The People · Page 9
The artisans of taste.
Chef & Owner, Kjolle
Pía León
Cusco, Peru
Pía León is a Peruvian chef born in Lima in December 1986, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Lima and worked at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, the Ritz in New York, and…
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Chef
Masa Urushido
New York City, New York, United States
## Career - **Managing Partner and Director of Deliciousness** — Katana Kitten, New York City, New York, USA (2018–present) - **Food runner** — restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan…
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Chef
Solemann Haddad
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Chef Patron work at Moonrise in Dubai is built on self-directed training rather than a formal school lineage. In Solemann Haddad’s case, the absence of culinary school or an…
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Chef
Alain Weissgerber
Schützen am Gebirge, Austria
Alain Weissgerber’s cooking at Taubenkobel in Schützen am Gebirge, Austria is built on place before performance. Rooted in Pannonian cuisine, the work is direct, precise, and…
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Chef
César Ramirez
New York City, New York, United States
César Ramirez is the Mexican chef-owner of César in New York City, an intimate, seafood-focused restaurant where hyper-exquisite fine dining earned Two Michelin stars in 2024. The…
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Culinary legend
Joanie Metivier
North Hatley, Canada
Joanie Metivier is Head Sommelier and Beverage Director at Manoir Hovey. The work sits at the intersection of wine, whisky, and service: reading terroir, carrying a producer’s…
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Chef
Kim Dae-chun
Seoul, South Korea
At 7th Door in Seoul, the kitchen is built around timing, temperature, and the slow work of fermentation. Kim Dae-chun cooks with a read on conditions rather than control, letting…
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Chef
Nadine Stadelmann
Ennetbürgen, Switzerland
## The Climb Hotel kitchens are a training ground for timing, discipline and restraint, and Nadine Stadelmann built her base at Hotel Villa Honegg in Ennetbürgen in exactly that…
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Chef
Ricardo Chaneton
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
## The Path Working inside Mirazur and Petrus gave Ricardo Chaneton the sort of kitchen discipline that only comes from repetition at speed. As chef at Mirazur, then executive…
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Chef, Restaurant Christophe Hay - Fleur de Loire
Christophe Hay
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Christophe Hay is a French chef born in Vendôme, in the Loir-et-Cher region, who began his career at Au Rendez-Vous des Pêcheurs in Blois under Eric Reithler before training with…
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Chef
Jean Delport
Lower Beeding, United Kingdom
Lower Beeding, West Sussex, locates Jean Delport’s kitchen; the cooking at Restaurant Interlude carries further. French and British traditions form the base, with South African…
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Chef, Operakällaren
Viktor Westland
Stockholm, Sweden
Viktor Westland is the chef at Operakällaren in Stockholm, Sweden, a restaurant recognized in culinary rankings for its Swedish cuisine. He is listed as the head chef in the OAD…
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Chef
William Joo
Los Angeles, California, United States
The move from appetite to method is the central fact of William Joo’s work: pizza becomes disciplined through repetition, heat management, and dough handling, until the final…
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Chef
William Joo - Jennifer So
Los Angeles, California, United States
The 2025 Michelin Plate went to Pizzeria Sei in Los Angeles, United States, the restaurant co-owned by William Joo - Jennifer So. The restaurant focuses on Tokyo-style…
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Winemaker
Erwan Faiveley
Nuits-Saint-Georges, France
Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from single vineyards set the working brief at Domaine Faiveley in Nuits-Saint-Georges, France, where Erwan Faiveley has served as President since 2005.…
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Chef & Proprietor, Nihonryōri Seizan
Haruhiko Yamamoto
Tokyo, Japan
Haruhiko Yamamoto is a Tokyo-born chef and proprietor of Nihonryōri Seizan, a 2-Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant in Minato City, Tokyo, which he opened in April 2011 at age 31.…
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Winemaker, Domaine Faiveley
Jérôme Flous
Nuits-Saint-Georges, France
Technical direction in Burgundy depends on continuity between vineyard, cellar, élevage, and bottling. At Domaine Faiveley, Jérôme Flous has held that remit since 2007 as…
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Co-Owner, Dante
Linden Pride
New York City, New York, United States
## Coming Up At Dante NYC, ownership is not a decorative title. It places Linden Pride in the working center of the room, where the pace, tone, and standards of service are set in…
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Chef
Michael Caballo
Toronto, Canada
From Edmonton by way of Madrid, Michael Caballo has built a style that sits between French and Spanish discipline and a Mediterranean register that keeps the cooking bright. The…
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Chef Exécutif, La Tour d'Argent
Yannick Franques
Miami, Florida, United States
## The Path Classical French dining-room formation runs through Le Bristol, Hôtel de Crillon, Louis XV, and Grande Cascade; in Yannick Franques’s case, that foundation preceded…
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Chef
El Bulli: Ferran Adrià
Amsterdam, Netherlands
## At a Glance Adrià has described gastronomy as a field that now moves across borders and reference points, no longer contained by a single capital, one tradition, or one measure…
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Head Chef & Creative Director, El Bulli (1987-2011); Founder, El Bulli Foundation
Ferran Adrià
Roses, Spain
Ferran Adrià Acosta, born May 14, 1962, in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain, joined elBulli in Roses on the Costa Brava as chef de partie in 1984, became sole head chef…
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Chef & Proprietor, Restaurant Vrijmoed
Michaël Vrijmoed
Ghent, Belgium
Michaël Vrijmoed is the chef and proprietor of Restaurant Vrijmoed in Ghent, Belgium, which earned its first Michelin star within eight months of opening in 2013 and received a…
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Chef
Otto Wong Wai Ho
Macau, Macau
From Classical Cantonese technique to a Macau kitchen shaped by European fine-dining touches, Otto Wong Wai Ho’s work at Pearl Dragon is defined by Cantonese cooking made precise,…
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Chef
Varun Totlani
Mumbai, India
## Coming Up Training at Culinary Institute of America and Culinary Academy of India gave Varun Totlani the technical base that later carried into service. The sequence is…
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Chef
Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson
Boulder, Colorado, United States
## The Climb Technique, not self-expression, is the throughline in Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson’s work at Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, Colorado. The line, “He taught me about…
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Chef
Uwe Opocensky
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Executive Chef of Petrus in Hong Kong since 2019, German chef Uwe Opocensky works in the register of precision: controlled timing, clean execution, and the ability to keep service…
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Winemaker
Andrea Leon
Santa Cruz, Chile
## The Path Technical discipline and site memory have defined Andrea Leon’s work from the start. As assistant winemaker at Lapostolle in the Apalta subregion, Colchagua Valley,…
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Chef, Septime
Bertrand Grébaut
Paris, France
Bertrand Grébaut, born in 1981 in Paris, transitioned from graphic design to cuisine, graduating top of his class at École Ferrandi before working under Alain Passard at L'Arpège…
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Chef
Helena Rizzo
São Paulo, Brazil
Brazil is such a diverse country," says Helena Rizzo, chef of Maní in São Paulo, and the line reads less as general praise than as a working principle. Born on December 6, 1978,…
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Chef & Founder, Mayta
Jaime Pesaque
Lima, Peru
Jaime Pesaque is a Peruvian chef who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu and earned a Master's in Culinary Arts from the Italian Culinary Institute (ICIF), apprenticing at…
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Michelin-starred chef
Olivier Bellin
Plomodiern, France
## The Climb The craft ladder in Olivier Bellin’s career is built by progression, not leaps: one kitchen, then the next, with each step adding a layer of control before the pace…
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Chef
Daniel Clifford
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Daniel Clifford is the chef patron of Midsummer House in Cambridge, United Kingdom, the restaurant he opened in 1998 and has built as a long-term working project. Born on 6 August…
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Chef & Restaurateur, Koan and Juju
Kristian Baumann
Copenhagen, Denmark
Kristian Baumann is a Danish chef of Korean origin, adopted from Korea and raised in Denmark, who previously worked at top Copenhagen kitchens including Noma, Manfreds, Relæ, and…
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Winemaker
María Vargas
Logroño, Spain
María Vargas has worked where technical study has to hold up in the cellar, not just on paper. At Marqués de Murrieta in Logroño, where she has served as Technical Director since…
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Chef
Vicky Lau
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Chinese and French technique meet most clearly here as a matter of sequence, composition, and service architecture. In Hong Kong, Vicky Lau has built TATE Dining Room & Bar around…
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Chef
Aisha Ibrahim
Seattle, Washington, United States
Her Bloomin' Onion became the signature work of that chapter: a dish that held attention through structure, not spectacle. It showed how Aisha Ibrahim built identity through…
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Chef
José Carlos Garcia
Málaga, Spain
He is leaving Restaurante Remove, or change to Café de París if describing the future role. after 15 years and is set to begin a new chapter at Café de París., with the restaurant…
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Chef Patron, House of Tides & Solstice by Kenny Atkinson
Kenny Atkinson
Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Kenny Atkinson is a Geordie chef-patron who has spent over 29 years in professional cooking, achieving his first Michelin star in 2008 as head chef at St Martin's on the Isle of…
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Beverage Service Professional
Linda Milagros Violago
Seattle, Washington, United States
## The Path At Winnipeg, the groundwork for service was set before the floor taught the rest: pacing, pressure, and the habits that turn a dining room into a working system. Linda…
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Co-Owner and Co-Chef, Mon Lapin
Marc-Olivier Frappier
Montréal, Canada
Marc-Olivier Frappier is co-owner and co-chef of Mon Lapin in Montreal. He launched the original wine bar with Vanya Filipovic in 2018, and the pair bought out their Joe Beef…
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Chef
Oriol Rovira
Sagàs, Spain
From Sagàs, the work reads as a closed loop: countryside, kitchen, and restaurant held together by one place. At Els Casals, Oriol Rovira’s cooking is shaped less by arrival than…
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Chef Patron, The Sportsman; Executive Chef, Noble Rot
Stephen Harris
London, United Kingdom
Stephen Harris is the chef patron of The Sportsman, a gastropub in Seasalter, Kent, recognized as a Top 50 Gastropubs winner. He serves as executive chef and consultant for the…
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Chef
Wong Wing Keung
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Hong Kong cooking at its most exacting depends on timing and controlled restraint: steam around a grouper fillet, the short season of matsutake mushroom, the point at which a…
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Chef
Yara Herrera
Montréal, Canada
Yara Herrera is Executive Chef of Mon Lapin in Montréal, Canada, and chef-partner at Hellbender in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, United States. The work is Mexican-American in…
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Chef
Albert Sastregener
Corçà, Spain
Albert Sastregener is the owner of Bo.TiC in Corçà, Spain, a restaurant whose development has been defined by continuity rather than reinvention. Begun in 2007 with Cristina…
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Owner Chef, Kutan
Kotaro Nakajima
Tokyo, Japan
Kotaro Nakajima is the owner and chef of Kutan, a modern kaiseki restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo, which he opened in 2018. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1978, he began his career at a…
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Chef & Owner, La Madonnina del Pescatore
Moreno Cedroni
Marzocca, Italy
Moreno Cedroni, born July 9, 1964, in Ancona, Italy, opened La Madonnina del Pescatore in Marzocca di Senigallia, Marche region, in 1984, earning its first Michelin star in 1996…
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Chef
Pepe Solla
Poio, Spain
Spanish cooking on the Galician coast is built on product, service, and the table’s sense of timing. At Casa Solla in Poio, Spain, chef and owner Pepe Solla has worked that…
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Executive Chef & Owner, Restaurant Grön
Toni Kostian
Helsinki, Finland
At Grön on Albertinkatu 36 in Helsinki, seasonality is handled as a working constraint rather than a theme. Finnish and Nordic products set the range: wild leaves, organic…
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Executive Chef, George Restaurant at Grand Hotel Parker's
Domenico Candela
Naples, Italy
Domenico Candela, born in Naples in 1986, began his culinary career at age 15 as a dishwasher in Eraclea and trained under chefs including Antonio Guida, Stefano Mazzone, Damiano…
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Chef
Domenico Francone
Weikersheim, Germany
## The Climb Hotel School gave Domenico Francone the baseline for a career built on repetition, timing, and control. From there, the work moved into the pressures of service,…
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Winemaker
Ezio Rivella
Montalcino, Italy
The specialty defined the terms of his career: disciplined, durable, and tied to a place where consistency is a technical requirement, not a slogan. ## The Climb At Castello Banfi…
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Chef Patron, Cedar Tree by Hrishikesh Desai at Farlam Hall
Hrishikesh Desai
Brampton, United Kingdom
Hrishikesh Desai is the Chef Patron at Cedar Tree by Hrishikesh Desai at Farlam Hall Hotel & Restaurant in Brampton, Cumbria, where the restaurant earned one Michelin star in 2024…
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Chef
Josh Niland
Sydney, Australia
## Formation Professional fish cookery in Sydney runs through trade school, restaurant repetition, and close handling before it becomes a point of view. Josh Niland trained at…
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Winemaker
Rudy Buratti
Montalcino, Italy
Rudy Buratti was on the Castello Banfi winemaking team in Montalcino, Italy, in 1999, but the work had already been shaped by a longer span of time: decades in the cellar, the…
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Chef
Silvio Nickol
Vienna, Austria
Chef work across Two Michelin-recognized addresses can be read through how a kitchen manages focus, seasonality, and menu progression. In Silvio Nickol’s current profile, that…
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Master of Wine
Benjamin Hasko
Singapore, Singapore
## The Path At Cloudstreet in Singapore, Benjamin Hasko holds the Beverage Director role with a focus on bottles that speak clearly of place and farming. The standard is not…
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Pastry chef
Maira Yeo
Singapore, Singapore
Pastry work at this level is a matter of placement inside the meal, not a decorative finish. In Maira Yeo’s work at Cloudstreet in Singapore from 2020 to the present, dessert…
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Chef & Proprietor, La Mère Brazier
Mathieu Viannay
Lyon, France
Mathieu Viannay is a French chef born July 14, 1967, in Versailles, who has led the iconic La Mère Brazier restaurant in Lyon since 2008. He earned the title of Meilleur Ouvrier…
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Chef & Owner, Amelia
Paulo Airaudo
San Sebastián, Spain
Paulo Airaudo, born in 1985 in Córdoba, Argentina to Italian immigrant parents, began his culinary career at 18, training at renowned kitchens including Arzak in San Sebastián,…
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Chef-Owner, Cloudstreet; Chef-Owner, Kotuwa; Chef-Owner, Station by Kotuwa
Rishi Naleendra
Singapore, Singapore
Rishi Naleendra is a Sri Lankan-born, Australian-trained chef and restaurateur based in Singapore, best known as chef-owner of the two-Michelin-starred Cloudstreet, which opened…
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Chef de Cuisine, Mezzaluna
Ryuki Kawasaki
Bangkok, Thailand
Ryuki Kawasaki is the Japanese-born Chef de Cuisine at Mezzaluna, a two Michelin-starred restaurant on the 65th floor of lebua at State Tower in Bangkok, where he has led the…
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Chef
Felipe Riccio
Houston, Texas, United States
## Coming Up Technique in Riccio’s case reads as accumulation: coastal Veracruz, then Houston as a teenager, then the discipline of REEF and the opening work at The Pass &…
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Chef
Mehmet Gürs
Istanbul, Turkey
Mehmet Gürs is the chef-owner of Mikla in Istanbul, and the role fits a cook whose work has been built through repetition, place, and long practice rather than display. Born on 13…
View →Head Chef, Shokudo aca
Tatsuki Kozuka
Minato, Japan
Osaka-born Tatsuki Kozuka is the head chef of Shokudo aca at Azabudai Hills. A graduate of Tsuji Culinary Institute, he trained in France and at Tokyo's ZURRIOLA before joining…
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Chef-Owner, Aca 1°
Tetsuo Azuma
Tokyo, Japan
Okayama-born and Kyoto-raised Tetsuo Azuma is the chef-owner of Aca 1°, the Spanish restaurant he founded in Kyoto in 2013 and moved to Nihonbashi, Tokyo, in August 2020. After…
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Winemaker
Christophe Roumier
Chambolle-Musigny, France
The domaine's foundation belongs to the Burgundian mechanics of family landholding: marriage, village parcels, inheritance and cellar continuity. In 1924, Christophe Roumier's…
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Chef
Eom Tae-jun
Seoul, South Korea
Eom Tae-jun is chef-owner of Solbam in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea, a post he has held since 2021. The work reads as controlled rather than showy: disciplined in structure, but…
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Food & Creative Director, JKS Restaurants
Karam Sethi
London, United Kingdom
Karam Sethi is the chef-patron and Food & Creative Director of JKS Restaurants, which operates Trishna, Gymkhana, and Hoppers in London. London-born, he trained at the Maurya in…
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Chef
Massimiliano Sena
Geneva, Switzerland
Chef at Château de Courcelles in France, Massimiliano Sena works from a kitchen lineage built through service rather than a named school. The formation begins in Sorrento, passes…
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Winemaker, Domaine Hubert Lamy
Olivier Lamy
Saint-Aubin, France
Seasonal measurement sets the frame at Domaine Hubert Lamy in Saint-Aubin, France, where Olivier Lamy works as winemaker/grower. The reference points are weather, water, heat,…
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Chef
Ugo Rinaldo
Shanghai, China
## Coming Up The kitchen ladder in Ugo Rinaldo’s career is visible in the sequence: training at EMTH beziers, then a run of apprenticeships and service posts that mark the…
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Bartender / bar director
Christina Veira
Toronto, Canada
Christina Veira’s practice is built on a layered base that started at the University of Toronto and expanded into bar leadership, programming, education, and community-minded…
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Executive Chef, Vila Joya
Dieter Koschina
Albufeira, Portugal
Dieter Koschina is an Austrian chef born in Dornbirn on May 6, 1962, who has been the Executive Chef at Vila Joya in Albufeira, Portugal since 1991. He secured Vila Joya's first…
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Chef
Gian Piero Vivalda
Cervere, Italy
Gian Piero Vivalda’s work at Antica Corona Reale in Cervere, Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy is tied to Piedmontese cooking and to the pace of a house built over time. The line of his…
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Chef
Nicole Krasinski
San Francisco, California, United States
Nicole Krasinski works pastry from inside the restaurant, where desserts, ownership, and kitchen management sit in the same frame. At The Progress in San Francisco, her role as…
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Chef
Stuart Brioza
San Francisco, California, United States
At The Progress in San Francisco, the work is built on a kitchen language that treats whole animals and whole vegetables with equal weight, with smoke, fire, curing, fermenting,…
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Chef
Dani Garcia
Marbella, Spain
Marbella is the fixed point in Dani Garcia’s work: Andalusian cuisine, cooked by a Spanish chef in Marbella, Spain, at Lobito de Mar. From that coastal base, the cooking reads as…
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Chef
Marco Moran
Prendes, Spain
## The Path At Casa Gerardo in Prendes, Spain, the work is shaped by a single clear marker: fabada asturiana, identified as the star dish. Marco Moran’s role as Executive Chef…
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Chef
Niklas Ekstedt
Stockholm, Sweden
## Coming Up Scandinavian cooking, in Niklas Ekstedt’s hands, is framed through fire and landscape rather than through ornament. Born in 1978 in Järpen, Sweden, he has built a…
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Chef
Pedro Moran
Prendes, Spain
## The Path Asturian cuisine sits at the center of Pedro Moran’s cooking, and fabada is the dish most closely tied to his name. ## The Work Today Pedro Moran is chef of Casa…
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Chef
Benoît Charvet
Collonges-au-Mont-dOr, France
## The Climb École Hôtelière Ferrandi gave Benoît Charvet a structured base in the habits pastry work asks for: rigor, finesse, and control at service pace. That training is…
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Chef
Christian Bouvarel
Collonges-au-Mont-dOr, France
## The Climb At L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or, France, the standard is set by the house itself, and Christian Bouvarel spent years working inside that expectation as…
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Chef
David Žefran
Kranjska Gora, Slovenia
At Milka, Alpine cooking is handled as a discipline of reduction: season, landscape, rural memory, and technical clarity set the limits of the plate. In David Žefran’s work,…
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Chef
Dustin Falcon
San Francisco, California, United States
Dustin Falcon’s work tracks a straight line through the kitchen hierarchy: responsibility widened only after the fundamentals had been earned at station level. The progression is…
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Chef
Gilles Reinhardt
Collonges-au-Mont-dOr, France
Across the years that followed his training, Gilles Reinhardt’s career settled into a rare kind of steadiness: one house near Lyon, one disciplined Classical French repertoire,…
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Co-Founder, Sips
Marc Álvarez
Barcelona, Spain
His work is built around liquid gastronomy and cocktail innovation, with each drink approached less as a pour than as a composed exercise in sensory control. In Marc Álvarez’s…
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Matthew Sherry
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Before Matthew Sherry took over as Head Chef of Number One in Edinburgh in 2021, the line of his work had already been set by Castle Terrace: first as a training ground, then as…
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Chef
Olivier Couvin
Collonges-au-Mont-dOr, France
## The Path The Executive Chef role at Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, became a defining post for Olivier Couvin in 2001. Inside a house where consistency is part of the brief, that…
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Co-Founder, Sips; Former Bartender, Artesian
Simone Caporale
Barcelona, Spain
Glasswashing is often the first station in a bar education: pace, breakage, reset, mise en place, and the sound of service before the drink is ever built. Simone Caporale entered…
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Chef, La Table de Yoann Conte
Yoann Conte
Veyrier-du-Lac, France
Yoann Conte, born in 1974 in Brest, France, trained under Marc Veyrat at Auberge de l’Eridan in 1993 and took over his restaurant in Veyrier-du-Lac as La Table de Yoann Conte…
View →Chef
Ben Radford
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
## The Path Since 2012, Ben Radford has held the Head Chef role at Timberyard, and the restaurant’s measured style has remained closely associated with his direction. The work is…
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Stavriani Zervakakou
Garons, France
Stavriani Zervakakou works at the point where inherited practice and formal kitchen discipline meet. As Executive Chef of Michel Kayser - Restaurant Alexandre in Garons, France,…
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Chef
Andrea Coro
London, United Kingdom
In 2025, Andrea Coro moved into the top kitchen role at Rosewood London, United Kingdom, after a career built through measured steps rather than sudden jumps. The line through the…
View →Owner-Bartender, Bar Cham
Byung-Jin Lim
Seoul, South Korea
Byung-Jin “BJ” Lim is a Seoul owner-bartender who operates Bar Cham, Pomme and Cham in Season. At Bar Cham, Lim and his team foreground Korean traditional spirits, indigenous…
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Chef
Luke French
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Luke French cooks at JÖRO in Sheffield with a restraint that puts flavour ahead of flourish. Since 2016, he has been head chef and co-owner there, shaping a kitchen built on…
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Chef and Owner, Tempura Kondo
Fumio Kondo
Tokyo, Japan
Fumio Kondo is the chef and owner of Tempura Kondo in Tokyo's Ginza district, a two-Michelin-starred specialist tempura restaurant he opened in 1991 at age 43. Born in Tokyo in…
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Chef
Jason Liu
New York City, New York, United States
Jason Liu is the owner and chef of LING LONG in Shanghai, China, a position that puts authorship and accountability on the same line. He is also partner and co-founder of Soft…
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Managing Director
AXA Millesimes
Preignac, France
AXA Millésimes is the owner of Château Suduiraut, a Premier Cru Classé Sauternes estate acquired in 1992, and Château Pichon-Longueville Baron (also known as Pichon Baron), a…
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