The People · Page 20
The artisans of taste.
Winemaker
Hedley Wright
Campbeltown, United Kingdom
Hedley Wright’s work is tied to a single place and a single whisky house. In a trade that often rewards movement, Springbank in Campbeltown marks a different kind of career: one…
View →
Winemaker
Helen Keplinger
St. Helena, California, United States
## The Path Winemaking here is built on formal study and cellar responsibility rather than origin-story gloss. Helen Keplinger studied at Smith College and then trained at the…
View →
Winemaker
Helen Turley
St. Helena, California, United States
Helen Turley’s reputation rests on a disciplined idea of quality: ripe grapes from selected vineyards, handled to produce wines with concentration and polish. The work is defined…
View →
winemaker
Helmut Dönnhoff
Oberhausen an der Nahe, Germany
## The Path Nahe Riesling is built from site before cellar. Oberhausen an der Nahe, in the Nahe, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, gives Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff its working ground:…
View →
Distiller
Ian Chang
Yuanshan, Taiwan
Whisky making changes under climate pressure, and Ian Chang’s current work at Komoro Distillery in Japan places that question at the center of production. As Co-founder, Master…
View →
Chef
Igor Arregui
Getaria, Spain
At Kaia Kaipe in Getaria, Spain, the work starts with seafood and live heat. Fish and shellfish are handled through a narrow register: embers, timing, product condition, and the…
View →
Winemaker
Isabel Ferrando
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France
In Châteauneuf-du-Pape, work at Domaine Saint Préfert is built around Grenache, sandy Southern Rhône terroir, and cellar choices that keep extraction, vessel, and time in view. As…
View →
Winemaker
Isabelle Sabon
Courthézon, France
Grenache at Domaine de la Janasse is handled as a variety with breadth, warmth, and a ready move toward rusticity. In Courthézon, France, that work is shared by Isabelle Sabon and…
View →
Winemaker
Jacques Thienpont
Saint-Julien-Beychevelle, France
Pomerol Merlot carries the weight here: small-production Right Bank work from prime terroir, with a debut vintage of 1979 and a scale that leaves little room for casual decisions.…
View →
Winemaker
Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon
Beauchamp, France
Viticulture and oenology set the working frame for Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon: agriculture first, cellar decisions in service of site, and Champagne treated as a discipline that…
View →
Winemaker
Jean-Luc Zuger
Margaux, France
## The Path At Château Malescot Saint-Exupéry in Margaux, France, the role of Managing Director has been Jean-Luc Zuger’s since 1994. In a family estate, continuity is part of the…
View →Winemaker
Jeff Brinkman
Los Gatos, California, United States
Jeff Brinkman’s work at Rhys Vineyards is defined by continuity inside a single estate. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, the throughline is not movement for its own sake,…
View →
Distiller
Jim McEwan
Bruichladdich, United Kingdom
## The Ascent Coopering is one of whisky’s base trades: wood, metal, pressure, and time managed before spirit ever enters the cask. In Islay, Scotland, Jim McEwan entered that…
View →
Distiller
Jim Rutledge
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, United States
Bourbon work rewards operators who can hold production, maturation, and consistency in the same frame. Jim Rutledge’s record runs through Seagram's Company, a Kentucky barrel…
View →
Winemaker
Jonathan Maltus
Saint-Émilion, France
Jonathan Maltus has been winemaker at Le Dôme in Saint-Émilion, France, since 1996. That tenure is the clearest measure of his method: long, exacting, and built around one test —…
View →
Winemaker
Julian Gout
Aÿ, France
## The Path Julian Gout’s career was built through repetition, observation, and a long apprenticeship inside a single house. At Champagne Ayala in Aÿ, France, he first learned the…
View →
Associate Winemaker, Atelier Melka; Former Winemaker and General Manager, Burgess Cellars
Kelly Woods
St. Helena, California, United States
Kelly Woods is an Associate Winemaker at Atelier Melka and an independent consulting winemaker. A UC Davis viticulture and enology graduate, she became head winemaker at Burgess…
View →
Winemaker
Laurence Feraud
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France
She took on full oversight and winemaking at the estate in 2005. ## The Climb Laurence Feraud trained at Macon and Paris before returning to the family orbit at Domaine du Pegau…
View →
Winemaker
Laurent Champs
Rilly-la-Montagne, France
Laurent Champs works the wines at Vilmart & Cie in Rilly-la-Montagne, France, while also overseeing the domaine there. In a region often discussed through precision, lineage, and…
View →
Winemaker
Laurent Charvin
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France
Laurent Charvin holds Domaine Charvin to a simple, exact model: estate wine made, bottled, and sold under one name in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. ## Coming Up In 1990, Domaine Charvin…
View →
Winemaker
Louis Skinner
Redmond, Washington, United States
## Career Louis Skinner’s career has been built in the slow, practical way wine work tends to reward: study first, then cellar time, then buying, then the added responsibility of…
View →
Chef
Mads Battefeld
Copenhagen, Denmark
Owner and head chef of Sushi Anaba in Copenhagen, Mads Battefeld is known for restraint, precision, and the discipline of Traditional Edomae sushi. The public record is compact: a…
View →
Winemaker
Marc Monrose
Cogolin, France
## Where It Started The work here is rosé, and specifically the estate’s Côtes de Provence rosés. With Marc Monrose, the category is treated as a house style to be maintained with…
View →
Winemaker
Marc Nanes
Napa, California, United States
Marc Nanes works at Kenzo Estate in Napa, where winemaking follows the slower logic of the vineyard rather than the pace of the market. The craft here is timing: letting fruit…
View →
Master distiller / blender
Margie Samuels
Loretto, Kentucky, United States
That founding role is the central fact in Margie Samuels’ record. For anyone reading the name through the craft of brand-building, Maker's Mark is the clearest way to place her…
View →
Winemaker
Marielle Cazaux
Saint-Émilion, France
“A great wine can’t exist without a great terroir.” ## Coming Up Terroir sits at the center of the work at Château La Conseillante, and Marielle Cazaux came to it through formal…
View →
Winemaker
Mark Adams
Paso Robles, California, United States
"I’ve been in bands all my life" is useful here only as a craft clue: rhythm, listening, timing, and adjustment are part of how Mark Adams approaches wine. Before Ledge Vineyards…
View →
Chef
Masaaki Uchino
Washington DC, Washington DC, United States
## The Path Early in his career, Masaaki Uchino held both executive chef and head chef responsibilities at Sushi Nakazawa DC in Washington, DC, before later becoming associated…
View →
Winemaker
Michel Davesne
Aÿ, France
Champagne cellar work is a trade of delayed proof: base wines, élevage, blending judgment, closure, and time all have to hold their line before the wine reaches the glass. In Aÿ,…
View →
Winemaker
Miguel A. Torres
Vilafranca del Penedès, Spain
Miguel A. Torres is the Spanish president and Managing Director of Bodegas Torres in Vilafranca del Penedès, Spain, and a fourth generation steward of one of the country’s most…
View →
Winemaker
Nicolas Groffier
Morey-Saint-Denis, France
Nicolas Groffier works from continuity, not reinvention: the family domaine in Morey-Saint-Denis has been the frame for his role at Domaine Robert Groffier Père & Fils, with the…
View →
Winemaker
Nicolas Thienpont
Listrac-Médoc, France
Nicolas Thienpont has worked in Bordeaux long enough for patience to become part of the method. In Saint-Émilion, his name is attached to estate direction, vineyard balance, and…
View →
Winemaker
Odilon de Varine
Épernay, France
Born in Reims, Odilon de Varine was raised in the daily weather of vineyard work, where timing, observation, and restraint are learned early. That background is visible in a…
View →
Winemaker
Olivier Castèja
Saint-Julien-Beychevelle, France
Château Doisy-Védrines in Saint-Julien-Beychevelle, France, defines the work of Olivier Castèja: dessert wine shaped by patience, precision, and a controlled mix of modern and…
View →
Winemaker
Peter Devison
Walla Walla, Washington, United States
The work traces from University of British Columbia and Lincoln University into Washington wineries, where Peter Devison built range by moving through successive winemaking posts.…
View →
Winemaker & Owner, Dominio de Pingus
Peter Sisseck
Pesquera de Duero, Spain
"It's a great honor to participate in forming the new Spain," Peter Sisseck says. The useful point for the trade is the position behind the sentence: Ribera del Duero could be…
View →
Winemaker
Phil Steinschriber
Calistoga, California, United States
## The Climb Training at University of California, Los Angeles (1973) and California State University, Fresno gave Phil Steinschriber a formal base before his work moved between…
View →
Winemaker
Piero Antinori
San Casciano in Val di Pesa, Italy
The handoff placed a historic wine business in the care of a steward working inside a long lineage, where every decision sits between inherited standards and the realities of a…
View →
Winemaker, Bérêche et Fils
Raphaël Bérêche
Vaudemange, France
Raphaël Bérêche is one of the brothers leading Bérêche et Fils, the family grower Champagne estate based in Ludes.
View →
Chef
Raymond Tham
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur is the fixed point in Raymond Tham’s work, but the method extends well beyond the city. In Beta’s kitchen, Lawas rice, abalone, local caviar from Tanjung Malim, and…
View →
Winemaker
Renaud Fillioux de Gironde
Cognac, France
## Coming Up Since 2017, Renaud Fillioux de Gironde has held the Master Blender post at Hennessy, where the work depends on selection, aging, and restraint rather than visible…
View →
Chef
Rick Shell
Cape Neddick, Maine, United States
Rick Shell has led the kitchen at Cliff House Maine in Cape Neddick, Maine, as Executive Chef since 2016. He trained at The Culinary Institute of America before joining Cliff…
View →
Winemaker
Ryan Roark
Los Olivos, California, United States
## The Path The discipline here starts in the vineyard. Texas A&M gave Ryan Roark the base, then the Angers, France agricultural internship program in Angers, France and Domaine…
View →
Winemaker
Sally Johnson
St. Helena, California, United States
High-elevation Cabernet Sauvignon sets a demanding brief: altitude, exposure, tannin, aromatic detail, and the patience to keep block identity intact through élevage. In Sally…
View →
Winemaker
Sally Johnson Blum
St. Helena, California, United States
Sally Johnson Blum, winemaker and founder of STEREOGRAPH, came into the trade through an uncommon but practical mix: science, language, and cellar work. The University of Michigan…
View →
Winemaker
Sam Kaplan
Calistoga, California, United States
His Napa Valley career includes an earlier winemaking and vineyard-management role, work that still reads through the way Sam Kaplan moves across vineyards, cellars, and finished…
View →
Chef
Sergio Ortiz de Zarate
Bilbao, Spain
Sergio Ortiz de Zarate’s cooking at Zarate in Bilbao is framed by a compact rule: “Sea cuisine, not seafaring cuisine.” The distinction matters. It points to a kitchen built…
View →
Chef
Thibaut Hontanx
Jarnac, France
## Coming Up At Courvoisier in Jarnac, Thibaut Hontanx built his early practice in distillation through the patient work of reading stills, managing timing, and tracking the small…
View →
Winemaker
Thierry Usseglio
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France
Thierry Usseglio’s work is defined by continuity inside a single domaine and a single appellation. At Domaine Pierre Usseglio in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France, the line between…
View →
Winemaker
Thomas Savre
Salem, Oregon, United States
As director of winemaking and viticulture at Lingua Franca Winery in the Eola-Amity Hills of the Willamette Valley, Thomas Savre works from a plain rule: wines should register…
View →
Winemaker
Thomas Soubes
Talence, France
PAGE: Château La Gaffelière — Château La Gaffelière (Saint-Émilion, France) | We started picking on 10th September and finished on 29th September, which is a short period. | Maybe…
View →
Head Winemaker, Force Majeure Vineyards
Todd Alexander
Walla Walla, Washington, United States
Todd Alexander is the Head Winemaker at Force Majeure Vineyards in Washington State's Red Mountain AVA and Walla Walla Valley, where he crafts estate-grown, single-vineyard…
View →
Winemaker
Valérie Rousselle
Lorgues, France
Provence estate work sits at the junction of vineyard, cellar, hospitality, and public representation. Since 1994, that work at Château Roubine in Lorgues, France, has been…
View →
Chef
Vaughan Mabee
Queenstown, New Zealand
## The Path The early line on Vaughan Mabee is the one that counts in trade terms: he started in dish suds, learning service from the bottom of the pass. That foundation shows up…
View →
Winemaker
Véronique Drouhin-Boss
Dayton, Oregon, United States
Burgundy winemaking depends on transmitted practice as well as formal technical training: reading vineyards, making cellar decisions, and holding a house line through repetition.…
View →
Winemaker
Véronique Sanders
Léognan, France
Véronique Sanders has served as General Manager at Château Haut-Bailly in Léognan since 2000. The role came after years of proximity to the estate itself: some of her earliest…
View →
Chef
Victor Palma
Los Cabos, Mexico
## Career Victor Palma’s career is built in resort kitchens where consistency, timing, and guest-facing polish carry as much weight as production. That standard has followed him…
View →Winemaker, Bérêche et Fils
Vincent Bérêche
Ludes, France
Vincent Bérêche’s work at Champagne Bérèche & Fils in Ludes is built on vineyard reading: tracking seasons, weather shifts, and the slow adjustments that carry a house through the…
View →
Winemaker
Vincent Dauvissat
Chablis, France
The work of Vincent Dauvissat is best read through structure: Chablis shaped by tension, mineral line, and exact placement of fruit. In wines such as Les Clos, Les Preuses, La…
View →
Winemaker
Vincent Mongeard
Vosne-Romanée, France
Vincent Mongeard has led Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret in Vosne-Romanée, France since 1995, with his earlier work there running from viticulture and vinification into full…
View →Winemaker
Vincent Montigaud
Taradeau, France
## The Idea Wine, in Vincent Montigaud’s framing, starts with weather, then fruit, then the people who read both. That order matters. It puts climate ahead of style, grapes ahead…
View →
Chef
Choonghu Lee
Seoul, South Korea
As Executive Chef of FESTA in Seoul, South Korea, Choonghu Lee worked in a form of Korean-French precision dining that depended on technique before display. French bistro methods…
View →
Chef
Colin McGurran
Winteringham, United Kingdom
From Zambia to Bournemouth College, Colin McGurran’s career has moved through kitchens, countries and forms of service without settling into a single pattern. The throughline is…
View →
Chef
Kyle McClelland
Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States
Chef of Saltie Girl - Los Angeles in Los Angeles, Kyle McClelland’s record is built the usual way: school first, then line work, then progressively larger rooms and titles. The…
View →
Executive Chef, TOPPER'S at The Wauwinet
Kyle Zachary
Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States
Kyle Zachary is the Executive Chef at TOPPER'S at The Wauwinet in Nantucket, United States, where he is recognized by Relais & Châteaux for his fine dining expertise featuring…
View →
Executive Chef, Jean-Georges Shanghai
Nikolai Grigorov
Shanghai, China
Nikolai Grigorov is the Executive Chef at Jean-Georges Shanghai, where he transforms classic French dishes with bold Asian-inflected seasonings and unexpected flavor combinations…
View →Chef
Nobuhiro Sakanishi
Fukuoka, Japan
## The Climb Chef-owner is the operative title at Chikamatsu, and Nobuhiro Sakanishi uses it to hold both the room’s rhythm and the restaurant’s standard. The role is not framed…
View →
Chef
Szilárd Tóth
Budapest, Hungary
## Coming Up At Salt in Budapest, the work has been led since 2019 by Szilárd Tóth as Head Chef and co-owner, with the kitchen framed less as a showcase than as a place of…
View →
Chef
Antonio Biafora
San Giovanni in Fiore, Italy
He describes the kitchen in territorial terms: “Hyle offers a cuisine of territory, it speaks strong Calabrian, but tries to make it contemporary.” The work sits between…
View →
Restaurateur
Benjamin Goldberg
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Benjamin Goldberg is the founder and co-owner of Strategic Hospitality in Nashville, a role he has held since 2006. Raised in the city, his work has been shaped by long…
View →
Chef
Josh Habiger
New York City, New York, United States
A Michelin star at Bastion in Nashville in 2025 is the cleanest external read on Josh Habiger’s work as chef and co-owner, but the mark only points to the discipline underneath.…
View →
Chef
Matias Perdomo
Milan, Italy
Matias Perdomo is the Uruguayan chef at Contraste in Milan, a role he has held since 2015. Born in Uruguay, he has moved through a compact but distinctive career arc: from kitchen…
View →
Restaurateur
Max Goldberg
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
## The Climb Since 2006, co-owner and co-founder Max Goldberg has built Strategic Hospitality around the slower craft of making places work: setting the frame, aligning the team,…
View →
Chef
Pablo Sánchez
Fuengirola, Spain
Pablo Sánchez leads service at Los Marinos José in Fuengirola, Spain, with a kitchen style built on order, timing, and close attention to produce. As Head Chef, he works in a…
View →
Chef
Riccardo Gaspari
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Milk, animals, woods, and altitude set the working order for agri-cooking in Cortina d’Ampezzo before a dish is composed. At SanBrite, where Riccardo Gaspari is chef and owner,…
View →
Chef
Trevor Moran
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Trevor Moran works as chef and co-owner of Locust in Nashville, and that current role sits on top of a longer pattern: kitchen work built in stages, with judgment sharpened…
View →
Restaurateur & Chef, Au Cheval
Brendan Sodikoff
New York City, New York, United States
Wood paneling, tufted leather, beef jus, and horseradish cream set the working vocabulary here: direct materials, visible comfort, and food built around appetite rather than…
View →
Chef
Emmanuelle Baron
Ondara, Spain
École hotelière SAINT MICHEL MONT MERCURE and École hotelière LA BONNAUDERIE gave Emmanuelle Baron the technical base that runs through her work: service discipline, kitchen…
View →
Chef
Greg Marchand
Paris, France
His career starts with early kitchen discipline: at 15, in the west of France, Greg Marchand entered the trade young enough to make pace and repetition part of the method. That…
View →
Chef
Brian Dunsmoor
Los Angeles, California, United States
Since 2022, Brian Dunsmoor has been chef and owner at Dunsmoor in Glassell Park, Los Angeles, United States. The role puts authorship, operations, and the dining room under one…
View →
Chef
Evan Rich
San Francisco, California, United States
## Career The line from dish pit to owner is the useful fact here. Evan Rich started at 15 as a dishwasher at Homeward Bounty in Westfield, New Jersey, then moved through The…
View →
Chef
Sarah Rich
San Francisco, California, United States
## The Path The discipline in Sarah Rich’s cooking was built across a sequence of exacting kitchens. The French Culinary Institute gave her the baseline; Bouley in New York City…
View →
Chef
Takayoshi Yamaguchi
Nonoichi, Japan
## The Path Noto-mae nigiri sets the frame for Takayoshi Yamaguchi’s work at Mekumi - すし処 めくみ in Nonoichi, Japan. The style demands control, and the kitchen responds in kind:…
View →
Chef
Ana Castro
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
At Lengua Madre in New Orleans, the work moved through grain, chile, shell, and acid—the core grammar of Mexican cooking. House-milled corn, ancho and guajillo, shrimp heads and…
View →
Chef
Benjamin Ferra
London, United Kingdom
Born in Angers and raised inside a family with a long restaurant pedigree, Benjamin Ferra entered cooking with inherited context rather than a blank slate. That matters in kitchen…
View →
Chef
David Olivas
Marbella, Spain
His public record is compact: hospitality training, one named kitchen, and recognition from two major guides in 2023. What sits inside that outline is a methodical way of cooking,…
View →
Managing Partner, PDT
Jeff Bell
New York City, New York, United States
American Bartender of the Year in 2017, Jeff Bell built his reputation on precision, restraint, and a direct read on what service demands. In the glass, that means work stripped…
View →
Chef
Johan Jureskog
Stockholm, Sweden
Johan Jureskog entered the trade on the floor, at Rolfs kök in Stockholm, where service sets the pace and the kitchen learns by repetition. Born on 5 July 1975, he built a career…
View →
Chef
Johan Jureskog | Martin Kjäll
Stockholm, Sweden
## The Climb Competition kitchens helped set the discipline behind Johan Jureskog | Martin Kjäll's work. Culinary Olympics in Erfurt (2004) placed him in a format built on…
View →
Executive Chef & Owner, Les Petites Canailles
Julien Asseo
Paso Robles, California, United States
Julien Asseo, born in Libourne, France to vineyard owners, earned a bachelor's degree in culinary arts from Lycée Hôtelier de Gascogne near Bordeaux before working in Paris at La…
View →
Chef
Kevin Bonello
Mdina, Malta
In Mdina, Malta, the cooking was built from island materials and regular supplier contact: grouper from familiar waters, eggplant cooked for depth, tomato fondue carrying…
View →
Chef
Laurent Cherchi
Montpellier, France
## The Climb Early kitchen work taught Laurent Cherchi the habits that separate movement from noise: clean execution, repeatable gestures, and attention under pressure. In the…
View →
Chef
Martin Kjäll
Stockholm, Sweden
## The Path The role of Meat Master at AG defines Martin Kjäll’s profile more clearly than any broader biographical framing. It is a title built on precision, repetition, and…
View →
Chef
Meghan Clark
San Francisco, California, United States
Meghan Clark is the Chef de Cuisine of Nari in San Francisco, and that post sits at the center of a career shaped entirely inside the city’s restaurant kitchens. Precision, pace,…
View →
Chef
Michael Beltran
Miami, Florida, United States
In Coconut Grove, Florida, the work at Ariete in Miami is built on discipline as much as memory. Michael Beltran’s cooking sits in Cuban-American tradition, but the useful detail…
View →
Chef
Peter Armellino
Saratoga, California, United States
Peter Armellino’s work sits inside California cuisine’s practical discipline: seasonal cooking, clean lines, and technique that doesn’t need to announce itself. The kitchen’s…
View →
Chef
Steffan Heerdt
Tokyo, Japan
Steffan Heerdt’s career sits inside hotel dining’s exacting middle ground: repetition, standards, and the ability to keep a room moving without losing control of the plate. The…
View →Founder, Perseus Hotels; Creator, Hôtel du Couvent
Valéry Grégo
Nice, France
Valéry Grégo is a French hotelier and the founder of Perseus Hotels. He created Hôtel du Couvent in Nice from a restored 17th-century convent and also developed a portfolio that…
View →
Chef
Yutaka Yamato
Paje, Tanzania
## The Climb Training at University of North Texas gave Yutaka Yamato the technical base that shows up later in the work: precision, discipline, and a cooking style built on…
View →
Chef
Amine Errkhis
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
In Hong Kong steak cookery at The Steak House at Regent Hong Kong is organized around beef selection, dry-aging, and live charcoal. Since 2022, Amine Errkhis has been Head Chef in…
View →