Food & Wine magazine’s list of the 10 Best New Chefs in America, released Tuesday, includes chefs from cities well known for culinary excellence, such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as newer players, such as Minneapolis and Indianapolis, although culinary mecca San Francisco is noticeably absent from the list.
The potentially career-boosting awards, now in their 27th year, have in past years honored chefs that have become near legends, such as Daniel Boulud of New York and Nancy Silverton of Los Angeles, as well as celebrity chefs such as Tom Colicchio of Craft Restaurants and head judge of Bravo TV’s Top Chef, and David Chang of Momofuku Restaurant Group.
“Spotting amazing talent and uncovering exciting new trends go hand in hand,” Food & Wine editor in chief Dana Cowin said in a press release. “This year we’re seeing serious takes on breakfast and lunch from brilliant chefs like Jonathan Brooks at Milktooth in Indianapolis. Plus the taco trend keeps growing, driven by the incredible creativity of chefs like Carlos Salgado at Taco Maria in Costa Mesa, California.”
Learn more about the winners >>
The 2015 Best New chefs are:
• Bryce Shuman of Betony in New York City, which was also nominated last year for the James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant.
• The team of Michael Fojtasek and Grae Nonas of Olamaie in Austin, Texas, who met when they were working at Son of a Gun restaurant in Los Angeles.
• Katie Button of Cúrate in Asheville, N.C., who worked under José Andrés at Minibar in Washington, D.C., and The Bazaar in Los Angeles, as well as Jean-Georges Vongerichten as his namesake restaurant in New York.
• Zoi Antonitsas of Westward in Seattle, a lakeside Mediterranean restaurant with docks for passing kayaks and boats.
• Tim Maslow of Ribelle in Brookline, Mass., who also turned his family sandwich shop, Trip-T’s in Watertown, Mass., into a destination restaurant.
• Ori Menashe of Bestia in Los Angeles, which has more than 60 varieties of housemade charcuterie.
• Jake Bickelhaupt of 42 Grams in Chicago, who previously worked at such leading Windy City restaurants as Schwa, Alinea and Charlie Trotter’s.
• Carlos Salgado of Taco Maria in Costa Mesa, Calif., an alum of Coi in San Francisco and Commis in Oakland, Calif., who now sells tacos at lunch and four-course tasting menus at dinner.
• Jim Christiansen of Heyday in Minneapolis, who draws his inspiration from the New Nordic cuisine of Scandinavia.
• Jonathan Brooks of Milktooth in Indianapolis, which serves upgraded breakfast dishes such as soft scrambled eggs with osetra caviar and crème fraîche, and porridge with ancient grains, coconut milk and pumpkin seeds.
The winners will be featured in the July issue of Food & Wine magazine and at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, June 19-21.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
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