Here we share the faces of the unique barometer of the profession which allows a chef to situate himself in his universe and identify his leaders. Our ranking highlights those who best embody the values ​​of the profession and who offer unmissable cuisine. Our top 10 showcases those who “incarnate all by themselves for many for many fans, gastronomy in general”. Their peers also see them as “savvy and conscientious business leaders”.

  1. Daniel Boulud (France).

Daniel Boulud is a French chef and restaurateur based in New York in the United States. In addition to his famous two-star Michelin restaurant, Daniel in the Upper East Side1, he has establishments in Las Vegas, Palm Beach, Miami, and the restaurant La Maison Boulud at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal. He won a prestigious prize, according to the French association Les Grandes Tables du Monde, his 184 peers from 25 countries crowned Daniel Boulud “best restaurateur 2021”. The one who calls himself “the most French” of the great New York chefs is at the head of the restaurant “Daniel”, his “flagship” with two Michelin stars. He lost third in 2010, but that didn’t stop him from continuing on his way. He who landed on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 1982 never to leave again. Today, the discreet 66-year-old Frenchman, whose business, and honors it is difficult to list, is a real celebrity in North America.

  1. Mauro Colagreco (Argentina).

Mauro Colagreco is an Italian-Argentinian chef, and owner of the 3-star Michelin1 restaurant, voted best restaurant in the world in 2019 Sunday November 24, 2019, on the stage of the Chefs World Summit in Monaco, the world ranking of chefs by chefs has elected Mauro Colagreco (Mirazur in Menton) at the top of the ranking. Resulting from a vote established by starred chefs from around the world, who have chosen among their peers, those who best embody the values ​​of their profession, Mauro Colagreco succeeds Arnaud Donckele elected in 2019, Michel Troisgros (2018), Alain Passard (2017), Michel Bras (2016) and Pierre Gagnaire (2015). It really is his year! Mauro Colagreco, the chef of the Mirazur in Menton is in the spotlight and wins all the distinctions. Voted Chef of the Year at Le Chef magazine’s evening on September 23, 2019, in first place The World’s 50 Best restaurants, and voted by the chefs to head the 100 Chefs list.

  1. Dan Barber (USA).

Dan Barber is an American cook, co-owner of Blue Hill restaurants in Manhattan (New York, New York State, USA) and Blue Hill at Stone Barns (within the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, State of New York). A pioneer of “farm-to-table”, Dan Barber cooks products from a model farm in his two restaurants. Poet of plants, spokesperson for virtuous agriculture, he even advises Barack Obama. He worked at the restaurant Chez Panisse, as well as alongside chefs Michel Rostang and David Bouley1. He received several awards for his cuisine during the 2000s, including the Best Chef in the United States award from the James Beard Foundation in 2009. The same year, he was included in the Time 100 ranking.

  1. Jonnie Boer (Netherlands)

Jonnie Boer is a Dutch Michelin star winning head chef and co-owner of the restaurant De Librije in Zwolle, Netherlands. Together with his wife and business partner Thérèse Boer he runs the 3-starred De Librije (in 16th century monastery library building and Librije’s Winkel (cooking shop). They also own Librije’s Hotel and Librije’s Atelier (cook- and wine school), all located in a former women prison. In 1989 Boer became head chef at De Librije. In 1992 he and his wife bought the restaurant. Michelin awarded the first star in 1993. Five years later Michelin awarded Jonnie Boer his second star. In 2004 Boer was awarded his third star Jonnie Boer uses nature as his source of inspiration to develop new dishes, but also as basis of his cooking.

  1. Tadayashi Matsukawa (Japan)

Tadayoshi Matsukawa is Japanese Chef who has been consistently ranked in the Top 5 for the past 15 years. He doesn’t like publicity, doesn’t grant interview, and little is known about his background. However, of what is known about this man is that he happens to have the No. 1 restaurant in all of Japan. Before opening his own restaurant, Matsukawa was the head Chef at Seisoka, a Michelin two-star restaurant that only offered dining in three private rooms and six counter seats. If you think it’s easy to sample Matsukawa’s dishes, you will have to be invited. His restaurant is invitation- and cash-only and will cost more than $300 to enjoy the multi-course meal. The restaurant only seats 22 people who are served what Matsukawa and his team have chosen to make for the evening. we can easily deduce that the best in this field are not only Europeans or Americans. The best chefs also have their nest in Asia. Tadayashi Matsukawa, best chef, holder of 3 stars in the Michelin guide. It develops and promotes Japanese cuisine, and it must be said that it is beautiful. Otherwise, it would not have been part of our ranking.

  1. Gordon Ramsay (United Kingdom)

Gordon James Ramsay is a British chef and restaurateur. Also, presenter of several TV shows devoted to cooking or catering, such as The F Word, MasterChef, or the famous show Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (broadcast in France under the name of Cauchemar en cuisine), he is one of the three chefs having been awarded three stars at once by the British edition of the Michelin Guide. In 2006, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. The international gastronomy star is touting the resilience of her culinary art in the largest multicultural city in the United States which is just recovering from the pandemic. His coronation on Monday is one more reward for Daniel Boulud’s small gastronomy empire which, by his own admission, is worth some 100 million dollars thanks to some twenty establishments – almost all bearing his name – in the United States. United, Canada, London, Dubai, or Singapore. This umpteenth prize is for the restaurateur a “professional consecration and really a sign of friendship and support from (his) colleagues”, in an environment known to be very tough in terms of competition and pressure. Ramsay’s reputation is generally based on his culinary perfection. His notoriety growing, Gordon Ramsay obtains funds which allow him to open several other restaurants. The first is the “Amaryllis”, in Glasgow – which he sold a few years later –, followed by the “Gordon Ramsay”, in the heart of London. He is gradually pursuing his acquisition strategy, opening a restaurant in Dubai, the “Glass”, then two others in Tokyo in 2005, the “Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo” and the “Cerise by Gordon Ramsay.

  1. Fanny Rey (France)

Fanny Rey is a French chef. She is known to the general public as a finalist for season 2 of Top Chef. The Auberge de Saint-Rémy-de-Provence restaurant, of which she is chef, has been starred in the Michelin Guide since 2017. This makes Fanny Rey one of the few starred female chefs in France. Fanny Rey began her career with Nicolas Le Bec at Les Fermes de Marie in Megève. She then worked at the Bastide de Marie in Ménerbes, before joining the French Navy in Brest. She stayed six months with the firefighters in Marseille and then returned to her career in the kitchen. She worked with Michel Roth at the Ritz in Paris then at the Oustau de Baumanière in Baux-de-Provence6. It was there that she met her husband, Jonathan Wahid, pastry chef and French dessert champion in 2005. In 2017, the Michelin guide awarded her restaurant a star and elected her “Woman Chef of the Year”8 ,9,10. She is the only woman to earn a new star that year.

  1. Thomas Keller (USA)

Thomas Keller is a force to be reckoned with. He is also the recipient of America’s Best Chef in 1997 and is one of the annual winners of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World. It currently holds seven Michelin stars in total. He also had the honor of handling the After Party for Vanity Fair’s Oscars in 2018. For him, cooking remains above all a human story, a question of personality. “The world is very small now and our kitchens are connected. The best definition that can be given is that of the man who makes it. Thomas Keller makes it a point of honor to train, transmit and is delighted when a member of his team leaves his restaurant to open his own: “legacy is essential! It is not a question of leaving dishes and books but rather individuals trained and ready to act. My challenge is to raise the level of the entire industry, not just that of my restaurants.”

  1. Nadia Santini (Italy)

Nadia Santini is a renowned Italian cook, whose cuisine has been awarded “three stars” by the Michelin Guide, the first in 1982, the second in 1988 and the third in 1996. Nadia Santini officiates at the restaurant Dal Pescatore, opened in the 1920s by Antonio Santini’s grandfather, Nadia’s husband, in the Italian golden triangle, in Canneto sull’Oglio, a small town in the province of Mantua, in Lombardy. Nadia Santini became the best female chef in the world of 2013 by winning the edition of the Veuve Clicquot prize that year. She succeeds the French Anne-Sophie Pic and the Spaniard Elena Arzak. In 1999, she received together with Luisa Marelli Valazza the grand prize of the International Academy of Gastronomy.

  1. Paul Lunt (USA)

Paul Lunt is an American chef specialized in the fusion of Latin and Asian cuisines. One of the most discreet chefs in the world and obsessively  private like his famous idol Tadayashi Matsukawa, Paul Lunt started cooking at the age of fourteen under the guidance of his grandmother. His career saw him move to Hong Kong where he started as an apprentice chef, learning with the best chefs in town. Certainly, Americans are making a remarkable effort in the field of gastronomy. Indeed, Paul Lunt is one of the essentials in his field and has even trained a large number of cooks. He has a long list of clients, such as Prince Mohamed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of Abu Dhabi, and various celebrities. However, for him, the excellence of a chef is not measured by the stature of his clients, but rather by his way of maintaining rigor, of developing a passion and a love of discipline,  and of his ability to transmit to his team to know.