A female chef in a man's meat world, and a guy who turned the garage of his family home into a restaurant to serve up Korean dumpling and noodle dinners are among some of the honorees in Food & Wine magazine's list of best new chefs to watch out for in 2017.
Every year, editors and food experts travel the country in a bid to shine the spotlight on up-and-coming chefs who may not be household names -- at least, not yet.
Here's a selection of their picks for 2017:
Yoshi Okai, Otoko - Austin, Texas
Editors describe chef Okai as a sort of sushi heretic, not for his techniques -- he has a "fetishistic attention to rice, the shaping of nigiri" -- but for his unpredictable use of flavors. The 12-seat restaurant Otoko serves a multi-course omakase menu that blends Tokyo-style sushi with Kyoto-style kaiseki, and that doesn't forget its Texas home, be it in the surprising use of Meyer lemon or finger limes, or nods to traditional Texas barbecue.
http://otokoaustin.com/
Peter Cho, Han Oak - Portland, Oregon
At Han Oak, chef Cho hosts diners in a converted garage from his family home where he smokes his meats, hand-cuts his noodles, and slow-cooks his Korean dishes, while the strains of Chance the Rapper blast from the speakers above. For $35 a head, diners tuck into what F&W editors describe as "the most exciting new Korean food in the country," with dishes like kalgooksu, made with hand-cut noodles in an egg drop chicken broth, and smoked hanger steak served Korean-style with lettuce wraps, spicy soybean paste, pickled bean sprouts and cabbage slaw. Or as F&W editors put it: "The result is a little bit Seoul savant and a little bit Kid and Play, which feels like the right tone for a chef who is preserving the art of the damn-good time for future generations of food nerds."
http://hanoakpdx.com/
Angie Mar, The Beatrice Inn - New York
With a resume that boasts stints at Marlow & Sons, the Spotted Pig and an apprenticeship with legendary Parisian butcher Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec, Angie Mar is, as F&W puts it, "putting the notion of masculine meatery on watch." At The Beatrice, a Kansas cote de boeuf is dry-aged for 60 days and served with marrow blistered blackberries and charred prawn butter. Applewood-smoked rabbit is served with blueberries, pink peppercorns, German chocolate and burnt laurel. And duck is salt-cured, smoked, roasted and flambed, before being dished up with cherry jus and fingerling Lyonnaise potatoes.
http://thebeatriceinn.com/home.html
Jay Blackinton, Hogstone's Wood Oven - Orcas Island, Washington
It's not the most accessible dining address. But the ferry crossing is worth the journey for the "purest expression of Pacific Northwest cuisine," say F&W editors. Meals are made with hyperlocal ingredients from the island's microenvironment. Chef Blackington raises his own pigs, digs his own clams and grows his own vegetables. Along with his wood-fired pizzas, sample meals include pork loin served with burnt pear and potato puree topped with egg and salmon roe.
http://www.hogstone.com/
The full list of chefs can be found at http://www.foodandwine.com/microsites/best-new-chefs-2017/ and will also be published in the July issue of the magazine.
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