The People · Page 26
The artisans of taste.
Chef
Shinsaku Nishimura
Tokyo, Japan
Shinsaku Nishimura cooks tempura at Edomae Shinsaku in Tokyo, where the work centers on the discipline of the form rather than the label on the door. ## The Climb The move into…
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Chef de Caves, Ferrari Trento
Cyril Brun
Trento, Italy
Cyril Brun is the Chef de Caves of Ferrari Trento. Born in 1969 in Aÿ in Champagne, he worked at his family estate before joining Veuve Clicquot as a winemaker in 2000. After…
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Chef
Hiroaki Tokuyama
Nagahama, Japan
Hiroaki Tokuyama is the owner of Tokuyama Sushi in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The house work centers on narezushi, the fermented fish-and-rice form regarded as the ancestor of…
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Chef
Issei Yuasa
Tokyo, Japan
Tokushima gives the cooking its working larder: regional seafood, citrus fruits, rice, and Awa bancha. At Nogizaka Shin, Issei Yuasa used those materials as more than regional…
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Matteo Lunelli
Trento, Italy
Matteo Lunelli is President and Chief Executive Officer of Ferrari Trento. He took the helm in 2011 as the third generation of the Lunelli family carried forward the…
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Chef
Patrice Ibarboure
Bidart, France
In Bidart, France, the sweet end of the meal can arrive as mango, coconut, passion fruit and crystallized mint, a composition that gives Patrice Ibarboure’s pastry work its color…
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Chef
Rubén Miralles
Vinaròs, Spain
Rubén Miralles is chef of Rubén Miralles in Vinaròs, Spain, a restaurant name that doubles as a statement of place and method: market-led, season-aware, and built around a kitchen…
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Chef
Toshinori Sakakibara
Kyoto, Japan
## The Path Tempura practice at Kyoboshi is carried through a single fixed role: Toshinori Sakakibara works as chef in Kyoto, with the kitchen in Gion doing the defining. ## The…
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Chef
Xabi Ibarboure
Bidart, France
Xabi Ibarboure’s cooking is anchored in continuity: a house where place, family, and repetition are part of the working method, not the backstory. At La Table des Frères Ibarboure…
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Chef
Alfonso Cicerale
Amalfi Coast, Italy
The clearest marker of the cooking is a disciplined plate: precise seafood, structured courses, and attention to presentation as part of the work, not an afterthought. In Alfonso…
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Chef
Daisuke Takubo
Tokyo, Japan
Owner-chef of TACUBO in Tokyo, Daisuke Takubo works Wood-fired Italian cooking through flame, timing, and ingredient selection. The method is exacting, but the discipline begins…
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Chef
Hayato Takahashi
Tokyo, Japan
Hayato Takahashi works from aroma first. The cooking is built to protect what an ingredient already carries: fragrance, texture, and flavor stay legible on the plate rather than…
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Chef
Jean-Louis Nomicos
Paris, France
His work sits between Paris dining rooms and the Mediterranean arc of southern France, where French technique is filtered through memory, rigor, and the plain clarity of coastal…
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Chef
Marco Marras
Cavaion Veronese, Italy
His work is grounded in Italian cuisine, with a remit that spans both dining rooms rather than a single kitchen. ## The Climb Italian cuisine is the throughline in Marco Marras’s…
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Winemaker
Milena Pepe
Sant'Angelo All'Esca, Italy
## The Climb Since 2005, Tenuta Cavalier Pepe has been owned by Milena Pepe, a role that reads as stewardship rather than display. The work is in holding a place together over…
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Chef
Paolo Griffa
Aosta, Italy
Asked what draws him to cooking, Paolo Griffa answers with plainness: "A deep appreciation for good food." The line says enough. In his hands, the work is about composition,…
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Winemaker
Renée Ary
Napa, California, United States
## Coming Up Winemaking at Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, California started in the lab for Renée Ary, after training at Saint Mary's College and UC Davis. From there, she…
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Chef
Simon Mathys
Montréal, Canada
Since 2021, the work at Mastard in Montréal has been led by Simon Mathys, with local ingredients and a hyper-local focus setting the terms of the kitchen. The style is direct and…
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Chef
Takuhiro Murakawa
Tokyo, Japan
Before opening the restaurant, Takuhiro Murakawa spent ten years at Birdland in Tokyo, a stretch that suggests the patient accumulation of skill, rhythm, and judgment required…
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Winemaker
Yuki Hirayama
Yamanashi, Japan
## Coming Up Japanese winemaking at Mercian and later at Katsunuma Jyozo gave Yuki Hirayama a training ground defined by discipline, repetition, and close attention to process.…
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Chef
Andrew Carmellini
New York City, New York, United States
Andrew Carmellini is an American chef, restaurateur, and Culinary Institute of America alumnus born and raised in Seven Hills, Ohio. He trained in top European kitchens including…
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Chef
Brad Guest
Sydney, Australia
## Where They Are Now Sydney is the city that shaped Brad Guest’s line of work: station by station, he built the timing, discipline, and patience that separate routine service…
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Chef
Ferdinando Bernardi
Benissa, Spain
## The Path Ferdinando Bernardi built his practice by moving through roles that each demanded control of a different part of the kitchen: first taking responsibility for the…
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Chef
Florent Ladeyn
Boeschepe, France
## The Climb At Lycée Paul Hazard d'Armentières, Florent Ladeyn built his base on the sort of training that gives a kitchen its footing: repetition, discipline, and enough…
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Chef
Iñaki Bretal
Pontevedra, Spain
## The Climb Assistant cook at Hostal dos Reis Católicos in Santiago de Compostela gave Iñaki Bretal his first service-floor grounding. From 2001, head chef duties at Hotel NH in…
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Chef
Kazunori Maeiwa
Tokyo, Japan
Kazunori Maeiwa is chef of élan vital in Tokyo and owner-chef of Sushi Akira, a role he has held since 2019. He has also worked as chef at Sushisho Masa. ## Coming Up Sushi…
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Chef
Mathieu Martin
Bouliac, France
Mathieu Martin’s cooking at Le Saint-Georges in Palavas-les-Flots is set inside Regional Languedoc cuisine. The working frame is the Hérault and wider Occitanie: local produce,…
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Bartender / bar director
Michito Kaneko
Nara, Japan
Michito Kaneko founded and owns Lamp Bar in Nara, Japan, a post he has held since 2011. In Nara’s measured pace, the bar is built on classic drink forms and bespoke cocktails,…
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Chef
Oliver Peña
Barcelona, Spain
Oliver Peña’s work sits in the Spanish restaurant trade between pastry discipline, creative-menu development, and Michelin-recognized Barcelona rooms, with consulting work noted…
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Chef
René Mathieu
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
The professional kitchen gives a cook its first grammar: timing, texture, restraint, repetition. In 1986, at Restaurant Le Capucin Gourmand in Baillonville, Belgium, René Mathieu…
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Chef
Anika Madsen
Rosendal, Norway
Anika Madsen works the line at Iris in Rosendal, Norway, where expedition dining is shaped by weather, remoteness, and the practical demands of cooking at the edge of the map. As…
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Chef
Austin Goetzman
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
## The Path The discipline of service and the tempo of fine dining were set early in the kitchen under Gerry Klaskala at Aria Restaurant in Atlanta, where Austin Goetzman learned…
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Chef
Chris Bianco
Los Angeles, California, United States
Chris Bianco is an American chef and restaurateur in Phoenix, Arizona, whose work has become tied to the city’s food identity through a disciplined focus on dough, fire, patience,…
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Winemaker
Daniel Pi
El trapiche, Argentina
## Today Single-vineyard Malbec is where Daniel Pi’s work at Trapiche has been most clearly defined: a style built around site, selection, and the discipline of letting the…
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Geoffrey Lechantoux
New York City, New York, United States
His cooking is built on Classic French technique, seasonal discipline, and the use of locally sourced organic ingredients. Geoffrey Lechantoux works in that register: precise,…
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Chef
Ivan Maniago
Cavi di Lavagna, Italy
## The Climb Technique is the constant in Ivan Maniago’s work: years in luxury hotels and fine dining restaurants in Italy, from 1996–2014, trained him in pace, restraint, and…
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Chef
Jacques Decoret
Vichy, France
## The Path Since 2008, the chef’s work has been bound to Maison Decoret, and Jacques Decoret’s name sits on that continuity as evidence of a long form of authorship. ## The Work…
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Chef
Javier Ramirez
Miami, Florida, United States
## The Path Hospitality, for Javier Ramirez, took shape early as an ownership practice rather than a title. In 2015, he became founder and operator of Alter in Miami, setting a…
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Chef
Julen Bergantiños
Bilbao, Spain
At Islares in Bilbao, Spain, that position is applied through cooking rather than quoted as decoration. In Julen Bergantiños’s hands, history is working material: guisandera…
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Chef
Kai Nalampoon
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
His cooking there is organized around two named dishes: the CRAB FRITTER, a signature that appears consistently on the menu, and the SF EGG. That kind of repetition matters in…
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Chef
Michel Sarran
Toulouse, France
Michel Sarran’s name in Toulouse stands for a kitchen built on precision, warmth, and a long refusal to separate technique from produce. At Michel Sarran, the work is defined less…
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Chef
Mitsuru Konishi
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Mitsuru Konishi works in the French-Japanese register with restraint and exactitude, shaping plates through balance rather than excess. As Executive Chef of Plaisance by Mauro…
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Chef
Nino Rossi
Santa Cristina d'Aspromonte, Italy
## Coming Up Training at Ristorante St. Hubertus set the base line for Nino Rossi’s kitchen work: service rhythm, discipline, and the habits that carry through a brigade. From…
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Chef
René Stein
Nuremberg, Germany
In Nuremberg, Tisane works close to the ground. Seasonal vegetables, freshwater fish, and foraged herbs set the measure of the kitchen, and René Stein uses them without…
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Chef
Shaun Searley
London, United Kingdom
The cooking is direct and product-led: steaks, chops and smaller plates. Shaun Searley puts it plainly: “I cook highly seasonal food, using a light touch to allow the fine quality…
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Chef
Steve Drake
Dorking, United Kingdom
## Coming Up A kitchen career can start at the pass or the prep bench; for Steve Drake, it started making bacon sandwiches in a café. That early work sits at one end of a line…
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Chef
Surender Mohan
London, United Kingdom
The cooking joins Mumbai’s range of flavours and family recipes, with Surender Mohan working that material across London and Jamavar. Read that way, the food is less a hybrid than…
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Chef
Andrew Yeo
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Andrew Yeo’s work sits in the line between domestic repetition and large-scale hospitality. Born and raised in Singapore, he first learned to cook by helping his grandmother…
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Chef
Benjamin Chimura
Munich, Germany
## The Path At Tantris DNA in Munich, Germany, Benjamin Chimura holds the chef title that defines his public career. The record is spare: one restaurant, one city, one current…
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Chef
Egon Heiss
Milan, Italy
Gourmet Restaurant Prezioso in Merano currently holds a MICHELIN Star (2025) under Egon Heiss, and the kitchen reads in the regional register: ancestral recipes kept familiar in…
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Chef
Fabien Mengus
Chardonne, Switzerland
Fabien Mengus studied at the Hospitality School in Illkirch, and that training gave early shape to a kitchen practice built on precision, discipline, and control. The schooling…
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Chef
Fu Yue Liang
Shanghai, China
Fu Yue Liang works in Chinese regional cuisine with a focus on place, and on the discipline required to keep a regional style legible at table. At Yong Yi Ting in Shanghai, his…
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Chef
Gianni Bertone
Pettenasco, Italy
## Coming Up Since 2021, the Head Chef role at Laqua by the Lake has required a clear command of pace, consistency, and kitchen identity, and Gianni Bertone has held that post…
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Chef
Gioacchino Pontrelli
Forte dei Marmi, Italy
Fresh fish-focused cooking on the Versilian coast depends on buying, timing, and restraint before it depends on composition. At Ristorante Lorenzo in Forte dei Marmi, Italy,…
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Chef
Hideo Yasuda
New York City, New York, United States
Hideo Yasuda’s work at Torien in New York City reads as the continuation of a tightly held apprenticeship: technique first, repetition second, and speed only where precision…
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Chef
Hoyoung Kim
New York City, New York, United States
Hoyoung Kim is the former executive chef of Jungsik in Tribeca, New York City. ## The Climb Ecole Ferrandi gave Hoyoung Kim the technical base that later showed up in the work:…
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Jung Sang-won
Busan, South Korea
Jung Sang-won built Born and Bred around Hanwoo beef and the discipline the ingredient requires. The work is narrow by intent: a kitchen organized around one product, handled with…
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Chef
Marc Fontanne
Mexico City, Mexico
"I want people to understand my cooking, to feel at home." ## Coming Up At LEP Branly, the work was built on repetition, precision, and the discipline that sits behind any kitchen…
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Chef
Marcel Vigneron
Los Angeles, California, United States
Marcel Vigneron is Executive Chef and owner of WOLF in Los Angeles, a name tied to molecular gastronomy and to kitchens that measure creativity through control, timing, and…
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Chef
Radek Kašpárek
Prague, Czech Republic
## The Path Seasonal sourcing sits at the center of Field’s kitchen in Prague, and Radek Kašpárek’s role as Executive Chef fits a menu built around what grows in the field and can…
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Chef
Ryan Fancher
San Luis Obispo, California, United States
## The Path Training at Barndiva gave Ryan Fancher the early framework for a career built across California kitchens, with Per Se, El Dorado Kitchen, and Ox + Anchor also part of…
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Chef
Santiago Nieto
Guayaquil, Ecuador
An Ecuadorian chef, Santiago Nieto’s work reads as continuity inside one house: first as Executive Chef at Casa Julián, then as Executive Chef at Casa Julián – Hotel del Parque.…
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Chef
Simoen Nikolov
Fürstenau, Switzerland
Simoen Nikolov’s public record is compact, and that sparsity tells you something useful: the work is meant to be read on the plate and in service, not in a long biography. What is…
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Chef
Torben Schuster
Pulheim, Germany
Torben Schuster’s work is built on apprenticeship, station discipline, and the slower accumulation of responsibility that shapes a kitchen leader. At Gut Lärchenhof in Pulheim,…
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Tsutomu Asanuma
Tokyo, Japan
Tsutomu Asanuma’s work is built on tempura and the discipline it requires: restraint, timing, and consistency. A native of Yamagata Prefecture, he has shaped his career around a…
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Chef
Alejandro Ruiz
Oaxaca, Mexico
Owner Alejandro Ruiz runs Casa Oaxaca El Restaurante in Oaxaca, Mexico, with the work oriented around place, method, and continuity. The restaurant sits inside a Mexican chef’s…
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Chef
Diego René
Málaga, Spain
## The Path Technique here is built around rice, and Diego Ren’s training at Centro de Desarrollo Turístico de Alicante reads as the base that supports that focus. In Málaga, that…
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Chef
Giulio Picchi
Florence, Italy
## The Path Giulio Picchi is the leader of Cibrèo Ristorante & Cocktail Bar, a position that puts craft, ritual, and service under one roof. At Cibrèo, his name is attached to a…
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Chef
Joaquín Baeza Rufete
Alicante, Spain
## Where They Are Now The line at Baeza & Rufete in Alicante, Spain, has been built around rice work since the restaurant opened in 2012. Joaquín Baeza Rufete is the chef and…
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Kenya Sakai
Kyoto, Japan
## The Climb Training at Culinary school in Osaka gave Sakai Kenya a base in technique before the work moved into professional kitchens. From there, Kikunoi Honten in Kyoto added…
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Chef
Laura Hernández Espinosa
Bogotá, Colombia
## Coming Up Wine service asks for method, memory, and control. Laura Hernández Espinosa’s training at University in Buenos Aires, EAS wine school, and University gave that work a…
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Chef
Mahito Owatari
Kyoto, Japan
Mahito Owatari has been chef of Gion Owatari in Kyoto, Japan, since opening the restaurant in 2009. Born in Fukuoka in 1975, he trained at the Osaka kaiseki house Tsumura before…
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Chef
Peter Gilmore
Sydney, Australia
Modern Australian cooking, as practiced in Sydney’s top dining rooms, depends on produce-led menu building, seasonal access, and a clear reading of place; Peter Gilmore is…
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Chef
Alessandro Gilmozzi
Cavalese, Italy
Alessandro Gilmozzi is chef of El Molin (Cavalese, Italy), and his cooking reads like a conversation with the landscape that surrounds him: smoke rising from the fire, the…
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Chef
Atsushi Tanaka
Paris, France
## Coming Up AT’s kitchen has been under Atsushi Tanaka’s ownership since 2014, and the work there is marked by control, contrast, and a clean line of composition. The plates rely…
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Chef
Elide Mollo
Priocca, Italy
## Coming Up At Il Centro in Priocca, Piedmont, Italy, Elide Mollo moved from Head Chef to Executive Chef. That progression points to a kitchen practice built on control, timing,…
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Chef
Frances Tariga-Weshnak
Narberth, United Kingdom
In Narberth, ANNWN is built from local material first: Pembrokeshire foraging, Welsh grain, and lamb from the Preseli Hills. Frances Tariga-Weshnak shapes a solo-chef tasting menu…
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Head Bartender, Artesian
Giulia Cuccurullo
London, United Kingdom
Giulia Cuccurullo is Head Bartender at Artesian at The Langham, London. She joined Artesian in 2018 and leads its cocktail programme. Born in Naples, she began working behind the…
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Chef
Isa Mazzocchi
Borgonovo Val Tidone, Italy
## The Path Formation in hospitality gives a kitchen its first working grammar: sequence, restraint, service, and the discipline to repeat a standard under pressure. For Isa…
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Chef
Jaime David Rodríguez Camacho
Cartagena, Colombia
Chef Jaime David Rodríguez Camacho works from the Colombian Caribbean, using Contemporary Caribbean cuisine as a frame for ingredients, traditions, and biodiversity from Cartagena…
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World's 50 Best
Jaime Rodríguez
Cartagena, Colombia
Chef and owner of Celele in Cartagena, Jaime Rodr has built his practice around making visible what the Colombian Caribbean had long kept in the margins: its ingredients, its…
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Keita Katsumata
Stockholm, Sweden
Executive Chef at Sushi Sho in Stockholm, Sweden, Keita Katsumata works across two cities under one restaurant name, with continuity as the brief. In Stockholm, the role depends…
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Chef, L'Aupiho - Domaine de Manville
Lieven van Aken
Les Baux, France
Lieven van Aken, born in 1987 in Antwerp, Belgium, began his career at Hof Ter Hulst in Hulshout before advancing to Commis and then Premier Chef de Partie at Comme chez Soi in…
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Bar Manager, Artesian
Lorenza Pezzetta
London, United Kingdom
Lorenza Pezzetta is Bar Manager at Artesian at The Langham, London, where she leads the bar's hospitality and operations alongside Head Bartender Giulia Cuccurullo.
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Chef
Benjamin Breton
Lucinges, France
Benjamin Breton is a chef whose work reads through place, pace, and structure. Across his posts, the constant is not spectacle but the making of rooms that function cleanly, with…
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Chef
Bo Bech
Copenhagen, Denmark
## Today At Bobe in Copenhagen, the work is built on control, clarity, and the discipline of subtraction. Bo Bech’s cooking is set up to let each element read cleanly, with…
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Chef
David McMillan
Montréal, Canada
## The Climb Joe Beef’s identity was built on scale, appetite, and a room that made no apology for either, and David McMillan was part of that construction from 2005 to 2021 as…
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Chef
Frédéric Morin
Montréal, Canada
Frédéric Morin cuts against culinary theater whenever it stops serving the food. That resistance to spectacle is part of the craft at Joe Beef in Montréal, Canada: French in base,…
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Chef
Gabriel Drapeau
Montréal, Canada
## The Climb A decade inside Joe Beef Group kitchens gave Gabriel Drapeau a working education in line discipline, service tempo, and the chain of roles that make a restaurant…
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Chef
Heinz O. Wehmann
Hamburg, Germany
Heinz O. Wehmann has held the kitchen at Landhaus Scherrer in Hamburg since 1981, and that kind of continuity is the point. The line from the 1980 Landhaus Scherrer entry to chef…
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Chef
Kelvin Cheung
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
## The Path The role signaled command of the line and the room around it: the ability to set standards, keep pace, and earn trust through consistency rather than noise. That is…
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Chef
Louis Rameau
Flayosc, France
## The Climb Lycée hôtelier d’Occitanie is where the work begins in this profile: the repetition, pace, and technical discipline that shape a chef before a name reaches a dining…
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Chef
Marko Gajski
Val-d'Isère, France
## The Path Formal systems training and market-side work sit unusually close to the kitchen discipline that later defined Marko Gajski’s career. At the Faculty of Organization and…
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Chef
Aviv Moshe
Budapest, Hungary
From Tel Aviv beginnings to kitchens in Netanya, Toronto, Budapest and Berlin, Aviv Moshe’s path has moved through restaurants, private dining and proprietor work before arriving…
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Chef
Clément Dumont
Loches, France
He is associated with Saumur and built his résumé in the Loire Valley before earning One MICHELIN Star in 2023. ## Coming Up Training at Saumur gave Clément Dumont a base in…
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Chef
Dave Beran
Los Angeles, California, United States
Dave Beran works seasonal tasting menus as a format for pacing, restraint, and sequence. The structure gives a chef room to control rhythm course by course, and Beran uses it to…
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Chef
Guillaume Laublanc
Santa-Reparata-di-Balagna, France
## The Path Training at Poligny gave Guillaume Laublanc a foundation built on discipline and precision, the kind of start that tends to carry into every later service. From there,…
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Winemaker
Hans Oliver Spanier
Hohen-Sülzen, Germany
## The Climb From 1991 onward, Hans Oliver Spanier founded Weingut Battenfeld-Spanier in Hohen-Sülzen, and that start set the terms for the work that followed: patient, exacting,…
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Haruka Katayanagi
Tokyo, Japan
Haruka Katayanagi is chef and owner of Oniku Karyu in Tokyo, where wagyu kaiseki sets the structure of a menu that also includes wagyu sushi, beef stew, and steak. The work is…
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Chef
Istvan Veres
Budapest, Hungary
## Coming Up At Babel Budapest, Istvan Veres works in a kitchen where service is the test and consistency is the metric. The role of head chef there is less about title than about…
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