, family deli ownership, and long-running service at Kenny & Ziggy’s have all fed that line of practice.…
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Chef
Zino Jacobs
Mechelen, Belgium
## The Climb Wood-fire cooking demands control over heat, timing, and airflow, and that discipline begins in training. At Hotelschool Ter Duinen (Koksijde), Zino Jacobs built the…
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Winemaker
Zmago Petrič
Planina, Slovenia
Planina near Ajdovščina, Slovenia, is the ground from which Zmago Petrič’s work rises: local varieties, self-chosen vineyard sites, and a cellar built around wild fermentation…
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Winemaker
Zoë Driver
Andover, United Kingdom
Zoë Driver works as winemaker at Black Chalk in Andover, United Kingdom, where the brief is English sparkling wine handled for poise and precision. The path into that work was not…
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Chef
Zoi Antonitsas
Vashon Island, Washington, United States
Food & Wine named Zoi Antonitsas a Best New Chef in 2015, after a 2014 Seattle stretch that put her in two kitchen posts: executive chef at Westward and chef de cuisine at Madison…
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Chef
Zoraya Zambrano
Portland, Oregon, United States
Peruvian restaurant cooking carries its lineage through ownership as much as through dishes. Before Casa Zoraya in Portland, Zoraya Zambrano’s work had already crossed countries…
View →Chef
Shimuzu Yuta
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
## Coming Up Classical training at Tsuji Culinary Institute gave Shimizu Yuta the base that shows up in the work: precision, restraint, and a clean finish. That foundation matters…
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James Beard Award winner
Abraham Conlon
Chicago, Illinois, United States
The American chef and co-founder of Fat Rice built his reputation through Macanese cuisine, a style where Portuguese-speaking world influences, migration, and memory sit in the…
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James Beard Award winner
Adam Siegel
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
At Lupi & Iris in Milwaukee, the brief is exacting: fine cuisine, exceptional service, and polished design. Adam Siegel works within that frame with restraint, keeping the room…
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Bartender / bar director
Alexis Ortega
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
## The Path Vetri Cucina in 2017 marks the first named stop in Alexis Ortega’s path, and it reads as a useful grounding point: serious kitchen discipline before the bar took…
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James Beard Award winner
Allison Vines-Rushing
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Born in Louisiana and raised in Florida, Allison Vines-Rushing came into the work with Gulf Coast fluency already in hand: an ear for regional flavor, a respect for French…
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James Beard Award winner
Ana Liz Pulido
Mission, Texas, United States
Chef and owner Ana Liz Pulido has made Ana Liz Taqueria in Mission, Texas into a kitchen where the name on the door is backed by the work on the plate. The cooking is rooted in…
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Cocktail Service Professional
Andra "AJ" Johnson
Washington DC, Washington DC, United States
## At a Glance - Venue: Serenata, Washington, DC. - Voice: “My goal was to figure out why so many people had been in this industry for so long but never got the opportunity to…
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Oenologist and Quality Lead, I Vigneri
Andrea Foti
Milo, Italy
Andrea Foti is an oenologist at the Etna wine estate I Vigneri and a son of founder Salvo Foti. Born in Catania in 1998, he graduated with top marks in Viticulture and Oenology…
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Chef
Andrew Bozoki
Doha, Qatar
## Career Andrew Bozoki’s route into Nobu Doha was built in Germany, where more than a decade in restaurants, brasseries, and golf clubs gave him the repetition and pace that…
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Chef
Andrew Gruel
Huntington Beach, California, United States
Memorable seafood in Andrew Gruel’s work is built for the hand first: direct to eat, plain enough to read at a glance, and priced to sit inside everyday life as easily as a…
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Hotelier
Anouska Hempel
London, United Kingdom
Design practice in luxury hospitality often turns on atmosphere: sequencing, detail, service, and the control of how a guest reads a room. In the work associated with Anouska…
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Winemaker
Anthony Vietri
Avondale, United States
## The Climb At Va La Vineyards in Avondale, Pennsylvania, the work sits with Anthony Vietri across both ownership and winemaking, with farming folded into the same job. That…
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James Beard Award winner
Billy Grant
Glastonbury, Connecticut, United States
Billy Grant is Executive Chef at Reef Kitchens, a post that matches the pace and precision he has built on the line. He also serves as chef-owner of Restaurant Bricco in West…
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James Beard Award winner
Blake Spalding
Boulder, Utah, United States
## The Path Working as a caterer on the river in the Grand Canyon until 1999 gave Blake Spalding a hard lesson in scale, place, and constraint. In that setting, food had to hold…
View →Founder, CEO and Brewmaster, Proper Sake Co.
Byron Stithem
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Byron Stithem is the founder, CEO and brewmaster of Proper Sake Co. in Nashville. After building Tennessee's first dedicated sake brewery, he opened Rice Vice in East Nashville in…
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Winemaker
Camillo Magoni
Ensenada, Mexico
## The Climb Camillo Magoni’s profile is built around continuity in one place: Ensenada, and the winery he founded, Bodegas Magoni. The key dated marker is 2013, when the winery’s…
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James Beard Award winner
Chad Houser
Dallas, Texas, United States
Executive Chef at Café Momentum in Dallas, Chad Houser has also led the restaurant as founder and CEO. ## The Climb Chad Houser trained at El Centro and Dallas College. Chad went…
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Bartender / bar director
Charlie Ainsbury
Sydney, Australia
Charlie Ainsbury works Sydney bars with a trade-first understanding of pace, service, and timing. As a bar consultant at Folio in Sydney, and as a bartender at Darling Glebe and…
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James Beard Award winner
Chris Schlesinger
Westport, Massachusetts, United States
Chris Schlesinger built his reputation on heat, smoke, and a direct style of cooking that puts barbecue, spicy food, and live fire at the center of the plate. Raised in Virginia,…
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James Beard Award winner
Christine Ha
Houston, Texas, United States
## Coming Up National attention came through competition, but the work behind it was built on study and repetition. Christine Ha trained at University of Texas at Austin and…
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James Beard Award winner
Christine Sahadi Whelan
New York City, New York, United States
## The Climb Ownership at Sahadi’s means preserving a Brooklyn institution while keeping its daily operations legible to the neighborhood around it. Since 2016, Christine Sahadi…
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James Beard Award winner
Christopher Gross
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
## The Climb Christopher Gross’s foundation was built through Scottsdale Culinary Hall of Fame (2016), Robert Mondavi Culinary Award of Excellence, and Ment'or Culinary Council, a…
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Master Sommelier
Christopher McFall
Healdsburg, California, United States
Christopher McFall has been wine director at SingleThread in Healdsburg, California, since 2022. In a dining room built on precision, the wine program sits close to the meal’s…
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Winemaker
Christopher Nicolson
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Christopher Nicolson has been managing winemaker at The Red Hook Winery in Brooklyn, New York since 2008. Born and raised in Montana, he came into wine through farm work, coastal…
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James Beard Award winner
Claudia Martinez
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
## The Path Claudia Martinez’s pastry work is built on a home kitchen education: stir, taste, adjust, repeat. That kind of training shows up in the finished desserts — exacting,…
View →Owner, 3fe Coffee
Colin Harmon
Dublin, Ireland
Colin Harmon is the owner of 3fe Coffee in Dublin. A four-time Irish Barista Champion, he leads the specialty-coffee company across its cafés, roastery and wholesale business.
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James Beard Award winner
Colin Shane
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Colin Shane’s work at The Continental in Nashville centers on charcuterie, a discipline built on patience, precision, and control of small details. Born in Boston, the American…
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James Beard Award winner
Dallas McGarity
Louisville, Kentucky, United States
His cooking is shaped by modern twists on comfort food, updated classics crafted with seasonal ingredients and global inspiration, and classic Italian flavors viewed through a…
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Winemaker
Dan Fishman
Sonoma, California, United States
Before Dan Fishman became Vice President of Winemaking and Vineyards at Donum Estate in Napa, his path included study at Cornell University and a growing focus on wine. His work…
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James Beard Award winner
David Cáceres
Miami, Florida, United States
Born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami, David Caceres works across bread, pastry, and kitchen operations with a pace shaped by both places. At The Gale Miami Hotel & Residences in…
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Chef
Dennis Efthymiou
Laguna Beach, California, United States
Raised between Igoumenitsa on the coast and Ioannina in the mountains, Greece, Dennis Efthymiou brings a Mediterranean base shaped by place and then reworked through California…
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Master Sommelier
Devon Broglie
Palo Alto, California, United States
At Whole Foods Market, Devon Broglie’s work is built from repetition: tasting, studying, and selling wine at a scale that only becomes legible through years in the trade. The…
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James Beard Award winner
Emiliano Marentes
El Paso, Texas, United States
## The Path Since 2022, Emiliano Marentes has held the chef and co-owner role at ELEMI Restaurant in El Paso, Texas, and the work there has been defined by restraint in service of…
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Sommelier
Erin Scala
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
## Coming Up Service is where the wine side of the work often starts, and for Erin Scala it started in 2006 at Fleurie Restaurant in Charlottesville, Virginia. That first floor…
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Michelin-starred chef
Georgianna Hiliadaki
Athens, Greece
Owner-chef work in Modern Greek cuisine is the through line across Georgianna Hiliadaki’s projects in Athens and London. At IODIO in Athens, the focus sits on precision and…
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Culinary legend
Giada De Laurentiis
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
“I wanted to go back and reconnect with my roots.” That line sits under Giada De Laurentiis’s work: Italian memory, California brightness, and a public style built on translation.…
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Winemaker
Gustavo González
Francisco Zarco, Mexico
## Coming Up A technical wine education at University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis, set the foundation for Gustavo González before he entered one of…
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James Beard Award winner
Heena Patel
San Francisco, California, United States
## Career Heena Patel trained at La Cocina SF, where the work started with technique, discipline, and attention to flavor. That foundation shows up in the way her cooking reads…
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Chef
Hideto Kawahara
New York City, New York, United States
The line stayed close to the bowl: Hakata-style tonkotsu, an original shop name, and later operating roles that carried the work into new cities without cutting it away from its…
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James Beard Award winner
Irene Yoo
New York City, New York, United States
## The Climb Irene Yoo’s work sits where food media, performance, and Korean food history meet. The career path includes photo & video producer at Food Network, writer and recipe…
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James Beard Award winner
Isaac Toups
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Raised in Cajun country in Rayne, Louisiana, Isaac Toups came up inside a food culture where the kitchen was part of daily traffic, not a sealed-off work zone. His family has…
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Chef
Jade Mauricio Cunningham
Napa, California, United States
Jade Mauricio Cunningham is chef of Carabao in Napa, where her cooking carries the warmth, memory, and quiet discipline of Filipino food. Born and raised in Bulacan, Philippines,…
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Master distiller / blender
James Buchanan
Vancouver, Canada
## Career James Buchanan’s kitchen work starts from the bottom rung of the trade: dishwashing, then a fry cook role at PJ Burger & Sons in Vancouver. Those early stations built…
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James Beard Award winner
James Campbell Caruso
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
## Coming Up The Santa Fe dining room that has defined James Campbell Caruso’s public work since 2006 is La Boca, where the chef-owner’s approach has been built over time rather…
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James Beard Award winner
Jamie Malone
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
After high school, Jamie Malone moved through Hong Kong, Beijing, Vietnam, and Europe, working markets, street food, and open-air stalls into a practical food vocabulary. That…
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James Beard Award winner
Jason Sellers
Asheville, North Carolina, United States
## The Path At Laughing Seed, Jason Sellers worked as head chef, a post that sharpened the discipline and steadiness behind his cooking. The role mattered less as a marker than as…
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Winemaker
Jean-Michel Morel
Slovrenc, Slovenia
Winemaking at Kabaj in Slovrenc, Slovenia, is the fixed point in Jean-Michel Morel’s profile. The work is identified through place, cellar, and vintage: Brisko Zlato 2011 and…
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James Beard Award winner
Jeffrey Stuffings
Austin, Texas, United States
## The Path Jester King Brewery was founded by Jeffrey Stuffings in Dripping Springs, Texas, and the brewery has since been tied to a style of making that balances local identity…
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Wine luminary
Jeremy Benson
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up At Hofstra University, Jeremy Benson built the habits that later matter in service: discipline, composure, and attention to how a room functions under pressure. That…
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World's 50 Best
Jock Zonfrillo
Adelaide, Australia
Jock Zonfrillo judged MasterChef Australia (2019–2023), a role that carried his reading of flavour into homes well beyond restaurant service. The Scottish chef also hosted Nomad…
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James Beard Award winner
Joe Cicala
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
## Early Years Hockey came first, and with it a sense of pace and repetition that later maps cleanly onto line work. The detail matters less as nostalgia than as a marker of…
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Chef
Joe Satterwhite
Seattle, Washington, United States
Joe Satterwhite is Executive Chef at AQUA by El Gaucho in Seattle, United States. He also serves as Chef at El Gaucho Seattle, where the cooking is tied to tableside theatre,…
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co-founder
Johan Evers
Stockholm, Sweden
A contemporary Stockholm cocktail bar is built as much from service mechanics as from recipes. In the work of A Bar Called Gemma co-founder Johan Evers, the line runs from the…
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James Beard Award winner
Jonathan Lundy
Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Jonathan Lundy has been chef/owner of Corto Lima since 2017, and the restaurant reflects a career built inside Kentucky’s own food language: tradition carried forward, then…
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James Beard Award winner
Jonathan Perno
Corrales, New Mexico, United States
Jonathan Perno’s work sits in New Mexico kitchens and, by 2025, in Corrales at Forty Nine Forty, where he became Executive Chef and Partner. The throughline is Rio Grande Valley…
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James Beard Award winner
Jose Garces
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Iron Chef Jose Garces was formed at Kendall College, where he studied Culinary Arts. Born in Chicago to Ecuadorian parents, he carried Spanish technique and Latin American roots…
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James Beard Award winner
Jose Salazar
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
## The Path Restaurant discipline shows up early in this résumé: behind the bar and on the floor at Bellini in New York, Jose Salazar learned the timing, sequencing, and restraint…
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Master Sommelier
Joshua Orr
San Diego, California, United States
Wine program leadership at Marina Kitchen in San Diego is built here from floor experience, bar perspective, and time spent inside the same operation in more than one role. Joshua…
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Owner, Magnum Toulouse; Founder, Des Bouchons
Julian Pallaruelo
Toulouse, France
Julian Pallaruelo is a Toulouse wine merchant, founder of Des Bouchons, and owner of Magnum Toulouse. A Maître Caviste, he was a finalist in France’s Best Wine Merchant…
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Master Sommelier
Justin Moore
Dorchester, South Carolina, United States
Justin Moore’s career is built on movement between roles, but the through-line is technique: study, service, sourcing, and the kind of coordination that holds a dining room…
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Bartender / bar director
Juyoung Kang
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
## The Path Temple University is where the foundation sits, but the craft showed up in the rooms that followed. Juyoung Kang built early credibility in bars and dining rooms where…
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James Beard Award winner
Ken Friedman
New York City, New York, United States
Ken Friedman set The Spotted Pig in New York City on a hospitality model that treated the room as part of the work: the night was built around pace, sequencing, and control of the…
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James Beard Award winner
Kevin Nashan
St Louis, Missouri, United States
Kevin Nashan is chef-owner of Sidney Street Cafe and The Peacemaker in St. Louis, a two-kitchen setup that reads less like a brand expansion than a working definition of his…
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