A New Crop of Chefs
Our friends at Food & Wine Magazine just revealed their annual list of the country's Best New Chefs. We're always on the lookout for impressive up-and-comers in the food world, so we attended the announcement celebration and talked to several of the honorees. Should we expect to see some of them as future competitors on Iron Chef? It certainly seems possible.
We asked each of the winners we interviewed to choose a favorite ingredient and one chef who has been a major career influence.
How he uses it: smoked trout pasta with scrambled eggs and Granny Smith apples
How he uses it: ramp paella with snails and rabbit, chard and ramp chimichurri, ramp pasta
How he uses it: a salad of mixed greens and up to 40 ingredients, including asparagus and salted, fried pea skins
Most influential ingredient: ají amarillo (a South American yellow chili)
How he uses it: ají de gallina, a spicy chicken dish recommended by Giada De Laurentiis on The Best Thing I Ever Ate
How he uses it: a visually striking seasonal salad called "Vegetable Garden"
Congratulations to all of the 2011 Best New Chefs. To discover more trendsetters, visit our Chefs of Tomorrow feature. To find restaurants featured on Food Network in your area or around the country, check out the new FN Local.