Thomas Aloysius Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant is a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World.
Jean-Georges is a two-Michelin-star restaurant at 1 Central Park West, on the lobby level of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, named after its owner Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Komi was a restaurant in Washington, D.C. operated by Chef Johnny Monis, serving Italian cuisine and Greek cuisine.
Tyson Cole is a chef and restaurateur based in Austin, Texas, USA.
Michel Louis-Marie Richard was a French-born chef, formerly the owner of the restaurant Citrus in Los Angeles and Citronelle and Central in Washington, D.C. He has owned restaurants in Santa Barbara, Tokyo, Carmel, New York City, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C.
Kevin Gillespie is an American chef, author and former Top Chef contestant. He is a former co-owner and executive chef at Woodfire Grill in Atlanta. He opened Gunshow, a restaurant in Atlanta, in 2013 and Revival, a restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, in 2015. Gillespie also started Red Beard Restaurants, allowing Gillespie to expand and provide consulting services to other start-ups. Kevin Gillespie's Gamechanger opened in August 2017 on the 200 concourse western end zone of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Uchi is a contemporary Japanese sushi restaurant located in Austin, Texas, which opened in 2003. The Japanese word "Uchi" translates to "house" in English, and the 2,700-square-foot (250 m2) space is a refurbished home. Owner and chef Tyson Cole's menu consists of hot and cool tastings, sushi and sashimi, makimono, yakimono and tempura, and a changing omakase based on seasonal items. In 2011, Cole won the “Best Chef, Southwest” award from the James Beard Foundation.
Maricel Presilla is a chef, culinary historian, and author. She is best known for her Hoboken, New Jersey restaurants Cucharamama and Zafra. She is also a former history lecturer at Rutgers University before she entered the food industry.
Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Toronto (defunct), Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, a bakery established by pastry chef Christina Tosi, a bar (Nikai), and a quarterly magazine. The restaurants are notable for their innovative take on cuisine while supporting local, sustainable and responsible farmers and food purveyors.
Christopher Gross is an American chef and businessman owning, Christopher's at Wrigley Mansion. Currently, his third restaurant concept.
Sepia is a mid-sized, upscale restaurant run by owner Emmanuel Nony and Executive Chef Andrew Zimmerman located in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Chef Zimmerman's menu is classified as New American cuisine, and focuses on local, seasonal products. Built in Chicago's Warehouse District, Sepia was originally a print shop from the 1890s. The renovation for the restaurant, designed by Gary Lee, included putting in a custom-tile, Art Nouveau floor and hand-crafted millwork in order to enhance the historical qualities of the building. Sepia also uses vintage stemware for their tables matching the vintage interior decor of the restaurant.
Michael Solomonov is an Israeli chef known for his restaurants in Center City, Philadelphia. His first restaurant Zahav, founded in 2008, has received national recognition including the James Beard Foundation "Outstanding Restaurant" in 2019. Solomonov was also awarded Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2011, Cookbook of the Year in 2016, and Outstanding Chef in 2017 from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021, The New York Times named his restaurant Laser Wolf as one of "the 50 places in America we're most excited about right now."
Ford Fry is an American chef and restaurateur based in Atlanta, Georgia. His team consists of 13 restaurants in Georgia, three restaurants in Houston, two in Charlotte and two in Nashville. Collectively, he owns 23 restaurants across America. Fry's portfolio of restaurants includes JCT. Kitchen & Bar, no. 246, The Optimist, St. Cecilia, Little Rey, Superica, Marcel State of Grace, BeetleCat, and La Lucha. Several of Fry's restaurants have received various accolades. In October 2015, CBS This Morning described Fry as "one of the most prolific chefs and restaurateurs" in the United States. In March 2021, Atlanta Eats dubbed Fry "a peerless restaurateur with many beloved brands."
Paul Qui is a Texas-based Top Chef winner and James Beard award recipient. He operates restaurants East Side King (Austin), Thai Kun (Austin) and Pao (Miami).
Eater is a food website by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal in 2005, and originally focused on dining and nightlife in New York City. Eater launched a national site in 2009, and covered nearly 20 cities by 2012. Vox Media acquired Eater, along with two others comprising the Curbed Network, in late 2013. In 2017, Eater had around 25 local sites in the United States, Canada, and England. The site has been recognized twelve times by the James Beard Foundation Awards.
Georges Perrier is a French chef who emigrated in the United States in 1967 and lived in Philadelphia, where he founded and ran Le Bec-Fin and other restaurants, bars and cafés across the country.
Carrie Baird is an American chef and businesswoman. She is a Top Chef alumna and restaurateur.
Caroline Glover is the chef at the restaurant Annette which she founded in 2016 in Aurora, Colorado. The restaurant is named after her great aunt Annette, nicknamed Nettsie, who often visited Glover and her family in College Station, Texas.
Sắp Sửa is a Vietnamese restaurant in Denver, Colorado. It was a semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category of the James Beard Foundation Awards in 2024.
Rougui Dia is a French chef, who is internationally renowned. She is the first Black woman to be the executive chef at a Michelin-star restaurant. She is known as the “New Black Pearl of Paris,” comparing her to Josephine Baker, and the “African Queen of Parisian Cuisine".
