FOOD & WINE ANNOUNCES THE 2022 BEST NEW CHEFS IN AMERICA AND ITS RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR

Meet the most exciting emerging culinary talent in the U.S. today—11 chefs and a restaurant in Nashville whose food is highly personal, unapologetic, and extremely fun.

Dotdash Meredith's FOOD & WINE announces today its highly anticipated list of America's Best New Chefs of 2022, spotlighting the 11 most talented up-and-coming chefs reinventing restaurant culture with vibrant and innovative new concepts that are deeply personal, reflecting their social and cultural influences. This year, FOOD & WINE introduces a new accolade, naming Locust of Nashville its Restaurant of the Year. An in-depth story on Locust and its chef, Trevor Moran, and profiles of the 2022 Best New Chefs, along with their favorite spots to eat and drink in the cities they call home, are featured now online here: Best New Chefs and Restaurant of the Year, as well as in the October issue of FOOD & WINE, on newsstands September 23.

"We welcome the 2022 class of Best New Chefs to a prestigious community of more than 354 chefs and leaders, including luminaries like Daniel Boulud, Nancy Silverton, Kwame Onwuachi, and David Chang," said FOOD & WINE Editor in Chief Hunter Lewis. "The 34th class of FOOD & WINE Best New Chefs is modernizing the hospitality industry, and, now more than ever, we're honoring up-and-coming chefs who are as passionate about cultivating more respectful kitchen cultures as they are about their talent at the stove. Through their artistry and talent, these amazing chefs are reframing the dining experience."

FOOD & WINE BEST NEW CHEFS IN AMERICA 2022 Warda Bouguettaya, Warda Pâtisserie, Detroit Damarr Brown, Virtue, Chicago Ana Castro, Lengua Madre, New Orleans Calvin Eng, Bonnie's, Brooklyn Tim Flores & Genie Kwon, Kasama, Chicago Melissa Miranda, Musang, Seattle Justin Pichetrungsi, Anajak Thai, Los Angeles Emily Riddell, Machine Shop Boulangerie, Philadelphia Rob Rubba, Oyster Oyster, Washington, D.C. Caroline Schiff, Gage & Tollner, Brooklyn

FOOD & WINE chooses the Best New Chefs after a monthslong selection process. Chefs who have been in charge of a kitchen or pastry program for five years or less are eligible. The process begins with F&W editors soliciting and vetting nominations from food writers, cookbook authors, Best New Chef alums, and other trusted experts around the country. Then, Restaurant Editor Khushbu Shah travels the country. This year, she visited 24 cities in three months, dining out in dozens of restaurants in search of the most promising and dynamic chefs right now. For more information about the selection and vetting process, please visit here.

Shah wrote in the Best New Chefs feature story: "We've all heard the stories: the endless stream of pivoting, closing, restructuring, reopening, and reacting to labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and perpetually shifting local laws, all in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. We talk a lot about how resilient restaurant people are. But this year, above all, it seemed to me that restaurants began to find a new kind of freedom in the midst of all the turmoil and trouble: when they stopped playing by everyone else's rules and started writing their own … This year's class of Food & Wine Best New Chefs embodies this movement, delivering flavor, joy, and wonder on their own terms."

Shah, who also selected Locust as the Restaurant of the Year, says: "Locust is fully, uncompromisingly, and unapologetically itself—which is exactly what makes it so playful and brilliant."

FOOD & WINE celebrates the 2022 Best New Chefs this evening at CITY WINERY in New York City, featuring FOOD & WINE alumni Best New Chefs CHRIS SHEPHERD, SOUTHERN SMOKE FOUNDATION [2013 BNC]; ANGEL BARRETO, CHEF/PARTNER, ANJU [2021 BNC]; and PAOLA VELEZ, COFOUNDER, BAKERS AGAINST RACISM [2021 BNC]. To support the new class, FOOD & WINE will kick off the celebration with the Best New Chef Mentorship Program, which empowers new BNCs to grow personally and professionally in their careers.

Sponsors for the 2022 FOOD & WINE Best New Chefs event are Hestan Culinary, Santa Margherita, Santa Teresa 1796, and S.Pellegrino®. YETI sponsors the Best New Chef Mentorship Program.

ABOUT FOOD & WINE

FOOD & WINE is the ultimate authority on the best of what's new in food, drink, travel, design, and entertaining. FOOD & WINE has an extensive social media following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. FOOD & WINE includes a magazine in print and digital; a website, foodandwine.com; a books division; plus newsletters, events, and more. At FOOD & WINE, we inspire and empower our wine- and food-obsessed community to eat, drink, entertain, and travel better—every day and everywhere. FOOD & WINE is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.