This year, Restaurant Hospitality revived its Rising Stars program, identifying the industry’s best and brightest talent. These chefs and restaurateurs are folks with a story to tell about culinary innovation, operational genius or beyond-the-horizon thinking that our editors think gives them the potential for greatness.
Chefs featured in previous years include Emeril Lagasse (1987), Jose Andres (1998), Bobby Flay (1991) and Jose Garces (2004).
The chefs recognized in 2021 overcame challenges unlike any generation before them: A pandemic closing down restaurants for months, the worst economic turndown since the Great Depression and a subsequent labor crisis, hurricanes and wildfires and more brought on by a climate change disaster.
The chefs in this group have opened new restaurants during the pandemic, shifted segments, and put together plans to grow their concepts in the years to come.
Click through the gallery to read about 2021’s Rising Stars.
