Where are the Rising Culinary Stars?



The Best Young Chefs in America

It's always a treat to see what young and talented chefs are cooking up, and the current crop of soon-to-be culinary stars is no exception. GAYOT.com's picks for the Top 5 Rising Chefs in the U.S. — all 30 years old or younger — marry a deep respect for culinary tradition and ingredients with an adventurousness and inventiveness that is the hallmark of youth. This group of wunderkinds is heating up kitchens from Los Angeles to the Deep South, so be sure to stop by one of their hip establishments should you have the chance. However, you may want to make reservations — these chefs are in hot demand.


Bronwen Wyatt
La Petite Grocery
New Orleans

The sweeter side of New Orleans is found at La Petite Grocery when pastry chef Bronwen Wyatt, 30, is in the kitchen. Before she picked up the rolling pin, however, she was adept with a pen, majoring in English and Fine Arts at Tulane and moving to Maine to become a freelance journalist. There she took a job as a prep cook simply to pay the bills, but little did she know it would ignite a life-changing passion for pastry. Wyatt moved to San Francisco in 2009, where she worked in the highly acclaimed Range, and then became pastry chef at Outerlands, a restaurant committed to localism and organic sustainability — values Wyatt would absorb as part of her ethos when she subsequently moved back to New Orleans.

Although the kitchen was her culinary school, Wyatt's pastry style is also strongly influenced by her mother's Southern heritage; she brings a refined local taste to her desserts at La Petite Grocery, where dishes may include a Louisiana cane sugar crème brûlée with cornmeal shortbread and a signature butterscotch pudding.

Kyle Knall
Maysville
New York City

Executive chef Kyle Knall, 27, brings inspired Southern flavors to new modern sophistication at Maysville, Sean Joseph's chic tavern dedicated to American whiskeys in New York's Flatiron district. The restaurant, named after the purported birthplace of Kentucky Bourbon, lets Knall draw from his native Birmingham culinary roots. He started cooking there in local eateries when he was 16, and soon landed at the city's fine-dining spot Daniel George, where his growing passion for cooking spurred him to attend local culinary school. As he studied, the young chef also worked under Frank Stitt at Highlands and Chez Fonfon, learning to marry Southern cuisine and French culinary technique; by 20, Knall was sous chef, and he then moved to New York City. At Gramercy Tavern he cooked under Michael Anthony and rose to sous chef there as well.

Knall has been deftly bringing it all back home at Maysville since its 2012 opening; his much-lauded stylish American menu includes hay roasted oysters with salsify and pickled shallots, and poached farm egg grits with duck confit, mushrooms, collard greens and smoked broth. His techniques of smoking and charring ingredients complement the restaurant's many boutique barrel-aged Bourbons, but he's also adept at imbuing a high note of flavors into raw and chilled seafood, and cured and pickled seasonal items.

See the rest of the Top 5 Rising Chefs in the U.S.



MORE ON GAYOT.com

Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S.

2013 Top 5 Rising Chefs in the U.S.

Guides to Culinary Experiences Around the World