Food & Wine Magazine on Tuesday named its annual list of Best New Chefs, an award that has the potential to significantly boost the winners’ careers.
This year’s recipients are:
Charlie Mitchell of Saga restaurant in New York City, who the magazine praised for bringing “precision and deeply personal Southern and Asian influences to the tasting menu”
Zubair Mohajir and Rishi Kumar of Mirra in Chicago who combine the cuisines of India and Mexico into their menu with items including lamb barbacoa biryani and Mexican aguachile made with chaas, an Indian yogurt beverage.
Quynh Nguyen and Gian Carlo Reinardy of The Paper Bridge in Portland, Oregon, featuring dishes made from spiced Vietnamese rice noodles and house-made chile sauces
Melissa López of Barra Santos in Los Angeles, a small Portuguese restaurant and wine bar known for its deep Spanish and Portuguese wine list, lively atmosphere, and straightforward cuisine
John Wesley of Kiln in San Francisco, a fine-dining tasting-menu restaurant with two Michelin stars known for its minimalist style but complex cooking techniques
Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate of Honeysuckle in Philadelphia, which reflects the foodways of the African diaspora
Carlos Delgado of Causa in Washington, D.C., the first Peruvian restaurant in the United States to earn a Michelin star
Masako Morishita of Perry’s in Washington, D.C., a longstanding Japanese restaurant in Adams Morgan that the chef has revitalized and incorporated elements of wafu Italian cooking into the menu to blend the cuisines of Japan and Italy
Zachary and Hannah Welton of Weltons Tiny Bakeshop in Charleston, South Carolina, which features pastries made from local artisanal grains
Lucas McKinney of Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition in Houston, which true to its name focuses on the cuisine of the gulf coast and describes itself as “a little bit classy, and a little bit trashy”
Past winners who went on to further acclaim include Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, David Chang, Nancy Silverton, Nina Compton, Thomas Keller, Barbara Lynch, Nobu Matsuhisa, Missy Robbins, Stephanie Izard and Kwame Onwuachi.
Winners are chosen by the magazine’s editorial team, who consult with past winners, culinary experts, and members of the food media before traveling the country and dining anonymously at restaurants under consideration. Winners must have been in charge of a kitchen or pastry program for five years or less.
“For 38 years, Best New Chefs has been a way to find the people who will change how we think about restaurants before the rest of the world fully knows their names,” Food & Wine Editor-in-Chief Hunter Lewis said in a statement. “This class has that electricity. Their restaurants could not be more different, but each of these chefs has a distinct point of view, extraordinary command of their craft, and the ability to make you see something familiar in an entirely new way. These are chefs we will be talking about for decades.”
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