Jan Hartwig tops the 100 Best Chefs Germany list
The JAN chef takes the number-one spot at the Rolling Pin Convention in Düsseldorf, with Tim Raue keeping the ranking's Legend status.
Jan Hartwig, of restaurant JAN, was named number one on the 100 Best Chefs Germany 2026 list at the Rolling Pin Convention in Düsseldorf.
The ranking is compiled by Rolling Pin, a hospitality trade media and jobs platform, and decided by peer vote: chefs, restaurateurs and other industry figures nominate and rank their peers, rather than a panel of critics. The 2026 results were announced on 28 September, with positions shifting from the prior year's list as new names enter and established ones move.
Jan Hartwig takes the top spot
A peer vote measures something a guide inspector cannot: what the kitchen next door actually thinks of your cooking.
Tobias Bätz placed second, Tohru Nakamura third and Sebastian Frank fourth. Tim Raue, of Restaurant Tim Raue in Berlin, holds the ranking's separate Legend status rather than a numbered place, a category Rolling Pin reserves for chefs it considers to have already defined German fine dining rather than to still be competing for position.
Hartwig built his reputation over a decade at Munich's Atelier, where he held three Michelin stars before leaving in 2021 to open his own restaurant, JAN. Topping a peer-voted list is a different kind of validation than a guide's stars: it measures standing inside the profession rather than an inspector's single visit.
What a peer-voted ranking measures
Because working chefs and restaurateurs cast the votes, the list tends to track who the industry itself is watching, not only who holds stars this season. Rolling Pin frames the shifts each year, new entries, risers, fallers, as a reading of where German cooking is heading next, alongside guide rankings rather than in place of them.
The convention also handed out a separate Top Chefs honour to cooks who drew at least ten nominations without reaching the top 100, a wider list meant to flag names worth watching before they break into the ranking proper next year.
Munich's fine-dining scene, already building toward a record Oktoberfest season this year, gets a further marker of strength from a Munich-trained chef leading a national, industry-voted list.
