The People · Page 131
The artisans of taste.
Chef
David Thomas
Baltimore native David Thomas came into the trade through hospitality-and-tourism training at Vatel Institute in Lyon, France, then brought that framework back to Maryland…
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Winemaker
David Trafford
David Trafford is the winemaker and owner of De Trafford Wines in Stellenbosch, South Africa, where his work is defined by a quiet rigor and an exacting attention to what belongs…
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Master distiller / blender
David Urquhart
Since 2021, David Urquhart has been Head Coach at McGill University in Montreal. Before that, he served as an Assistant Coach with the San Diego Gulls. ## The Path Training at…
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Other
David Utterback
## The Climb Sushi in Utterback’s work is framed less as a fixed canon than as a regional set of practices, shaped by New York, Japan, and a 2009 visit to Tokyo that marked a…
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James Beard Award winner
David Waltuck
David Waltuck is an Executive Chef Consultant who has moved between the kitchen, consulting, and teaching. He and his wife Karen opened Chanterelle in SoHo in 1979; he later…
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James Beard Award winner
David White
David White is Executive Chef of Vespa in Westport, Connecticut. He got the role after hearing from a friend who worked there that the owners were looking for a new chef, so he…
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World's 50 Best Bars
David Wondrich
David Wondrich writes drinks with the reach of a scholar and the discipline of an editor. At Esquire, that means moving between cocktails and spirits with the same control, while…
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Application scientist
David Zilber
Living organisms are working material in fermentation, not garnish for an idea. “Living organisms change and they change everything around them. If they didn't, there would only…
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Pastry Chef
Davide Comaschi
Après de brillantes études en Italie, ce chef a grimpé les échelons du monde de la pâtisserie en seulement quelques années. Reconnu par ses pairs tant pour son talent que son…
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Winemaker
Davide Fasolini
## Coming Up In Montagna in Valtellina, where terraces cut into granite slopes and vineyard work is dictated by patience, Davide Fasolini has built Dirupi around precision,…
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Head Chef
Davide Gessa
Davide Gessa is the head chef at Il Ristorante Niko Romito in Beijing.
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Pastry Chef
Davide Malizia
Davide Malizia est un maître des arts sucrés ! D’origine sicilienne, Davide Malizia est né à Rome (Italie). Après des études dans les meilleures écoles d’Europe et de nombreux…
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Executive Chef
Davide Sessa
Davide Sessa is the Executive Chef at L'Altitude. His city is unknown.
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Master distiller / blender
Davin de Kergommeaux
Canadian author and whisky reviewer Davin de Kergommeaux has built a reputation that rests as much on careful scholarship as on an old, instinctive familiarity with the spirit…
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Head Chef
Davy Devlieghere
Davy Devlieghere is Head Chef at Le Julien. The city is unknown.
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Chef
Davy Schellemans
## The Climb The early shaping of Davy Schellemans’ cooking runs through In de Wulf, where he worked as sous chef, and then into Veranda in Antwerp, Belgium, where he became chef…
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Chef
Dawn Burrell
The work reads as a sequence of disciplined transitions: formal study, competitive sport, and a run of kitchens in Houston and Austin, each one adding range to Dawn Burrell’s…
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Chef
Dean Sample
Corporate Executive Chef at Burgess Restaurant Group in Indianapolis since 2025, Dean Sample’s career is built less on speed than on accumulation: formal training, repeated…
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James Beard Award winner
Debbie Gold
## The Climb Training, repetition, and early kitchen pressure shaped Debbie Gold’s path. She studied at the University of Illinois before moving into Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago,…
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James Beard Award winner
Debi Mazar
## The Climb In downtown New York, the first useful training ground is often the threshold. Debi Mazar worked as VIP doorperson at Mudd Club in New York City and employee at…
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James Beard Award winner
Deborah Krasner
In Vermont, Deborah Krasner’s work gathers around the kitchen as both place and instrument: a site for teaching, hosting, designing, and paying attention to oil, heat, and the…
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James Beard Award winner
Deborah Madison
Deborah Madison is the founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, a role that helped move vegetarian cooking into the center of American restaurant culture. The work…
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Pastry chef
Déborah OTT
Déborah OTT is a pastry chef and Master Baker, a title she earned in 2018. In trade terms, that distinction places her in a recognized tier of baking practice, where precision,…
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Master of Wine
Debra Meiburg
As Founding Director of MWM Wine School in Hong Kong, Debra Meiburg built a career at the point where accounting discipline meets wine education. She moved to Hong Kong in 1988 to…
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James Beard Award winner
Debra Ponzek
Debra Ponzek built her career on a deceptively simple idea: that good food should feel attainable, even on the busiest days. Today, as the owner of Aux Délices in Connecticut and…
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Managing Director
Declan McGurk
The bar trade is built in layers: floor speed, group standards, brand fluency, hotel discipline, then production leadership. In Declan McGurk’s case, that sequence runs through…
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Master distiller / blender
Dee Ford
Dee Ford’s title places them at the meeting point of two closely linked crafts: distilling and blending. It is a compact designation, but it is specific, and in that precision…
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James Beard Award winner
Deirdre Heekin
## The Climb Restaurant management and winegrowing sit on the same line in Deirdre Heekin's work: at Osteria Pane e Salute in Woodstock, Vermont, she serves as co-owner, manager,…
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Pastry chef
Della Gossett
## Coming Up Pastry work at Trio in Evanston put Della Gossett into close contact with Gale Gand and Shawn McClain, after training at University of Illinois. From there, the path…
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Winemaker
Demeter Zoltán
Demeter Zolt is the winemaker of Demeter Zoltán Pincészet in Tokaj, where his work is guided by a clear and unusually exacting purpose: “With our wines, we aim to showcase the…
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World's 50 Best Bars
Demie Kim
## The Climb At ZEST in Seoul, the co-founder role places Demie Kim inside a drinks culture that is still taking shape. The work reads as accumulation rather than arrival:…
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Winemaker
Denis Barraud
Denis Barraud came from a long dynasty of vignerons, a lineage that suggests not simply a profession but a way of moving through the world: with seasonal discipline, close…
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Winemaker
Denis Bovard
From taking on his father’s estate in Treytorrens to making organic wine in Lavaux from Treytorrens-en-Dézaley, Denis Bovard’s path has led to Domaine Antoine Bovard in Cully,…
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Winemaker
Denis Darriet
## The Path At Château Seguin in Canéjan, France, the work has been carried by Denis Darriet as owner, manager, and partner since 1987. The role is long-running and operational:…
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Winemaker
Denis Jamain
## The Path Winemaking at Denis Jamain – Domaine de Reuilly is defined by a rare position in the appellation: Denis Jamain is the sole biodynamic producer in Reuilly. That status…
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Pastry Chef
Denis Matyasi
Traditionnelles ou modernes, chocolatées ou fruitées, les pâtisseries Matyasy allient la délicatesse du goût à un soupçon de folie créative. Ses chocolats sont élaborés à partir…
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James Beard Award winner
Denise Cerreta
She has framed her work in a direct line: “Food is love, food is nourishment, food is a basic right.” ## Coming Up A service ethic showed up early in Denise Cerreta’s work before…
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Master Sommelier
Dennis Kelly
Master Sommelier Diploma, 2012, is the credential that frames Dennis Kelly's work, but the useful story is in the sequence behind it: formal study, demanding service, then a…
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Master distiller / blender
Dennis Malcolm
## The Climb Cornell University School of Hotel Administration gave Dennis Malcolm a foundation in hospitality where timing, judgment, and service discipline are part of the work.…
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Head Chef
Dennis Quetsch
## The Ascent Disciplined kitchen formation at Zum Krug set the base before the work moved into named restaurant posts: Dennis Quetsch was at Restaurant Schwarz in Heidelberg from…
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Chef
Dennis van den Beld
## Coming Up Early in his career, Dennis van den Beld worked as head chef at Het Roode Koper in Ermelo, a role that depends on timing, consistency, and control over pace. The…
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Bartender / bar director
Dennis Zoppi
## Today No approved facts are listed. ## Signature BOBA COCKTAIL is the signature attached to Dennis Zoppi, and it reads as a direct statement of intent: playful in name,…
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Winemaker
Derek Baljeu
At Knights Bridge Winery, Derek Baljeu works from the premise that vineyard and cellar are in the same conversation, with restraint, observation, and precision carrying as much…
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Bartender / bar director
Derek Brown
A spirits and cocktail expert, Derek Brown has spoken about the work without polish: by his own account, he did not come to it from a fixed path or a tidy apprenticeship in…
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Pastry chef
Derek Poirier
A native of Vancouver, BC, Derek Poirier currently works in Arizona, where his pastry practice sits within the Western USA remit of L'École Valrhona. ## The Path Pastry work in…
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Michelin-starred chef
Derry Clarke
## The Path Formal technique matters when a career has to travel across different rooms, different cities, and different service cultures. Derry Clarke’s training at The Diploma…
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Spirits
Desmond Payne
The working line in gin is built through cellars, training rooms, production floors, and still houses. In Desmond Payne’s case, that line ran from wine cellar work to management…
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Bartender / bar director
Desmond Payne MBE
Retired Master Distiller emeritus at Beefeater, Desmond Payne MBE built a career around botanical balance: listening for how ingredients meet, separate and settle into a finished…
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Head Chef
Detlef Schlegel
Detlef Schlegel is Head Chef at Stadtpfeiffer. The city is unknown.
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World's 50 Best
Devin Knell
Devin Knell’s career at Thomas Keller Restaurant Group in Napa, California, United States follows a familiar but demanding route in professional kitchens: training first, then…
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Pastry chef
Devin McDavid
Food & Wine named Devin McDavid Best New Pastry Chef in 2012, after he served as executive pastry chef at Quince and Cotogna in San Francisco. ## The Path Devin McDavid trained at…
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James Beard Award winner
Devra First
## Coming Up Restaurant criticism in Boston has been shaped, for more than two decades, by the steady reporting and editing range of Devra First at *The Boston Globe*. Since 2000,…
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James Beard Award winner
Dewey Markham
The 1997 James Beard award for wine book of the year put Dewey Markham's work on the record, but the award sat atop a career built through study, teaching, and close attention to…
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James Beard Award winner
Dewey Markham Jr.
Started with a degree in wine tasting from the School of Oenology at Bordeaux University. That training pointed him toward precision: tasting as a technical discipline, wine as a…
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Chef
Diana Davila
## Career - **executive chef and owner** — Mi Tocaya Antojería, Logan Square, Chicago (2017–present) - **chef** — Hacienda Jalapeños, Chicago suburbs - **worked for Ryan Poli** —…
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Other
Diana Davila
Executive Chef and owner at Mi Tocaya Antojería in Logan Square, Chicago, Diana Davila has led the restaurant since 2017, shaping a kitchen language built from family inheritance,…
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James Beard Award winner
Diana Dávila Boldin
Diana Dávila Boldin appears here as a name, and that stark simplicity becomes its own kind of portrait. In a profile universe built on the visible architecture of a culinary…
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Pastry chef
Diana Fallis
Diana Fallis works in pastry, where success depends on control, repetition, and close attention to texture, timing, and finish. In Orem, Utah, at Utah Valley University, her role…
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James Beard Award winner
Diana Henry
The Telegraph Cookery Writer Diana Henry is a British writer born in Northern Ireland in October 1963. Her work moves toward unusual ingredients and exotic flavours, with recipes…
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James Beard Award winner
Diana Kennedy
The Order of the Aztec Eagle sits among Diana Kennedy’s honors, and it marks the reach of a British food writer and cookbook author whose work stayed close to the table, the page,…
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James Beard Award winner
Diane Morgan
## Career Vegetables sit at the center of Diane Morgan’s work, and the strength of that focus is how closely it holds to the food itself. Her cookbooks keep returning to…
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James Beard Award winner
Diane Worthington
Diane Worthington cooks Contemporary Californian and American cuisine with a composure that feels almost architectural: classic in foundation, fresh in spirit, and simple in line.…
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Brewer
Dick Cantwell
The 1999 Great American Beer Festival Large Brewpub of the Year award for Elysian Brewing Company marks a concrete point in Dick Cantwell’s brewing record: public recognition for…
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Master distiller / blender
Dick Stoll
Pennsylvania whiskey is the core of Dick Stoll’s career. That line of work carries its own rules: lineage matters, timing matters, and control of the process matters. Stoll’s name…
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winemaker
Didier Dagueneau
Founder and winemaker are roles, but the lasting subject here is Pouilly-Fumé Sauvignon Blanc under pressure from site, cellar choice, and a refusal to let the grape settle into…
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Sommelier
Diego Arrebola
Since 2024, Diego Arrebola has held the Executive Sommelier post at Grupo Íz. The work traces back to 2004, and the throughline is the same in both service and teaching: building…
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Professional Barista, Amor Perfecto
Diego Campos
Coffee work in Colombia carries a short line between farm, roast, bar, and competition service. In Diego Campos’s case, that line runs through Bogotá, Amor Perfecto, Finca El…
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Pastry chef
Diego Cervantes
Pastry work here is defined by handwork, restraint, and repeatable finish. At Mi Cielo Patisserie in Le Bouscat, Bordeaux, France, Diego Cervantes works with handmade natural…
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Other
Diego Coconati
Diego Coconati is the chef of Lucina Eatery & Bar in Denver. His work sits across Argentine, Venezuelan, and Puerto Rican contexts, shaped by growing up in all three. ## The Climb…
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Winemaker
Diego Cottini
Since 1990, the principal winemaking work at Montezovo in Caprino Veronese, Italy, has sat with Diego Cottini, whose role there continues to the present day. Over that span, his…
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Chef
Diego Della Schiava
Diego Della Schiava’s cooking at THE VIEW in Lugano is built around outstanding product and a direct reading of Italian technique and taste. The food is precise rather than showy,…
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Bocuse d'Or laureate
Diego Felipe Torres Giraldo
## The Climb At Hilton Bogotá, the Executive Sous Chef role places Diego Felipe Torres Giraldo in the daily mechanics of a hotel kitchen: pacing service, holding standards, and…
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World's 50 Best
Dieter Mueller
There is no cascade of venues, no braided trail of roles, no ledger of awards and years to build a more elaborate portrait. What remains is a name, a recognizable marker, and the…
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World's 50 Best
Dieter Muller
Since 2010, Restaurant Dieter Müller on MS Europa has carried a demanding proposition: a named dining room at sea, where the address moves but the standard cannot. Dieter Müller’s…
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Master of Wine
Dilek Caner
Born in Istanbul, Dilek Caner built wine knowledge through study, service, and repetition. Economics at New York University gave the work structure; service at Restaurant Alain…
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James Beard Award winner
Dina Avila
Dina Avila works across food, lifestyle, portrait, and interior photography, and that range is part of the craft. The images move from plates to rooms to people without changing…
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Founder of Dinara Kasko Pastry Art
Dinara Kasko
Dinara Kasko Pastry Art, founded in Ukraine in 2016 by Dinara Kasko, works in the overlap between cake baking, mould production and 3D printing. The useful point for pastry is not…
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James Beard Award winner
Ditte Isager
Her credit on the cookbook places Ditte Isager behind the images, where authorship comes through composition rather than restaurant service. The work is less about kitchen…
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Master distiller / blender
Dixie P. Hibbs
Born January 12, 1942, Dixie P. Hibbs built her public life in Bardstown, Kentucky, through municipal service. In a town where the built past remains part of daily use, her name…
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James Beard Award winner
Dixon Dedman
Dixon Dedman built his reputation in whiskey at Kentucky Owl in 2014, where the work established the terms of a bourbon career grounded in patience, discipline, and a steady hand.…
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World's 50 Best
Dmitri Magi
He has said, “I never went to culinary school, and learned everything I know through my work experience,” and the line fits the shape of the career. Dmitri Magi entered…
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Pastry chef
Dmytro Kolesnikov
Paris sets the scene, 2026 marks the horizon, and sugar work is the discipline that frames his presence in this profile. In a field where patience, temperature, timing, and touch…
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Southern desserts
Dolester Miles
The 2018 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef recognized a Birmingham pastry practice built around Southern desserts, repeatable execution, and a dining-room…
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World's 50 Best
Dolli Irigoyen
Argentine chef Dolli Irigoyen has consistently traced the line of her work back to General Las Heras, Buenos Aires Province. In her own account, that town fixed the terms of the…
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Pastry chef
Domingo Ghirardelli
## Career Domingo Ghirardelli was born in Rapallo, Italy, and later worked in San Francisco, California as a general store proprietor before founding Ghirardelli Chocolate there.…
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World's 50 Best Bars
Dominik MJ Schachtsiek
## At a Glance In the voice of Dominik MJ Schachtsiek, it reads less like flourish than a final proofing mark — direct, controlled, and aware that the work should hold its own…
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Winemaker
Dominique Guignard
Dominique Guignard is the winemaker of Château Roquetaillade La Grange in Mazeres, France. ## The Path Dominique Guignard trained at Purpan School of Agriculture, building a…
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Chef
Dominique Oudin
Dominique Oudin’s cooking at 1621 Restaurant, Cartagena is built on French technique, contemporary cuisine, and ingredients from the Colombian Caribbean coast. The work is precise…
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Dominique Soret
Dominique Soret is Head Chef at L'Assiette au Jardin. The city is unknown.
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Master distiller / blender
Don Cenobio Sauza
Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico is the fixed point in this profile: the place where the Sauza name was attached to founding, acquisition, and house identity. In 1873, Don Cenobio Sauza…
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Master distiller / blender
Don Franco
Italian trattoria work in Levittown, Puerto Rico, took a fixed form when Don Franco opened La Cucina Italiana di Franco e Gemma in 2014. The house was built around fresh, pure…
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James Beard Award winner
Don Guerra
Don Guerra’s formation can be read through bread, farmers, and the community table: the artisan baking practice of Barrio Bread in Tucson, Arizona, the local ingredient sourcing…
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James Beard Award winner
Donald Link
Executive Chef and President of Link Restaurant Group in New Orleans, Donald Link built a career from Southern Cajun cooking, using the flavors of Louisiana as his working…
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Pastry chef
Donald Wressell
Chocolate is where Donald Wressell found both the puzzle and the pleasure. “I have always loved working with chocolate; it's an amazing food with magical qualities,” he has said,…
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Bartender / bar director
Donn Beach
Two roles define the work: American bartending and bar direction. Donn Beach is identified through practice, not decoration, and that is fitting for a career built on the…
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Master distiller / blender
Donna Nally
## Coming Up Kentucky bourbon culture is the through-line in Donna Nally’s work, and it is what her 2026 induction into the Whisky Magazine Hall of Fame in Louisville, Kentucky…
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James Beard Award winner
Donnie Madia
Donnie Madia is the Managing Partner/owner of One Off Hospitality, and he is also a partner there. In a restaurant city that rewards stamina as much as style, the work reads as a…
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James Beard Award winner
Dora Ramírez
## Early Years A vegan Mexican recipe practice took shape in 2015, when Dora Ramirez turned a practical need into published work. The blog began as a response to her mother’s…
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James Beard Award winner
Dorie Greenspan
Dorie Greenspan has built a career around the table and the page, using food writing to hold onto what a meal does after it ends. As an American and a James Beard Award winner,…
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Winemaker
Dorli Muhr
Dorli Muhr works at Weingut Dorli Muhr in Prellenkirchen, Lower Austria, with Blaufränkisch as the central line of her practice. The vineyard, in her framing, is not just a source…
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