Food & Wine names its 2026 Best New Chefs

Food & Wine has revealed its 2026 Best New Chefs, naming 14 chefs across ten restaurants after a months-long search across the United States. The list was unveiled on Monday at an awards celebration at ZZ's Club in New York, the first edition of the party open to public tickets in its 38-year history.

Editors dined anonymously around the country and solicited nominations from past winners, food writers and cookbook authors before narrowing the field. To qualify, a chef had to have run a kitchen or pastry program for five years or less. Food & Wine has run the list since 1988, and past honorees include chefs who went on to open some of the country's most cited restaurants.

This year's class spans coasts and cuisines: Charlie Mitchell of Saga in New York, Melissa López of Barra Santos in Los Angeles, and Masako Morishita of Perry's in Washington, D.C. are among the ten restaurants represented, alongside chef pairs at Mirra in Chicago, The Paper Bridge in Portland and Honeysuckle in Philadelphia.

Ten restaurants, fourteen names, and not one of them has run a kitchen for more than five years.

A list built on five-year eligibility

The other honorees are John Wesley of Kiln in San Francisco, Carlos Delgado of Causa in Washington, D.C., Zachary and Hannah Welton of Weltons Tiny Bakeshop in Charleston, and Lucas McKinney of Josephine's in Houston.

"This class has that electricity — each of these chefs has a distinct point of view, extraordinary command of their craft," said Hunter Lewis, Food & Wine's editor-in-chief.

Public tickets, alumni on the pass

Sold at $395 a head, the 50 public tickets for Monday's party were a first for the awards, which had run as an invitation-only industry night since 1988, as Amuse reported ahead of the event. Six alumni, including Rick Bayless and Kwame Onwuachi, cooked alongside the new class rather than ceding the room to them entirely.

The class heads west next: a dinner at Kismet in Los Angeles on October 14, priced at $150 a person, gives the new chefs a second stage before the year's list closes.