The People · Page 53
The artisans of taste.
Winemaker
Zsolt Palkó
Badacsonytomaj, Hungary
## The Climb Riesling sits at the center of Zsolt Palkó’s work, and the style attached to his name is clear: laser-precise, mineral-driven wine from Villa Sandahl in Badacsony,…
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Christophe Andt
Strasbourg, France
Christophe Andt leads the kitchen at Au Pont Corbeau in Strasbourg as Executive Chef, and the work is firmly rooted in Alsatian cuisine. The line he holds is clear: the regional…
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Chef
Eugenio Boer
Milan, Italy
Eugenio Boer works at [bu:r] in Milan, Italy, where the name is carried less through signage than through structure: spare, pointed, and set with control. The kitchen language is…
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Sommelier
Francesco Marzola
Oslo, Norway
## Coming Up Wine study began early for Francesco Marzola: at 17, he tasted his first “eureka” wine. That first encounter set the terms for the work that followed. Trained at…
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Chef
Frédéric Menager
Bligny-sur-Ouche, France
## The Path Seasonal cooking is the frame for Frédéric Menager’s work today at Ferme de la Ruchotte, where the menu reads through the year rather than against it. ## The Work…
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Chef
Hatano Yoshiki
Tokyo, Japan
## The Path The discipline of Edomae omakase and Traditional Tokyo-style sushi sits at the center of Hatano Yoshiki’s work. The style is exacting without being ornamental, with…
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Iacopo Chomel
Paris, France
## The Path French cuisine is the frame around Iacopo Chomel’s work, and the shape of that frame has been built over time in Paris kitchens. Since 2016, he has held the chef post…
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Chef
Jean Paul Bondoux
y Av del Mar, Uruguay
Chef Patron Jean-Paul Bondoux still runs La Bourgogne in Punta del Este, Uruguay, the restaurant he has led from 1981 to the present. The useful fact for the trade is continuity:…
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Chef
José del Castillo
Lima, Peru
José del Castillo founded Isolina Taberna Peruana in Lima, Peru, and opened it as a tribute to his mother. That fact sits at the center of the work: a restaurant built from…
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Chef
Naren Thimmaiah
Bangalore, India
## The Path Training at Murnad, MGM College, Udupi, and Srinivas College of Hospitality, Mangalore gave Naren Thimmaiah a route into kitchen work shaped by place, repetition, and…
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Chef
Nathan Kim
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Nathan Kim, executive chef of Obélix in Chicago, United States, is read first through the discipline of the food: French cuisine with enough room for Korean memory to register…
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Chef
Philippe Deschamps
Carcassonne, France
Philippe Deschamps is chef of Restaurant Bernard Rigaudis at Domaine d'Auriac in Carcassonne, where the cooking is built from local produce, seasonal rhythm, and the working…
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Chef
Ramael Scully
London, United Kingdom
From Le Cordon Bleu into Ottolenghi Islington in 2005, then through NOPI and the 2018 opening of Scully St James’s, Ramael Scully’s London work reads as a steady widening of…
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Chef
Rick Dingen
Phuket, Thailand
The cooking at JAMPA is built on a disciplined zero-waste, farm-to-table ethic. Under Rick Dingen, humble vegetables are pushed toward clear expression, live fire adds heat and…
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Yoshio Kusakabe
Tokyo, Japan
## Coming Up At Shinbashi Kanetanaka, the work was discipline first: measured pacing, exact repetition, and a serious standard for technique. Kusakabe was formed in that setting,…
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Chef
Alberto Navari
Florence, Italy
Home cooking and seasonal cuisine define Alberto Navari’s work. The style is built on what the day brings in: produce at its best, a kitchen that responds quickly, and a menu…
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Chef
Álvaro Arbeloa
Marbella, Spain
Álvaro Arbeloa has been chef and owner-partner at Ta-Kumi in Marbella since 2011. The work sits on movement, precision, and restraint: a kitchen language that values clarity…
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Chef
Anan Sugeno
New York City, New York, United States
Tokyo Tonkotsu Ramen is the working craft carried through Tonchin New York in New York City, with Anan Sugeno as Founder and President. The same house practice extends through…
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Master Sommelier
Andrew Myers
Washington DC, Washington DC, United States
## The Path Training at Lincoln Tech gave Andrew Myers the base layer: formal technique, kitchen discipline, and the habit of repetition that work demands. From there, the line…
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Chef
Armando Álvarez
Barcelona, Spain
## Coming Up Capet in Gràcia, Barcelona (2014–2018) established Armando Alvarez as a chef-owner who built a restaurant’s identity through consistency rather than noise. The room…
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James Beard Award winner
Asma Khan
London, United Kingdom
The thread connecting cooking to practice here is plain: Asma Khan says food is “a language of love,” and that idea stays operational, not ornamental. In her work, feeding is…
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Chef
Daisuke Yamane
Osaka, Japan
Daisuke Yamane’s work at PONTE VECCHIO in Osaka is built around control rather than display. As owner-chef and Executive Chef, he favors Italian cooking that keeps the frame…
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Chef
Enrique Olivera
Mexico City, Mexico
Molino El Pujol in Mexico City is built around the daily work of masa under the direction of Enrique Olivera, a chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America. The line of…
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Chef
Iwan Driessen
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Since 2011, Iwan Driessen has held a rare kind of line in Amsterdam dining: chef-patron, Chef de cuisine and co-owner of Rijsel, with the restaurant’s identity built through…
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Chef
Jason Hammel
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Before Jason Hammel became Executive Chef and owner of Lula Cafe in Chicago, his work was shaped by the kind of training that gives a kitchen both discipline and range. Brown…
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Chef
Jochen Kreppel
Munich, Germany
Jochen Kreppel cooks at Der Dantler in Munich with the discipline of a kitchen shaped by ownership and then pared back to direct, seasonal work. The setup favors clarity over…
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Chef
Karl Torbjørn Andersen
Oslo, Norway
His route can be traced cleanly through Møre barne- og ungdomsskule and Ørskog VGS before the kitchen leadership role that defines his public work. It reads as a measured…
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Chef
Kevin Keovanpheng.
San Francisco, California, United States
Kevin Keovanpheng is chef of Good Good Culture Club in San Francisco. The role places his work inside a clear geography: born in Chicago, raised in San Diego, now leading a…
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Chef
Leonardo D'Ingeo
Milan, Italy
## The Climb Contemporary cooking in Milano has been one reference point for Leonardo D'Ingeo, who worked as chef at Cà-ri-co Milano from 2020–2024. That room placed his early…
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Chef
Lorenzo Loseto
Toronto, Canada
## Coming Up In Toronto, the line work at Lotus (Susur Lee) gave Lorenzo Loseto an early read on pace, discipline, and what a high-calibre kitchen demands from its Sous Chef. The…
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Chef
Matteo Marini
Isola Dovarese, Italy
Matteo Marini’s work at Caffè La Crepa in Isola Dovarese, Italy, is built on continuity rather than reinvention. Since 2003, the same kitchen has been the setting for a career…
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Chef
Michael Stoltzfus
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
## Career Michael Stoltzfus’s work has been Coquette in New Orleans, the restaurant he led as chef and owner from 2008 to 2026. That kind of long run does more than mark time: it…
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Nick Pimentel
Washington DC, Washington DC, United States
He started in graphic design, and that training shows up in the way the restaurant is put together: balance, composition, and attention to detail carry over cleanly into…
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Nigel Brown
St Austell, United Kingdom
## In Their Words **“I hope the menus will include fresh and unfussy dishes that will appeal to all ages and appetites.”** ## The Recognition The authority here comes from the…
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Chef
Oswaldo Oliva
Mexico City, Mexico
## Coming Up The line from El Celler de Can Roca to Mugaritz established the working frame for Oswaldo Oliva: kitchens where technique and thought are treated as one practice, not…
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Chef
Ryan Bartlow
New York City, New York, United States
Food work often starts in repetition before it becomes authorship. “I’ve been working in this field since I was fourteen years old. My first job was scooping ice cream at Baskin…
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Chef
Tamara Chubinidze
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up Today, Tamara Chubinidze is the founder and co-owner of Chama Mama, a role she has held since 2019. ## Where They Are Now At Chama Mama, the work is built around…
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Chef
Taylor Pedersen
San Francisco, California, United States
## The Climb Heat, repetition, and formal study mark the early stages of Taylor Pedersen’s work. Le Cirque (2005–2006) put Pedersen inside a high-pressure kitchen where precision…
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Tetsuya Honda
Tokyo, Japan
At Ristorante HONDA in Tokyo, Tetsuya Honda applies Modern Italian technique to Japanese seasonal ingredients with a disciplined hand. The work is built around what is at peak, so…
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Chef
Toshihiro Wada
Tokyo, Japan
In Ginza, Tokyo, yakitori is treated as a narrow form with little room for disguise: chicken, salt, charcoal, heat. At BIRD LAND, Executive Chef Toshihiro Wada works with…
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Chef
Toshio Tsutsui
Marbella, Spain
His work is rooted in Japanese cuisine, with a style shaped by formal training, military discipline, and years spent moving through different kitchens. The through line is…
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Chef
Vittorio Leani
Isola Dovarese, Italy
Vittorio Leani’s work at Caffè La Crepa in Isola Dovarese, Italy, is defined by continuity: the handling of a regional kitchen with exactness, restraint, and respect for what…
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Chef
Adwait Anantwar
New Delhi, India
There are days when I crave that taste. His own line is exact about the limits of reproduction: “Although I’m a chef and recreating flavours is our job, her food never tastes the…
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Chef
Aleksey Grebenshchikov
Sankt-Peterburg, Russia
His view of dessert is exacting, almost architectural: “Dessert, no matter how dismissively many people may regard it, is the end of the meal. A standalone dish that can either…
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Chef
Andre Chiang
Taipei, Taiwan
Restaurant André in Singapore earned Two Michelin stars in 2017, the public marker of Andre Chiang’s career and a clear signal of work built on precision rather than display. Born…
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Chef
Artem Grebenshchikov
Sankt-Peterburg, Russia
## The Climb Training at Aerospace Institute gave Artem Grebenshchikov a technical base before professional cooking took over. The first service floor was a line cook post at…
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Chef
Arthur Peta
Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal
## Coming Up At Lycée Hôtelier de la Providence, Orchies, the work is built on timing, discipline, consistency, and the hand control that keeps a plate clean under pressure.…
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Chef
Ben Norton
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
## Coming Up Chattahoochee Technical College gave Ben Norton a formal base in the line work and repetition that underpin a kitchen career. From there, the shape of the job is…
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Chef
Derek Hanson
Saint-Jean-de-Trézy, France
His work moves through Oregon kitchens and, since 2016, a Portland room where seafood stays the center of gravity. ## The Climb At New England Culinary Institute, Derek Hanson got…
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Chef
Fabian Von Hauske Valtierra
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up The line from training to authorship runs through The French Culinary Institute, where Fabian Von Hauske Valtierra trained in 2007. That education established a…
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Chef
Fernando Olea
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
## Career Formation matters in this line of work, and Fernando Olea’s path reflects that: Mexico City first, then a kitchen career built through repetition, discipline, and close…
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Gabi Calzado
Barcelona, Spain
Since 2009, co-ownership and co-chef work at Vivanda in Barcelona have defined Gabi Calzado’s practice. The arrangement ties kitchen execution to the upkeep of the room itself, so…
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Chef
Geraud Dupuis
Nörten-Hardenberg, Germany
## Coming Up At Martin, Domaine de Primard in Guainville, France, from 2024, Geraud Dupuis worked in a setting that rewards restraint: timing, texture, and attention to place. The…
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Guido Boerenkamp
Vilnius, Lithuania
Guido Boerenkamp’s work is tied to Classic French cooking, a style that depends on discipline, balance, and control rather than display. At Stikliai in Vilnius, Lithuania, that…
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Chef
Guido Le Bron de Vexela
Valkenburg, Netherlands
Guido Le Bron de Vexela is Chef de Cuisine at Les Salons in Valkenburg, Netherlands. The kitchen turns on a vegetable-led composition: homegrown, seasonal produce carries the…
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Chef
Gustav Knutsson
Gothenburg, Sweden
Gustav Knutsson is head chef of Bhoga in Gothenburg, Sweden, the restaurant where a Michelin star was earned in 2014. The achievement rests on a kitchen devoted to contemporary…
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Chef
Jason Ramos
Bedminster, New Jersey, United States
## The Climb Formal training at the Culinary Institute of America gave Jason Ramos a framework for work that already had intent behind it. The school supplied structure; the…
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Chef
Jeremiah Stone
New York City, New York, United States
The work that defines the brief is specific: natural-wine-driven, casual bistro and small-plates cooking, grounded in locally sourced seasonal ingredients, with regional farmers…
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Chef
Jules Koninckx
Antwerp, Belgium
## Coming Up Butchery at Luc De Laet gave Jules Koninckx a working base in the trade: reading a cut, respecting texture, and handling precision as a daily discipline rather than…
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Chef
Katsuhito Inoue
Kyoto, Japan
## Coming Up At Chef's Table by Katsuhito Inoue, the work is built around pace, restraint, and sequencing. As Head Chef, Katsuhito Inoue sets the dining room to Kyoto’s seasonal…
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Chef
Khattiya Songchaiwana
Bangkok, Thailand
## Coming Up Khattiya Songchaiwana trained at Dusit Thani College, and that schooling sits behind the precision expected of an executive kitchen. The preparation there provided…
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Laurent Lesage
Aix-en-Provence, France
## Career Precision, discipline and consistency at scale define the kitchens Laurent Lesage has worked in. At La Taula Gallici in Aix-en-Provence, France, he brings that same…
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Chef
Luc de Laet
Antwerp, Belgium
Luc de Laet is chef of Maven, and his position comes with a view of meat that is plainspoken and disciplined: “There is nothing wrong with eating meat. But we eat too much meat.…
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Chef
Mariano Ramón
Buenos Aires, Argentina
“I have always had this connection to cooking.” In Mariano Ram’s case, that connection reads less like a claim than a working fact: something shaped early, in the rhythm of home,…
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Chef
Martín Rebaudino
Buenos Aires, Argentina
## Coming Up In Roux in Buenos Aires, Martín Rebaudino works in a format that keeps authorship and execution in the same hands: founder and chef. That pairing matters in trade…
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Chef
Michel Hulin
Les Baux, France
## The Climb The executive chef role at La Cabro d'Or in Les Baux de Provence, taken by Michel Hulin in 2001, placed him inside a kitchen where execution had to match the…
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Chef
Niclas Yngvesson
Gothenburg, Sweden
Chef Niclas Yngvesson’s work at Bhoga in Gothenburg is built on a narrow operating rule: local produce, used fresh. As co-founder, owner, and chef through Bhoga Restaurang, he has…
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Chef
Nicolas Lormeau
Crans-Montana, Switzerland
## The Path Training at Puits-Saint-Jacques (Bernard Bach), Auberge du Vieux Puits (Gilles Goujon), and Aubergade (Michel Trama) put Nicolas Lormeau inside kitchens where…
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Chef
Pietro Catalano
Lucerne, Switzerland
His work centers a connected kitchen-and-bar model. Chefs and mixologists operate as one team across sustainability, zero waste, fermentation, preservation, and leaf-to-root and…
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Shunsuke Nagaoka
Berlin, Germany
Shunsuke Nagaoka is Head Chef at Julius Ernst in Berlin, and the cooking there is built around a Japanese-Berlin creative kitchen that works with French technique, Japanese…
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Takeshi Inoue
Fukuoka, Japan
Takeshi Inoue is chef of Tsugumi in Fukuoka, where Kyushu-focused kaiseki and regional Japanese counter cooking are built around seasonality, local produce, tableware, and sake.…
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Bartender / bar director
Thiago Banares
São Paulo, Brazil
## The Climb Administrative work trains a kind of mise en place before any knife or grill is involved: order, timing, records, and the habit of tracking moving parts under…
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Tsubasa Otan
Kitakyushu, Japan
Tsubasa Otan’s work at Tsubasa in Kitakyushu, Japan is defined by Kokura-style sushi, a disciplined framework that gives the kitchen its shape. The restaurant reads as a focused…
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Chef
Vassilios Holiasmenos
Johannesburg, South Africa
The work behind that placing is direct and exacting: in-house butchery, premium beef sourcing, charcoal and open-flame grilling, and wet-and-dry ageing at the Parkhurst…
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Chef
Yasu Tanaka
Miami, Florida, United States
From Japan to Azabu in New York, then to The Den at Azabu in Miami, sushi has been the working discipline through which Yasu Tanaka’s counter practice has developed. The craft is…
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Chef
Zachary Engel
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Zachary Engel’s work reads through the structure of a kitchen floor: service cadence, leadership discipline, and the ability to hold both at once. At Shaya in New Orleans, the…
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Chef
Daniel Uliczny
Warsaw, Poland
Formation, for Daniel Uliczny, can be read through the discipline of alewino (Warsaw, Poland), where he leads the kitchen as head chef. The line that shapes his cooking is not…
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Chef
Debora Fadul
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Before Debora Fadul became chef-owner of DIACÁ in Guatemala City, the work began in a family kitchen, where her grandmother set the pace: hands sourced, tasks assigned, attention…
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Chef
Edgar Rico
Austin, Texas, United States
Corn is the working material at Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas: heirloom kernels from Mexico and Oaxaca, masa ground in-house, and nixtamalization handled as part of the…
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Chef
Marsia Taha
La Paz, Bolivia
Before Marsia Taha took over the kitchen at Arami in La Paz in 2024, the work had already been formed by movement: across countries, through formal study, and through a long…
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Chef
Mike Palmer
Málaga, Spain
Mike Palmer is chef of La Taberna de Mike Palmer in Málaga, Spain. The restaurant carries his name on the door; the role attached to it is plain: chef. ## The Path The line that…
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Chef
Nick Liu
Toronto, Canada
Nick Liu’s name is tied to New Asian cuisine in Toronto: a style that stays close to the familiar while pushing it into less predictable territory. At DaiLo Restaurant, the work…
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Chef
Paolo Lopriore
Appiano Gentile, Italy
Born in Como in 1973, Paolo Lopriore has built a career that moves through Italian fine dining with stops in France and beyond, including Il Canto della Certosa di Maggiano in…
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Chef
Ramón Martínez
Washington DC, Washington DC, United States
Ramón Martínez measures food against memory, technique, and whether a dish still keeps faith with where it began. In his work, authenticity is not a slogan; it is a standard…
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Chef
Theo Schoenegger
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
The menu at Sinatra is built on recognizability, not noise. In Theo Schoenegger’s hands, dishes identified as Sinatra favorites are handled with executive-chef discipline: timing,…
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Chef
Yossi Shitrit
Tel Aviv, Israel
## Coming Up Tel Aviv gave Yossi Shitrit a setting where pace, repetition, and dining culture could shape a personal register. By 2015, the work had settled into a chef role at…
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Chef
Adam Leonti
Melnik, Bulgaria
## The Path Technique is the throughline in Adam Leonti’s training and early kitchen work. Walnut Hill College, Restaurant School gave the fundamentals a place to settle before…
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Chef
Akira Hayashi
Macau, Macau
Akira Hayashi is Executive Chef at Yamazato in Macau, where the kitchen is built around Kaiseki Ryori and the discipline that comes with it. The work here is measured rather than…
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Albin Vincent
Terranova di Pollino, Italy
His cooking works from a fixed set of South Indian and Sri Lankan reference points: black pepper, cardamom, curry leaves, and coconut carry the structure as much as the seasoning.…
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Chef
Alon Shaya
Denver, Colorado, United States
## Coming Up Culinary Institute of America gave Alon Shaya the base work of the trade: knife control, heat management, timing, repetition, precision. The first professional test…
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Chef
Alyn Williams
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Executive chef of Magistracy Dining Room in Hong Kong, Alyn Williams has worked through kitchens where pace, precision, and repetition do the shaping. Raised in East London, he…
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Chef
Ari Vezené
Athens, Greece
## The Climb Service work at Burger King gave Ari Vezen an early education in repetition, pace, and consistency — the kind of floor-level training that shapes a cook’s instincts…
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Bence Molnár
Budapest, Hungary
Bence Moln’s progression at Arany Kaviár in Budapest is the kind that tends to matter inside a kitchen: earned trust, close standards, and no wasted motion. He became chef in 2024…
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Bruno Cavagni
Venice, Italy
Bruno Cavagni cooks within a format Venice knows well: Osteria Alle Testiere began as a bacaro, the neighbourhood wine-and-snack bar that anchors local eating in the city. That…
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Chef
Danyel Couet
Stockholm, Sweden
Danyel Couet is chef at Allegrine in Stockholm, where the cooking stays with straightforward French food and leaves the point exposed. As chef and restaurateur at Bar Allegrine…
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Chef
Drew Deckman
Big Sky, Montana, United States
## The Climb The early line in Drew Deckman’s work runs through kitchens that reward precision and through regions that demand attention to source. Rhodes College sits at the…
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Chef
Eddie Shepherd
Manchester, United Kingdom
## Coming Up Plant-based tasting menus are the centre of gravity at The Walled Gardens in Manchester, where Eddie Shepherd works as chef/owner. At The Walled Gardens Underground…
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Chef
Emanuele Bergamo
Taipei, Taiwan
Executive Chef — Bencotto (Taipei), Emanuele Bergamo brings Venetian discipline into Contemporary Italian cooking through ingredient selection and controlled technique. The work…
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Chef
Evan Hennessey
Dover, New Hampshire, United States
## The Climb More than a decade at Stages at One Washington has given the room a clear identity, with Evan Hennessey serving as chef/owner since 2012. The work reads as…
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Chef
Fabio Giacobello
Vienna, Austria
## The Climb A Mediterranean register runs through Fabio Giacobello’s work, filtered through Milanese reference points and carried into Vienna with a clear, composed style. He…
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