The People · Page 14
The artisans of taste.
Chef
Daniel Rose
New York City, New York, United States
As chef at Le Coucou in New York City since 2016, Daniel Rose has built his work around productive dislocation: entering a system he did not grow up in, then learning its codes at…
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Winemaker
Geneviève Janssens
Oakville, California, United States
In Oakville, the work is measured through place: Robert Mondavi Winery, the To Kalon Project, and the chain of decisions that turns fruit into wine in the field, the winery, and…
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Chef
Geoffrey Smeddle
Peat Inn, United Kingdom
## The Path Geoffrey Smeddle trained at Oundle School and University of Southampton before moving into a career shaped by some distinguished kitchens. Today, Geoffrey is Chef…
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Chef
Jackie Ho Hong-sing
Macau, Macau
## The Climb Born in Hong Kong, Jackie Ho Hong-sing’s profile is built on steady kitchen discipline rather than noise. The work points to a craft grounded in Cantonese technique:…
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Chef
Jassimran Singh
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up Culinary school led into the kind of apprenticeship that starts with the least visible work. Jassimran Singh first entered the line as a dishwasher in Melbourne,…
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Sommelier
Jeff Katz
New York City, New York, United States
That title belongs to a front-of-house career built through hospitality leadership and partnership roles, including General Manager and partner at Crown Shy and current ownership…
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Chef
Klaus Erfort
Saarbrücken, Germany
"The truth is on the plate." In Klaus Erfort’s work, that line reads as method, not slogan: keep the kitchen’s language spare, keep technique accountable, and let the finished…
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Chef
Marc Mantovani
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
## The Climb At Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic in Hong Kong, Marc Mantovani works within a format built on control: Modern French cuisine, subtle Asian influences, and a menu…
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Chef
Max Coen
London, United Kingdom
In 2024, the Michelin Guide UK and Ireland awarded one star to Dorian in London, marking the restaurant’s Modern British bistro format as serious trade work rather than casual…
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Director of Winemaking, Opus One
Meghan Zobeck
Oakville, California, United States
Meghan Zobeck is Director of Winemaking at Opus One in Oakville, a role created for her in March 2025. She directs the winery's cellar, harvest, laboratory, bottling, and blending…
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Winemaker, Opus One
Michael Silacci
Oakville, California, United States
Michael Silacci is the winemaker at Opus One in Oakville. He joined as Director of Viticulture and Enology in 2001 and became the estate's sole winemaker in 2003, integrating…
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Winemaker
Paul Hobbs
Maipú, Argentina
Site selection, cellar discipline, and varietal clarity define the working frame here: Paul Hobbs is associated with single-vineyard wines, California Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and…
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Chef
Reimund Brunner
Ortisei, Italy
Reimund Brunner’s work reads as alpine cooking shaped by South Tyrol, where season, altitude, and pace are part of the discipline. In Ortisei, Anna Stuben is the current post, and…
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Winemaker
Tim Mondavi
St. Helena, California, United States
Helena in 2023 reads less like a finish line than a measure of method. In Tim Mondavi’s work, place, inheritance, and conviction converge there, after years spent moving through…
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Winemaker
Warren Winiarski
Oakville, California, United States
Warren Winiarski’s work belongs to the generation that moved American Cabernet Sauvignon from regional promise into international trade argument. The California Hall of Fame…
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Chef
Achim Hack
Reit im Winkl, Germany
Achim Hack is head chef at Gut Steinbach Hotel Chalets SPA in Reit im Winkl, Germany, and that title is the defining fact of his career today. It places him at the center of the…
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Chef
Christoffer Norton
Aarhus, Denmark
Christoffer Norton’s work at Domestic in Aarhus, Denmark is organized around radical locality and fermentation. As owner and head chef at Domestic, and owner and executive chef at…
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Chef
Daisy Ryan
Los Alamos, California, United States
The accolade tracks a specific way of cooking: French classics handled with enough discipline to keep their structure and enough looseness to let them move. Daisy Ryan’s path runs…
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Chef
David McCann
Newmarket On Fergus, Ireland
## The Climb Private chef work in Los Angeles and cater-wait service in New York set the first terms of David McCann’s trade: polish, discretion, timing, and the ability to keep a…
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Founder, Himkok
Erk Potur
Oslo, Norway
Erk Potur is an Oslo hospitality entrepreneur and the founder of Himkok. After opening the brewery-focused Crowbar, he created Himkok in 2015 as a cocktail bar and working…
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Chef
Etsunobu Takahashi
Kinosaki-cho, Japan
Etsunobu Takahashi is Head Chef at Nishimuraya Honkan in Kinosaki-cho, Toyooka, Japan, where his work is shaped by Japanese kaiseki cuisine, the precise, seasonal form that sits…
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Chef
Fabio Iacovone
Cogne, Italy
Fabio Iacovone’s cooking is built on formal training at IPSSAR and years spent inside a single house, where repetition, timing, and restraint matter more than display. At Bellevue…
View →Founder and Mixologist, Bekeb
Fabiola Padilla
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Fabiola Padilla is a Mexican mixologist and the founder of Bekeb in San Miguel de Allende. A former bartender at Enrique Olvera's Cosme in New York, she opened Bekeb in 2019 and…
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Chef
Glenn Verhasselt
Sint-Kwintens-Lennik, Belgium
## Coming Up At Ter Duinen Hotel School, the grounding came through discipline and exactitude, and Glenn Verhasselt carried that training into a style built on control rather than…
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Chef
Juan Gaffuri
Buenos Aires, Argentina
## The Climb That continuity matters in hotel kitchens, where repetition is the training ground and institutional memory is part of the product. Since about 2012, he has served as…
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Chef
Leonor Espinosa
Bogotá, Colombia
Training in Fine Arts gives a cook another way to organize form, color, and cultural reference without turning the plate into decoration. Leonor Espinosa brought that discipline…
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Paul Aguilar Voza
Oslo, Norway
Paul Aguilar Voza is Himkok's research and development manager. Franco-Mexican by background, he lived in Mexico City, Chicago and Montreal, studied marketing and finance at HEC…
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Chef
Peter Hagen-Wiest
Rust, Germany
## Coming Up Technique and place frame the early record: Peter Hagen-Wiest started as Koch at Hotel Messmer in Bregenz, then stayed in Bregenz as Koch at Deuringschlössle before…
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Chef
Stefano Secchi
New York City, New York, United States
Before Stefano Secchi became chef and co-owner of Rezdôra and Massara in New York City, his formation ran through the Culinary Institute of America. That sequence matters in…
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Chef
Anthony Taormina
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
The sequence points to a kitchen career built by accumulation: Michigan training, then executive and director roles across Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, then the close-range…
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Winemaker
Francisco Baettig
Panquehue, Chile
Francisco Baettig has been Chief Winemaker at Viña Seña since 2003, a post that reflects a career built through method rather than flourish. The work is grounded in training at…
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Winemaker, Jordan Vineyard & Winery
Maggie Kruse
Healdsburg, California, United States
Maggie Kruse is the winemaker at Jordan Vineyard & Winery in Alexander Valley. A 2005 UC Davis graduate in viticulture and enology, she joined Jordan as an enologist in 2006,…
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Nacho Solano
Ampuero, Spain
## The Path Chef of Solana, Nacho Solano works from a kitchen that reads the surrounding place as the brief. The title is secondary to the method: a daily practice shaped by…
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Chef
Peter Edris
New York City, New York, United States
## The Path Bread is the center of Peter Edris’s work: loaves identified by grain, fermentation, and structure, where composition comes forward before anything else. In his hands,…
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Chef
Roman Sidorov
Tallinn, Estonia
## Coming Up At NOA Chef's Hall in Tallinn, Roman Sidorov leads a kitchen built on discipline and pace. The work reads as contemporary, but it is not loose: the room, the pass,…
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Chef
Seunghun Park
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
## Coming Up In the Hansik Goo kitchen, Seunghun Park moved through the usual apprenticeship of a working brigade: Sous Chef first, then chef, with the restaurant in Hong Kong as…
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Executive Chef, NOA Chef’s Hall
Tõnis Siigur
Tallinn, Estonia
Tõnis Siigur is the executive chef and restaurateur of Siigur Restaurant Collection, which includes eight establishments such as the flagship NOA Chef’s Hall in Tallinn, Estonia.…
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Chef
Andree Köthe
Nuremberg, Germany
Andree Köthe’s work at Essigbrätlein in Nuremberg is defined by continuity: since 1989 he has held the role of owner and chef there, and since 1997 he has also worked as co-head…
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Founder and Owner, Kwant
Erik Lorincz
London, United Kingdom
Erik Lorincz is the bartender, founder and owner behind Kwant in London's Mayfair. He launched the first iteration in 2019 and reopened Kwant at its current Stratton Street…
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Chef
Fred Mustert
Rotterdam, Netherlands
## The Climb A single house can define a chef’s working identity when the role is both owner and head chef, as it is with Fred Mustert at Fred in Rotterdam. That arrangement keeps…
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Beverage Professional
Lee Campbell
New York City, New York, United States
## The Path Training at the University of Virginia gave Lee Campbell the start; the trade came from service floors, cellars, and production. Campbell moved first into hospitality…
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Head Chef & Co-owner, Ti Trin Ned
Michael Nørtoft
Fredericia, Denmark
## The Climb Kitchen craft is built through repetition before it is expressed through authorship. Early work at Ti Trin Ned in Fredericia, Denmark, placed Michael Nørtoft first as…
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Founder, Drink Kong
Patrick Pistolesi
Rome, Italy
## Coming Up Early in Patrick Pistolesi’s career, bar craft was already showing up as a balance of instinct and technique. In Italy, he worked as bartender, consultant, and…
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Head Chef, Restaurant Syttende
Peter Rødsgaard
Sønderborg, Denmark
Head chef of Restaurant Syttende.
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Founder and Creator, Lyaness
Ryan Chetiyawardana
London, United Kingdom
Ryan Chetiyawardana, also known as Mr Lyan, is the founder and creator behind Lyaness at Sea Containers London. Lyaness describes itself as a bar brought to life by Chetiyawardana…
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Chef
Yves Ollech
Nuremberg, Germany
Born in Wernigerode in 1970, Yves Ollech has been at Restaurant Essigbrätlein since 1997. That kind of tenure matters in trade terms: it means a kitchen voice that has been tested…
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Winemaker
Frédéric Weber
Beaune, France
Technical direction in Beaune rests on the connection between vineyard work, cellar decisions, and the tasting bench. At Bouchard Père & Fils in France, Frédéric Weber works…
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Chef
Jabi Gartzia
Amorebieta-Etxano, Spain
## The Climb At Boroa in Amorebieta-Etxano, Spain, Jabi Gartzia has been the chef there for a long stretch that defined the house as much as it defined the role. Boroa chef from…
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Chef
Jakob de Neergaard
Copenhagen, Denmark
## The Path Classical European kitchen discipline is built through repetition, hierarchy, and service pressure rather than declaration. The early repertoire in Jakob de…
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Winemaker
Miguel Torres Maczassek
Pacs del Penedès, Spain
Miguel Torres Maczassek works from the overlap of inheritance and management: family estate knowledge on one side, business training on the other. Former Manager of Jean Leon…
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Winemaker
Stéphane Follin-Arbelet
Beaune, France
Stéphane Follin-Arbelet works at Domaine Bouchard Père et Fils in Beaune with the sort of close control that scale demands. As managing director of the house, his remit stays tied…
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Chef
Takao Fujiyama
Tokyo, Japan
Kyoto-style kaiseki depends on decisions made before service: where the ingredient is from, who produced it, when it is at its best, and how little the kitchen needs to do to make…
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Winemaker
Thibaut Delmotte
Molinos, Argentina
## Today At Bodega Colomé, the work is built around one plain rule: great fruit leads the wine. Thibaut Delmotte, French and from Bourgogne, France, brought a Burgundian…
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Chef
Jim Ophorst
Phuket, Thailand
The cooking at PRU is built from a conventional professional sequence—school, apprenticeship, commission—and narrowed into a clear working brief: fine dining tied to farm-to-table…
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Chef
Koji Shimomura
Tokyo, Japan
Koji Shimomura’s work is built on French technique learned in France in 1990 and carried into Edition Koji Shimomura in Tokyo, where Light French cuisine is the operating…
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Winemaker
Philippe Guigal
Ampuis, France
Philippe Guigal is the oenologist and chief winemaker at E. Guigal in Ampuis, a role he has held from 1997 to the present. The work sits inside a single house and a family name…
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Chef
Cristian Pontiggia
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
## At a Glance Cristian Pontiggia’s work traces a steady line through Santa Fe, with the city serving as the setting for both his public roles and the way his cooking has been…
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Chef
Gaetan Biesuz
Jimbaran, Indonesia
## The Path Executive Chef at Rumari in Jimbaran, Gaetan Biesuz has worked through the orbit of Raffles Bali into a kitchen defined by Indonesian produce, regional memory, and…
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Chef
Isao Amano
Fukuoka, Japan
## The Climb Head Chef at Tenzushi (Kokura, Fukuoka, Japan) and Executive Chef at Tenzushi Kyomachi (Fukuoka, Japan) is the kind of dual appointment that reads less like expansion…
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Chef
Philipos Staboulis
Platis Gialos, Greece
The route is marked by approved service points rather than broad claims: Restaurant Story in 2014, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Mugaritz, then Myconian Villa Collection and Cabbanes…
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Chef
Pierre Résimont
Arbre, Belgium
## Coming Up Training at the School of Hotel Management of Namur gave Pierre Résimont a kitchen discipline built on timing, restraint, composure, and the room-reading habits that…
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Owner
Sebastian Zuccardi
Maipú, Argentina
"WE SEEK WINES WITH IDENTITY THAT EXPRESS, WITH TRANSPARENCY AND PRECISION, THE PLACE WHERE THEY COME FROM." In Mendoza, that sentence sets the order of operations: site before…
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Chef
Vicky Sevilla
Sagunt, Spain
Vicky Sevilla’s work at Arrels in Sagunt is read through the MICHELIN Guide and Repsol, but the kitchen itself does the proving. The cooking lands in a Mediterranean register:…
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Chef
Félix Jiménez
Logroño, Spain
## Coming Up Training in Tokyo set the terms of Félix Jiménez’s cooking: discipline, repetition, and exacting control. From there, he moved into the role of head chef at Tahini in…
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Chef
Fumio Suzuki
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Fumio Suzuki is Former Executive Chef of Zuicho Hong Kong; now based full-time in Singapore, and the work there is anchored in kappo cuisine and a career shaped by disciplined…
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Chef
Guillermo González Beristain
San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico
In San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico, Pangea works from a clear technical brief: Mexican ingredients kept legible in origin, then tightened through a contemporary frame. Regional…
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Ivan Vukadinovic
London, United Kingdom
## Coming Up French technique and station work define Ivan Vukadinovic’s rise: a progression built at Frenchie, where he joined as demi chef de partie in 2017 before moving to…
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Chef Director, HIDE
Josh Angus
London, United Kingdom
## The Path Training at Sheffield College set the base, but the more useful education came in kitchens where pace, repetition, and standards had to hold. Josh Angus started as an…
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Chef
Kisko Garcia
Córdoba, Spain
Kisko García works the Córdoba line with the discipline of a cook trained in both control and invention. As chef-owner of Choco in Córdoba, Spain, and chef de cuisine at…
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Chef
Philippe Chevrier
Peney-Dessus, Switzerland
He speaks of cooking in terms of transmission, not romance. Replace with a source-supported paraphrase, e.g. “Cooking became his vocation, passed on by his mother and…
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Chef
Victor Quintilla
Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain
Victor Quintilla is the chef of Lluerna in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. He is also the owner and chef of Lluerna Restaurant in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. “What impressed me most was…
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Chef
Christophe Aribert
Saint-Martin-d'Uriage, France
He is a French chef, and he also worked as chef at Grand Hotel Les Terrasses in Uriage-les-Bains, France. In Christophe Aribert’s work, the throughline is steady advancement…
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Chef
Julian Stieger
Lech, Austria
## The Climb A kitchen progression through Landhaus Bacher, Weindlhof, Le Ciel, and Steirereck gave Julian Stieger the base work of high-end service: pace, repetition, precision,…
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Chef
Pamela Brunton
Strachur, United Kingdom
Pamela Brunton has been chef and co-owner of Inver in Strachur, Scotland, United Kingdom, since 2015, and the restaurant’s authority comes from a disciplined reading of place. The…
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Chef
Pedro Lemos
Porto, Portugal
Pedro Lemos’s work is clearest at his namesake restaurant in Porto: a house off the beaten path at the mouth of the Douro river, where the city’s edge is softened by water and…
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Chef & Owner, Estimar Barcelona
Rafa Zafra
Barcelona, Spain
Juan Rafael 'Rafa' Zafra Rodríguez, born in 1981 in Alcalá de Guadaíra near Seville, Spain, is a chef and owner of Estimar restaurants in Barcelona and Madrid, known for modern…
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Chef
Takuto Murota
Tokyo, Japan
Takuto Murota’s work is built from two disciplines that rarely sit together cleanly: formal kitchen training at Musashino Culinary School and hunting. The result is a practice…
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Chef
Calum Montgomery
Isle of Skye, United Kingdom
"The single most important ingredient for me is staff." In Calum Montgomery’s kitchen, that reads less like a line for public consumption than a working principle. At Edinbane…
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Chef
Douce Steiner
Sulzburg, Germany
## The Climb At Hirschen, the cooking is seasonal and inventive, but the method stays anchored in classic French technique and regional produce. Douce Steiner keeps it within a…
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Master distiller / blender
Evan Williams
San Francisco, California, United States
Bar Director at Dalida in San Francisco, California, Evan Williams also serves as Bar Consultant at Maria Isabel in San Francisco, California. ## Coming Up Early in their career,…
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Chef
Laura Ozyilmaz
San Francisco, California, United States
## The Path Laura Ozyilmaz’s background runs through a set of kitchens and schools that reward precision: Ambrosía Centro Culinario, The Culinary Institute of America, and Basque…
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Chef
Sayat Ozyilmaz
San Francisco, California, United States
Before Sayat Ozyilmaz became owner and executive chef of Dalida in San Francisco, his path was already drawing together two worlds that often seem far apart: the analytical…
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Masao Saisu
Tokyo, Japan
## The Essentials by 1983, and the work here is defined less by flair than by repetition, precision, and the discipline to keep refining the details. As a former executive chef…
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Chef
Adam Maddock
Whitby, United Kingdom
Adam Maddock is Executive Chef at Saltmoore, where the cooking is built around seafood and hearty game meat. The line holds because the kitchens behind it have been exacting: the…
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Chef
Alain Verzeroli
Geneva, Switzerland
Alain Verzeroli’s work reads as kitchen discipline built across exacting rooms: Paris, Hong Kong, and Tokyo sit inside a career that has moved through different service cultures…
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Chef
Alan Taudon
Paris, France
## The Path Fine-dining progression shows up clearly in the way Alan Taudon moved through brigade structure and hotel service: BTS training gave him the technical base, Le Cinq…
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Chef & Owner, Magnolia Ristorante
Alberto Faccani
Longiano, Italy
Alberto Faccani is an Italian chef and owner of Magnolia restaurant, which holds two Michelin stars. He opened Magnolia in Cesenatico in 2003 at age 27, and relocated the…
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Chef
Alessandro Guardiani
Cassis, France
## The Path Ruffini Aicardi Institute gave Alessandro Guardiani the baseline discipline that later carried into high-pressure kitchens: structured training, technical repetition,…
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Chef
Alex van As
Hoedspruit, South Africa
In Hoedspruit, South Africa, lodge cooking has to answer to setting, guest preference and operational discipline at the same time. At Jabulani Safari, Alex van As works inside a…
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Chef
Alex Wnorowski
Seoul, South Korea
## Coming Up At Counter- in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Alex Wnorowski served as Head Chef early in his career, a position that helped define the working habits…
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Chef
Alexandre Baumard
Bordeaux, France
## The Climb Le Logis de la Cadène / L’Observatoire du Gabriel (2014–2023) gave Alexandre Baumard a long run in the discipline that matters most in a professional kitchen:…
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Chef
Álvaro Salazar
Canyamel, Spain
Popular Majorcan recipes can be treated as fixed inheritance or as working material. In the cooking associated with Álvaro Salazar, they are re-composed through clarification,…
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Hotelier
André Balazs
Los Angeles, California, United States
Hotel work at the luxury end is an exercise in positioning, operations, and narrative control. In André Balazs's case, the formation runs through Buckingham Browne & Nichols…
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Chef
Angelo Rosseel
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Formed at Ter Groene Poorte, Angelo Rosseel shows the kind of school-built discipline that reveals itself in the smallest corrections: the angle of a cut, the timing of service,…
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Chef
Arthur Muller
Quebec City, Canada
Farm-to-fork cooking at Chez Muffy in Québec City, Canada, is measured in handling rather than spectacle: produce kept central, smoke applied as seasoning, herbs and garden fruit…
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Winemaker
Baptiste Guinaudeau
Pomerol, France
At Château Lafleur in Pomerol, Bordeaux, France, the work is built from farming, cellar work, and fermentation, with Baptiste Guinaudeau keeping the process close to the estate…
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Chef
Benjamin Pfeifer
Wachenheim an der Weinstraße, Germany
He opened Intense in 2017 with his wife Bettina, and the restaurant’s identity has since been built through that partnership. By 2025, and again in 2026, Michelin two-star…
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Chef
Benoît Carcenat
Rougemont, Switzerland
The work reads as grounded and immediate: food tied to memory, but set down on the plate in the present tense. ## The Climb Training in Bordeaux gave Carcenat a base before the…
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Chef
Benoît Vidal
Los Angeles, California, United States
Maison Benoît Vidal in Annecy-le-Vieux, France, earned Two Michelin Guide stars in 2024, recognition that matched the exacting line and controlled finish already associated with…
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Winemaker
Bernardino Sani
Montalcino, Italy
My wine-making philosophy is to create wines that are balanced, elegant, and terroir driven. At Argiano in Montalcino, Italy, that line reads as method rather than slogan:…
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