Every Food & Wine Best New Chef Ever, Since 1988

For 35 years, Food & Wine editors have criss-crossed the country every year to seek out America's most exciting up-and-coming chefs. Here are all the winners (389!) we've ever had since Best New Chefs kicked off in 1988. (And make sure to check out the brand-new 2024 class of Best New Chefs.)

1988: Bruce Auden, Daniel Boulud, Frank Brigtsen, Gordon Hamersley, Gordon Naccarato, Hubert Keller, Johanne Killeen and George Germon, Rick Bayless, Robert McGrath, Thomas Keller

1989: Christopher Gross, David Bouley, Debra Ponzek, Gary Danko, Jean Joho, Katsuo Sugiura, Keith Famie, Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, Susan Spicer, Susanna Foo

1990: David Holben and Lori Finkelman Holben (now Lori Finkelman), Francesco Martorella and Bruce Lim, José Gutierrez, Mark Militello, Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton, Roberto Donna, Thomas Valenti, Todd English

1991: Allen Susser, Gabriel Viti, Jack McDavid, John Farnsworth, Kevin Graham, Kevin Shikami, Lissa Doumani and Hiro Sone, Michael Romano, Tom Colicchio, Tim Anderson

1992: Why are there no BNCs in '92? In a short-lived experiment, F&W ran a best new restaurants list instead. At the 2023 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Bobby Flay — who had been informed in 1992 that he'd been chosen — was given an honorary BNC chef's coat.

1993: Ben Barker, Celestino Drago, Don Yamauchi, Hubert Des Marais, Jim Galileo, Jody Adams, Gray Kunz, Larkin Selman, Mike Fennelly, Nancy Oakes

1994: Alessandro Stratta, Charles Wiley, Gerald Hirigoyen, Greg Sonnier, Matthew Kenney, Michael Cordúa, Reed Hearon, Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand, Robbin Haas, Tamara Murphy

1995: Charles Dale, Hallman Woods III, John Neal, John Schenk, Pascal Oudin, Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison, Terrance Brennan, Traci Des Jardins

1996: Barbara Lynch, Gilles Epié, Jim Moffat, Lance Dean Velasquez, Maria Helm (now Maria Helm Sinskey), Matthew Lake, Michael Schlow, Monica Pope, Nick Morfogen, Scott Bryan

1997: Dan Silverman, George W. Brown Jr., Daniel Patterson, John Cochran, Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta, Keith Luce, Kelsie Kerr and Marsha McBride, Sotohiro Kosugi, Tim McKee, Tony Clark

1998: Anne Kearney, Danielle Custer, Guillermo Pernot, Katy Sparks, Laurent Tourondel, Lee Hefter, Michael Symon, Oliver Altherr, Rene Michelena, Trey Foshee

1999: Dale Reitzer, James Mazzio, James McDevitt, John Besh, Marc Vetri, Paul Kahan, Rocco DiSpirito, Ron Siegel, Steve Rosen, Suzanne Goin

2000: Amanda Lydon, Andrea Curto (now Andrea Curto-Randazzo), Andrew Carmellini, Eric Moshier and Loren Falsone, Joseph Wrede, Michael Leviton, Takashi Yagihashi, Ted Cizma, Tim Goodell

2001: Anita Lo, Craig Stoll, E. Michael Reidt, Frank Ruta, John Sundstrom, Kelly Courtney, Randy Lewis, Sandro Gamba, Will Packwood, Wylie Dufresne

2002: Dan Barber and Mike Anthony, Deborah Knight, Fabio Trabocchi, Grant Achatz, Hugh Acheson, John Harris, Laurent Gras, Mark Sullivan, Suzanne Tracht, Thomas John

2003: Angel Palacios, Bruce Sherman, Bryan Moscatello, Cornelius Gallagher, David Bull, David Myers, Gabriel Kreuther, Nobuo Fukuda, Scott Tycer, Stuart Brioza

2004: Bradford Thompson, Dominique Filoni, Eric Michel Klein, Graham Elliot Bowles, Marc Orfaly, Mat Wolf, Melissa Perello, Rob Evans, Scott Conant, Scott Dolich

2005: Christophe Émé, Colby Garrelts, Eric Ziebold, Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, Maria Hines, Seth Bixby Daugherty, Shea Gallante, Tony Maws, Daniel Humm, Tyson Cole

2006: Cathal Armstrong, Christopher Lee, David Chang, Douglas Keane, Jason Wilson, Jonathan Benno, Mary Dumont, Michael Carlson, Pino Maffeo, Stewart Woodman

2007: April Bloomfield, Gabriel Bremer, Gabriel Rucker, Gavin Kaysen, Ian Schnoebelen, Johnny Monis, Matthew Dillon, Paul Virant, Sean O'Brien, Steve Corry

2008: Eric Warnstedt, Ethan Stowell, Gerard Craft, Giuseppe Tentori, Jeremy Fox, Jim Burke, Koren Grieveson, Michael Psilakis, Sue Zemanick, Tim Cushman

2009: Barry Maiden, Bryan Caswell, Christopher Kostow, Jon Shook, Kelly English, Linton Hopkins, Mark Fuller, Naomi Pomeroy, Nate Appleman, Paul Liebrandt, Vinny Dotolo

2010: Alex Seidel, Clayton Miller, James Syhabout, Jason Stratton, John Shields, Jonathon Sawyer, Matt Lightner, Mike Sheerin, Missy Robbins, Roy Choi

2011: Bryce Gilmore, Carlo Mirarchi, George Mendes, James Lewis, Jamie Bissonnette (The People's BNC), Jason Franey, Joshua Skenes, Kevin Willmann, Ricardo Zarate, Stephanie Izard, Viet Pham and Bowman Brown

2012: Corey Lee, Blaine Wetzel, Bryant Ng, Cormac Mahoney, Dan Kluger, Danny Grant, Erik Anderson and Josh Habiger, Jenn Louis, Karen Nicolas, Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone, Tim Byres (The People's BNC)

2013: Danny Bowien, Justin Cogley, Matthew Gaudet, Jamie Malone, Chris Shepherd, Jose Enrique, Alex Stupak, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman, Jason Vincent, Michael Voltaggio, Brendan McGill (The People's BNC)

2014: Matthew Accarrino, Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, Paul Qui, Justin Yu, Eli Kulp, Dave Beran, Ari Taymor, Cara Stadler, Matt McCallister, Joe Ogrodnek and Walker Stern, Carl Thorne-Thomsen (The People's BNC)

2015: Zoi Antonitsas, Jake Bickelhaupt, Jonathan Brooks, Katie Button, Jim Christiansen, Michael Fojtasek and Grae Nonas, Tim Maslow, Ori Menashe, Carlos Salgado, Bryce Shuman, Cory Bahr (The People's BNC)

2016: David Barzelay, Kevin Fink, Michael Gulotta, Ravi Kapur, Brad Kilgore, Edouardo Jordan, Iliana Regan, Aaron Silverman, Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske, Kris Yenbamroong

2017: Angie Mar, Jay Blackinton, Jordan Kahn, Nina Compton, Noah Sandoval, Peter Cho, Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson, Yoshi Okai, Val Cantu, Diego Galicia and Rico Torres

2018: Jess Shadbolt and Clare de Boer, Kevin Tien, Katianna Hong, Liz Johnson, Michael Gallina, Kate Williams, Jonathan Yao, Julia Sullivan, Diana Dávila, Brady Williams

2019: Kwame Onwuachi, Misti Norris, Mutsuko Soma, Matthew Kammerer, Nite Yun, Caroline Glover, Paxx Caraballo Moll, Junghyun Park, Brandon Go, Bryan Furman

2020: Nick Bognar, Tavel Bristol-Joseph, Trigg Brown, Camille Cogswell, Eunjo Park, Nivel Patel, Daisy Ryan, Lena Sareini, Donny Sirisavath, Douglass Williams

2021: Matt Horn, Paola Velez, Carlo Lamagna, Thessa Diadem, Fermín Nuñez, Angel Barreto, Ji Hye Kim, Blake Aguillard and Trey Smith, Gaby Maeda, Lucas Sin

2022: Warda Bouguettaya, Damarr Brown, Ana Castro, Calvin Eng, Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, Melissa Miranda, Justin Pichetrungsi, Emily Riddell, Rob Rubba, Caroline Schiff

2023: Amanda Shulman, Edgar Rico, Aisha Ibrahim, Isabel Coss, Steven Pursley, Nando Chang & Valerie Chang, Hannah Ziskin, Ed Szymanski, Eunji Lee, Emmanuel Chavez

2024: Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat, Nicole Cabrera Mills, Erika Council, Leina Horii and Brian Lea, Silver Iocovozzi, Camari Mick and Mary Attea, Lawrence “LT” Smith, Karyn Tomlinson, Jonny White, Jalen Heard, and Lane Milne