Chef Michael White’s refined, yet soulful style of Italian cuisine evolved from a surprising scenario: Raised in Beloit, Wisconsin, White was injured playing high-school football and decided to take up cooking instead. He invested very quickly in this career move, enrolling in Chicago’s Kendall Culinary Institute and then securing a position at one of the city’s top dining establishments, Spiaggia. At age 21 he traveled to Italy and again made a major commitment: He li…

John Becker is the chef de cuisine at the Progress, the highly anticipated follow-up to San Francisco’s groundbreaking restaurant State Bird Provisions. Opened last December in a former theater on Fillmore Street, the Progress expands on State Bird’s “American dim sum” concept: At the Progress—which is also owned by the chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski—each course is ordered by the entire table and served banquet style, like a dinner party. The menu is a collab…

A native son dedicated to the culinary riches of southern Louisiana, John Besh has set the benchmark for fine dining in New Orleans—a town whose very identity is bound to its food. His flagship restaurant, August, is located in a historic 19th-century French-Creole building in the city’s central business district. And its contemporary menu resolutely reflects the chef’s roots in ingredients and preparation with dishes such as Louisiana rabbit with morels and sage grits…

Growing up in the beachside community of Dana Point, Calif., Justin Devillier spent blithe summers on the Pacific fishing for yellowtail and albacore; in the fall and winter he would dive for lobsters just steps from his front door. Today, Devillier’s love of the catch has developed into a lifelong exploration of preparing it—particularly in the kitchens of New Orleans. His first establishment, La Petite Grocery, at a century-old Creole cottage in the city’s charming G…

Curtis Duffy knew at a young age that he had a passion for cooking: a middle-school home-economics class sparked his tremendous love of the kitchen. After completing culinary school in Ohio, he relocated to Chicago and diligently worked his way through the city’s top dining establishments, starting with three years in Charlie Trotter’s kitchen. He proceeded to become the pastry chef at Trio, the chef de cuisine at Grant Achatz’s avant-garde Alinea, and the executive ch…

Lee Wolen’s menu at Boka in Chicago’s Lincoln Park is often characterized as “approachable”—an unusually subdued descriptor considering the Chicago Tribune named Wolen as the 2014 Chef of the Year. Yet the allure of Wolen’s cuisine relies less on offbeat ingredients and preparations than the wonder he is able to draw from the familiar. The succulent roasted chicken, for instance, stuffed with lemon-thyme brioche under its crisp skin, drew raves from critics who were as…

Technique is imperative—in fact, it must be flawless. But the food still comes first. So declares the unconventional Christopher Kostow of the Restaurant at Meadowood, who became a Michelin-starred chef before the age of 30 and was named Best Chef in the Western United States by the James Beard Foundation in 2013. “Some chefs use technique to make things look unbelievably unique,” he says. “We put that on its head and say, ‘We have all this ability and know-how and too…

Kim Floresca and Daniel Ryan’s combined 30 years of experience in restaurants reads like a food lover’s fantasy tour. They have held positions at the world’s most celebrated restaurants, among them Per Se in New York City, the French Laundry in Napa Valley, Alinea in Chicago, and El Bulli in Spain. The power couple met on the job in 2002, at the Charles Court restaurant at the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs, and has been inseparable in and out of the kitchen ever …

When Barbara Lynch opened No. 9 Park in Boston’s historic Beacon Hill in 1998, the elegant French-Italian restaurant was an immediate success that kicked off a string of highly acclaimed culinary ventures for the plucky chef. Today she is the owner of eight diverse venues—among them the fine-dining establishment Menton, the conceptual demonstration kitchen Stir, and her tribute to artisanal meats and the old-world boucherie, the Butcher Shop. In 2014, Lynch won the Jam…

Even as a youngster, Patrick Campbell could not deny his attraction to the fundamental pleasures of food. The scent of the freshly baked baguettes and the taste of the rich, aromatic soups he encountered at age 3 on a family vacation at a French resort in the Bahamas still live on in his memory. That fascination with flavor and aroma would eventually drive the Massachusetts native to study at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts while learning the ropes at kitchens on…