The People · Page 64
The artisans of taste.
Chef
Yoshihiko Shimada
Tokyo, Japan
In Ueno, Taito-ku, Tokyo, tonkatsu starts with the cut itself: pork loin is selected, checked, and trimmed by hand, with the fat pared away before the pan is ever heated. At Ponta…
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Zach Fabian
New York City, New York, United States
The line runs from a family dining room in Michigan to formal technique and the pressure of New York service. At The Van Camp House, Zach Fabian learned cooking in a restaurant…
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Chef
Benjamin Bajeux
Neyrac-les-Bains, France
## Coming Up Benjamin Bajeux’s profile is built in service, ownership, and the slow accumulation of practice. Since 2018, Bajeux has been chef of Balsamique; since 2023, owner of…
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Chef
Bill Kim
Chicago, Illinois, United States
“I’ve been always an underdog in my life, and no matter where I go, I try to adapt to the situation.” In Bill Kim’s work, adaptation is not an attitude tacked on after the fact;…
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James Beard Award winner
Charlie Trotter
Chicago, Illinois, United States
## Coming Up Training and coursework came first: New Trier High School, then Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois (1977–1979), then the University of…
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Chef
Dan Kluger
New York City, New York, United States
## The Path Syracuse University was Dan Kluger’s formal start, but the practical education came in New York City kitchens, where timing, discipline, and instinct have to hold up…
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Chef
Giuseppe Tentori
Chicago, Illinois, United States
## Coming Up After that foundation, the work moved into American kitchens, where pace became part of the craft: Sous Chef at The Metropolitan in Salt Lake City, then Head Chef at…
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Chef
Loryn Nalic
Webster Groves, Missouri, United States
## The Climb In Webster Groves, fire sets the terms of the room. At Balkan Treat Box, the wood-fired oven is the working center, turning dough, cheese, kajmak, ajvar, fresh herbs,…
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Chef
Marcos Carbajal
Chicago, Illinois, United States
## The Climb At Las Carnitas Uruapan Restaurants, the work is carried as inheritance and managed as a daily standard. Marcos Carbajal, as second-generation owner, sits inside a…
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Michael Park
New York City, New York, United States
Michael Park is Chef de Cuisine at Foul Witch in New York City, a May–present role that puts him inside one of the city’s most closely watched kitchens, where restraint and…
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Chef
Michael Solomonov
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Israeli Cooking, city restaurant-building, and high-volume casual food meet in Michael Solomonov’s work through a consistent attention to texture, seasoning, and format. Born in…
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Chef
Nicholas Calias
Stockholm, Sweden
## Coming Up Nicholas Calias trained at Newbury College, then entered the kind of kitchen career built on service, pace, and exact timing. Early roles in polished hotel and…
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Chef
Nicolas Guignard
Annecy, France
Nicolas Guignard works with the kind of control that comes from repetition: foundations laid in training, then tested in seasonal service and longer posts. Today, as chef at…
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Chef
Penelope Wong
Denver, Colorado, United States
Her cooking language is direct and personal: "Flavors of my childhood with just a little bit of refinement." ## The Climb At a golf and country club in Cherry Hills Village,…
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Chef
Rob Bragagnolo
Toronto, Canada
In Toronto, Rob Bragagnolo cooks from a Mediterranean register that reads as specific rather than generic. At Casa Paco, the line runs through Spanish and Italian influences, with…
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Cocktail Service Professional
Tobin Shea
Los Angeles, California, United States
## The Climb Bar work in a college-town setting teaches speed, consistency, and how to read a room without drama. Tobin Shea started there, behind the stick at a local bar near a…
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Abdulrahman Alsowailem
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Abdulrahman Alsowailem is a self-taught Saudi chef and co-owner of Marble in Riyadh. A pilot by profession, he began Marble with Meshal Alakeel as a wooden roadside stall in 2018…
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Andre Chanco
Makati, Philippines
Andre Chanco is a specialty-coffee entrepreneur and co-founder of Yardstick Coffee in Makati. He has led the company's retail and roasting operations and helped establish its…
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Chef
Andrey Shmakov
Moscow, Russia
I began to cook because I was often sick when I was small and would stay home. That domestic starting point still sits under Andrey Shmakov’s work at SAVVA restaurant in Moscow:…
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Chef
Angel Fernandez
Melbourne, Australia
## The Path A kitchen career built on pace, precision, and service discipline runs through Angel Fernandez’s early work at Rockpool Restaurant (1990–1995), where the demands of…
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Chef
Benedikt Arps
Munich, Germany
In Munich, the cooking is set by season, supplier, and product condition. At Vinothek by Geisel, Benedikt Arps has been Head Chef since 2024, working in a regional-Mediterranean…
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Chef
Casper Sobczyk
Copenhagen, Denmark
Casper Sobczyk’s craft is built on plain, formal training: “I am trained as a cook in 2009.” That line does not overstate the work, but it marks the start of a career shaped by…
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Chef
Christian Onia
Lyon, France
Before that role, Christian Onia’s work in London moved through a sequence that says a lot about the city’s kitchens: a switch out of graphic design, a grounding in sushi, and a…
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Founder and Barista, Koffee Mameya Kakeru
Eiichi Kunitomo
Tokyo, Japan
Eiichi Kunitomo has run specialty coffee as a trade of precision rather than display: since 2018, he has been founder and barista of Koffee Mameya in Tokyo. The work is built…
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Bocuse d'Or laureate
Filip August BENDI
Stockholm, Sweden
Born in Sandnes, Norway, Filip August BENDI built his base through service in kitchens that demanded pace, discipline, and exacting standards. The line from apprentice work to…
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Chef
Jacky Louaze
Reims, France
The Reims restaurant format took shape through co-creation: Le Foch was co-created by Jacky Louaze with Corinne Louazé in Reims. ## The Path Parisian kitchen discipline forms the…
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Chef
Jake Schmidt
Waynesville, North Carolina, United States
Midwestern discipline and Southern produce frame the work here: Jake Schmidt cooks from a place of contrast, where the drive and structure of the Midwest meet the short window of…
View →Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Nomad Coffee
Jordi Mestre
Barcelona, Spain
Jordi Mestre is the founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Nomad Coffee in Barcelona. Nomad's official team page identifies him in that role across the company's roasting and café…
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Chef
Julien Gautier
Lyon, France
Julien Gautier’s work is tied to Lyon in the plainest operational sense: the city has been the setting for his rise, his kitchen, and his ownership. In a trade shaped by…
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Chef
Lee Kebble
London, United Kingdom
## Coming Up The work at Lutyens Grill places Lee Kebble in a role built around grill control, cut selection, and finish: the kind of meat-led cooking that depends on timing as…
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Chef
Matthew Fox
Sydney, Australia
Executive Chef at Porteño in Sydney, Australia, identifies Matthew Fox with a kitchen built around Argentinian asado and parrilla grill cooking. The working grammar is open flame,…
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Meshal Alakeel
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Meshal Alakeel is the co-owner of Marble in Riyadh. He and chef Abdulrahman Alsowailem began the concept as a wooden roadside stall in 2018, built a loyal following around its…
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Nolo Botana
Madrid, Spain
Nolo Botana is a co-founder of Hola Coffee in Madrid. He and Pablo Caballero lead the specialty-coffee company behind the Hola Coffee Lagasca café.
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Pablo Caballero
Madrid, Spain
Pablo Caballero is a co-founder of Hola Coffee in Madrid. A Spanish barista champion, he leads the specialty-coffee company with Nolo Botana, including the Hola Coffee Lagasca…
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Chef
Raffaele Bonetta
Pozzuoli, Italy
Pizzaiolo DOC, 2025, is the defining credential attached to Raffaele Bonetta. His work is built on a precise, ritual-like approach to dough, with fermentation and technique at the…
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Chef
Riley Sanders
Bangkok, Thailand
## The Essentials Seasonal produce and market rhythm shape the kitchen here. Riley Sanders puts it plainly: "I give a lot of importance to seasonal ingredients. We go to the…
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Seijiro Koizumi
Kanazawa, Japan
In Ishikawa, Japan, Seijiro Koizumi works in a register that starts with place: local ports supply the seafood, and the day’s vegetables are handpicked by the chef himself. That…
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Chef
Tatsuro Hirakubo
Tokyo, Japan
His work at Ushimatsu, Tokyo is built around wagyu yakiniku, and that specialization gives the room its direction from the outset. This is a restaurant organized around one of…
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Chef
Thibaut Sombardier
Paris, France
## The Path At Sellae (Paris, France), the cooking is built from ingredients that do not need dressing up to hold attention: butter foaming around sole, lobster set beneath a…
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Chef
Thierry Strauven
Brussels, Belgium
Executive Chef Thierry Strauven’s formation sits inside the working memory of Au Vieux Saint Martin in Brussels, Belgium, a house where continuity is maintained through service…
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Chef
Yoann Noël
Sainte-Anne-la-Palud, France
## The Climb A kitchen career is built in repetitions: station work, service pressure, standards held until they become habit. Yoann Noel’s progress follows that pattern. He…
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Chef
Aaron Israel
New York City, New York, United States
## The Climb At Maryland Institute, College of Art, Aaron Israel trained in a setting that gave the work an artist’s discipline as well as a cook’s attention to structure. That…
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Chef
Aaron Kabot
Chicago, Illinois, United States
## The Climb Kendall College gave Aaron Kabot the formal footing that turns early intent into working discipline. From that base, he moved into some of Chicago’s most watched…
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Chef
Aaron Patten
Retzbach, Austria
At Pompette in Chicago, Aaron Patten’s cooking is organized around roots, smoke, oil, and grain. The plates are assembled from the ground up: beet with Beet Greens, artichoke with…
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Abhimanyu Sharma
Ponteland, United Kingdom
His work reads as a study in measured progression: study at JIMS, then a steady climb through hospitality shaped by duration, discipline, and repeatable standards. In Delhi, where…
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Chef
Ack Wongwich Sripinyo
Bangkok, Thailand
Ack Wongwich Sripinyo works in Eastern Thai cuisine, with Burapa in Bangkok as the main platform for that focus. As Culinary Director and co-founder of Burapa, and as head chef /…
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Chef
Adam Votaw
London, United Kingdom
## The Climb Culinary Institute of America gave Adam Votaw the fundamentals that show up later in a kitchen as discipline: clean plates, controlled timing, and a sense of balance…
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Chef
Adam Weisell
Chicago, Illinois, United States
The work is plain-spoken and technical: electric deck ovens for puffy, charred Roman-style pizzas, house-made pastas, and traditional dishes without frills. ## The Path Kitchens…
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Chef
Adrian Chong Yen
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Adrian Chong Yen cooks from a point of contact between Latin American and Asian tables, using that overlap as the basis for the menu at Sol Kitchen & Bar in District 1, Ho Chi…
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Chef
Adrian Glaza
Neupré, Belgium
Mediterranean cuisine. ## The Path Since 2024, dual executive-chef appointments at l'Apropos and Apropos Restaurant & Bar have placed Adrian Glaza in charge of two kitchens…
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Chef
Adriano Dentoni Litta
Bermicourt, France
## The Path Formal training at Istituto Alberghiero Roberto Virtuoso di Salerno gave Adriano Dentoni Litta the base for work shaped by disciplined Italian kitchens and a precise…
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Chef
Agostina
Cortona, Italy
Agostina’s work is defined by concentration: one restaurant, one town, one executive-chef title tied to La Bucaccia in Cortona, Italy. That kind of narrow frame tells you…
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Chef
Ai Le
Houston, Texas, United States
Central Vietnamese cooking at Nam Giao in Houston is built on texture, contrast, and repetition. In Ai Le’s kitchen, bún bò Huế, mì Quảng, bánh bèo chén, bánh bọc lọc lá, and bánh…
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Ajay
Vancouver, Canada
## The Path The defining post in Ajay’s profile is the chef role at Karma Indian Bistro. In Vancouver, that title carries the weight of the kitchen: pace, discipline, seasoning,…
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Chef
Ajay Kumar
Washington DC, Washington DC, United States
Contemporary Indian cooking was the operating brief when the restaurant opened in 2017, built by Ajay Kumar and Sachin Mahajan around age-old methods carried into a present-tense…
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Chef
Ajay Walia
Taipei, Taiwan
Ajay Walia is the chef of Saffron Fine Indian Cuisine in Taipei, with roots in New Delhi, India. That lineage is not background noise in his work; it is the framework. When he…
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Chef
Akhtar Nawab
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up Training at St. Francis School, Bradley University, and California Culinary Academy gave Akhtar Nawab the groundwork before the line did the rest: first as a cook at…
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Chef
Akiya Ishibashi
Kyoto, Japan
Akiya Ishibashi’s public record is compact: a move from fashion into soba, and a kitchen in Kyoto where that change of craft has been marked by repeated Michelin Bib Gourmand…
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Chef
Alain Poletto
Zell im Wiesental, Germany
Sous-vide cooking, as a defining marker in 1989, sits at the center of Alain Poletto’s practice. The method points to a kitchen built on control, timing, and protection of flavor…
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Chef
Alan Chan
Los Angeles, California, United States
Alan Chan is Executive Chef of Jiang Nan Spring in Alhambra, Los Angeles, United States, a position that sits between the demands of disciplined Chinese cooking and the kind of…
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Alan Lam
Los Angeles, California, United States
His work is built on a single line: Shenyang in the background, a 2001 founding in the San Gabriel Valley, and a dumpling practice kept focused. That is the shape of a specialty…
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Chef
Alban Chartron
Rochefort-en-Terre, France
Alban Chartron has been chef at Maison Cachée in Rochefort-en-Terre, France, since 2022, and has also worked as chef at Cèna in Paris, France. Maison Cachée has a Bib Gourmand…
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Alberto Navarette Arias
Val de San Lorenzo, Spain
Alberto Navarette Arias works between two kitchens and two rhythms, with traditional regional Spanish cooking and the patient discipline of Maragatería slow cooking as his…
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Chef
Alejandro Morgan
São Paulo, Brazil
## The Climb That path puts technique and adaptability ahead of rhetoric. Moving between kitchens in different cities, he worked in formats that asked for discipline, pace, and…
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Aleksander Aurstad Olsen
Legrad, Croatia
The craft arc here is built on accumulation: school training first, then station work, then pastry discipline, then kitchen leadership, then a move into a Croatian kitchen where…
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Chef
Alessandra Ruggeri
Orléans, France
## The Climb At L'Osteria della Trippa, Alessandra Ruggeri works as both chef and owner, a dual role that keeps the craft tied to daily service rather than distance or title.…
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Chef
Alessandro Cannata
Poboleda, Spain
Alessandro Cannata is Executive Chef at Hôtel des Horlogers in the Vallée de Joux, Switzerland, a role built for a cook working in clarity, precision and balance. His approach is…
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Chef
Alex Henry Montes De Oca
Madrigal de la Vera, Spain
## Coming Up Training at Forrest Park Community College gave Alex Henry Montes De Oca the base that later showed up in successive line roles: sous-chef at YiaYia's EuroCafe,…
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Chef
Alex Peng
Wutai Township, Taiwan
At AKAME, wood-fired barbecue and modern aboriginal cooking have been built into a single restaurant language since 2015. Alex Peng’s work there is grounded in Rukai traditions…
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Chef & Owner, Txikito
Alex Raij
New York City, New York, United States
Alex Raij is a New York-based chef and restaurateur of Argentinian Jewish descent, specializing in Spanish and Basque cuisines, who co-owns with her husband Eder Montero the…
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Chef
Álex Sampedro
Gijón, Spain
Álex Sampedro’s work is grounded in Asturias and paced by accumulation: a move from Madrid, an early post with Paco Ron in 1999, and the years that followed before he took on the…
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Chef
Alex Smith
New York City, New York, United States
## The Climb The work here is built less on a single route than on repetition across different kitchens, each one adding a different requirement to the craft. Alex Smith trained…
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Chef
Alex Yoon
Neukirchen-Vluyn, Germany
## The Path At Volvér on Kimmel Cultural Campus in Philadelphia, the 2022 Chef in Residence post gave Alex Yoon a setting where classical technique had to hold up under…
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Chef
Alexander Gaßlbauer
Madrid, Spain
## The Path Training under Anton Schmaus and then stepping into Gasthaus Waltz in München, Deutschland, gave Alexander Gaßlbauer the sort of progression that matters in trade…
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Chef
Alexander Petillo
Tokyo, Japan
## Coming Up At Tonkatsu Nanaido, Alexander Petillo’s work is built on precision, restraint, and attention to the structure of a single dish. The measure is in the details: how…
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Alexandre
Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland
Alexandre’s profile is spare, and that economy does useful work: it puts the craft first. One chef, one restaurant, one stated direction in Modern French cooking at Auberge…
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Chef
Alexandre Bondoux
Favières, France
His career arc is compact, but it points to a specific kind of kitchen discipline: a senior role in the same house, a prior chef appointment there, and recognition that connects…
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Chef
Alexandre Guggenbuhl
Ingersheim, France
Chef de cuisine work at La Taverne Alsacienne in Ingersheim, France, has defined Alexandre Guggenbuhl’s public practice since 2014. The cooking is Modern Cuisine anchored in…
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Chef
Alexandre Lechêne
Salon-de-Provence, France
## The Climb A two-house brief in Salon-de-Provence defines the current work: Alexandre Lechêne runs Villa Salone (since 2019) while also cooking at Atelier Salone. The interest…
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Executive Chef, Le Restaurant Hatley, Manoir Hovey
Alexandre Vachon
Mons, Belgium
Alexandre Vachon is a Canadian chef from Saint-Albert, Ontario, who trained under Daniel Boulud at Maison Boulud at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal, where he progressed from chef de…
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Alfonso Ramos
Porto, Portugal
Alfonso Ramos is the chef of Pátio 44 in Porto, Portugal, and the kitchen there is built on a fixed principle: Traditional Portuguese gastronomy should remain legible, even when…
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Chef
Alfredo Velazquez
Izmir, Turkey
## Coming Up A long tenure in executive leadership is the clearest signal here: Alfredo Velazquez has served as Executive Chef of Tasty Catering since 1991, a span that reads less…
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Chef
Aliya LeeKong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A first-generation American shaped by Tanzanian and Indo-Pakistani family lineages, Aliya LeeKong’s work sits at the point where discipline, inheritance, and technique meet. The…
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Chef
Allan Hernandez
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
At Pici Trattoria, the trattoria model is treated as a working format rather than a theme: Italian cooking, accessible pricing, and a room built for direct hospitality. The craft…
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Chef
Alois Ertl
Hauzenberg, Germany
Alois Ertl’s work is grounded in the kind of kitchen where repetition matters as much as timing. At Landgasthaus Gidibauer-Hof in Hauzenberg, his early career was built through…
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Alwyn Gudhino
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up By 2019, Alwyn Gudhino was already working a line that sharpened timing, control, and pace in New York kitchens. At Cardamom in Queens, New York, the work sat inside…
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Chef
Alyona Orel
Gdańsk, Poland
In her hands, the plate reads as more than a specialty: it becomes a compact expression of richness, restraint, and the table-side act of assembling a dish from a few clear parts.…
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Chef
Amelie Kang
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up Culinary Institute of America gave Amelie Kang a formal base before she stepped into founder work at Chubby Princess in Financial District, Manhattan (2019). That…
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Chef
Amy West
Istanbul, Turkey
Amy West is Executive Chef at Araf İstanbul in Istanbul, a role that places her in a kitchen organized around clarity, discipline, and balance. ## The Climb Early in the career of…
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Chef
and Katie Wasielewski
Chicago, Illinois, United States
## The Path Pompette in Chicago has defined Katie Wasielewski’s work since 2022, and that date does the heavy lifting: it marks the start of a role built on repetition, timing,…
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Chef
Andi Preuss
Tokyo, Japan
The measure running through the kitchen work is plain: technique has to land on the plate, and Andi Preuss says it without softening it — “If something is beautiful, but it tastes…
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Chef
André Guidon
São Paulo, Brazil
## The Path Technique was the early through-line in André Guidon’s work, even before pizza entered the picture. That background sits neatly alongside the discipline required in…
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Chef
Andrea Funi
Sasso Marconi, Italy
## The Climb At Antica Trattoria la Grotta dal 1918 in Sasso Marconi, Italy, the role of Executive Chef carries more than title value; it places Andrea Funi inside a kitchen…
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Chef
Andrea Giuliani
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
## Coming Up That kind of line work sharpens timing, concentration, and an eye for detail; Andrea’s early professional stretch clearly carried those habits forward. The result is…
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Chef
Andrea Impero
Bruges, Belgium
His cooking is built on attention to place, production, and the limits of what a dish can hold when it is reduced to its idea. Andrea Impero works in a register of restraint:…
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Chef
Andrea Rechtiene
Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Thailand
The work at U-Khao in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya shows what happens when training, service pressure, and line discipline are all carried forward into a kitchen with a clear point of…
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Andreas Falkensteiner
Mainz, Germany
Andreas Falkensteiner’s work reads as a study in steady kitchen leadership rather than theatrical change. From Gassenwirt in Kiens to Geberts Weinstuben in Mainz, the throughline…
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Chef
Andreas Heidenreich
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
## Coming Up At Schlosshotel Chastè, the work sits with Andreas Heidenreich in the role of Head Chef; at Schnitzel, he is Executive Chef; at Saya in Hong Kong, he is the chef tied…
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Chef
Andreas Hillejan
Annecy, France
Originally from the Lower Rhine, Andreas Hillejan has built his name around regional Alpine cuisine and a plainspoken rule that keeps the craft honest: “It simply has to taste…
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Chef
Andreas Widmann
Königsbronn, Germany
## The Essentials Service is built on small, controlled gestures, and Andreas Widmann treats those gestures as part of the dish. The note is plainspoken: warm bread, a touch of…
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