Since Eater started giving out the awards in 2012, the goal of Young Guns has been to showcase the people who make the food and restaurant world worth obsessing over, whether through their work in the kitchen, the front-of-house, the office, or outside of traditional restaurant frameworks.

And in 2019 — as rents in America’s major cities rise, pricing operators out of the market; as culinary school students graduate with huge amounts of debt; and as the industry comes to understand, however slowly, that the paths for advancement open to some are not open to all — it’s even more urgent to meet up-and-comers where they are, whether that’s a hotel kitchen, a tiny cafe, or a chocolate factory.

This year’s class of winners was chosen from over 500 nominees. The rules: Candidates must be under 30 or have fewer than five years of experience in the restaurant world. From there, we consulted with our network of city editors as well as past Young Guns to narrow down our list. Today, with our sponsor, Grey Goose, we introduce our 12 new Young Guns, who join the ranks of industry stars shaping the future of dining in America.

A few trends from among the winners: Despite ongoing industry concerns about the economic viability of hiring pastry chefs, the exceptional work of our Young Guns who focus on the sweet side of the kitchen shows that plated desserts can be a vital part of dining out. Many of this year’s winners consider environmental impact a crucial aspect of their visions, moving beyond cliche “farm-to-table” maxims and digging deeper into how to get responsibly made products into customers’ hands. There’s no denying that many in the restaurant industry still get their start in New York, but there’s plenty of innovation nationwide, whether that’s in other major markets, like Los Angeles and Chicago, or smaller cities, like Asheville.

But the Young Guns program is not just about who’s doing the coolest thing at the youngest age or with the least experience.

This year, winners were also asked to sign onto a mission statement affirming their commitment to ridding the food and restaurant industry of the discrimination and abuse that has proven endemic. By naming them Young Guns, Eater is tasking this group with modeling a better, more equitable future. The statement lives at the bottom of this page, and certainly doesn’t have to apply only to Young Guns.

Most exciting of all is the way each and every one of these Young Guns brings themself to their work. Simply put, there is nobody else besides these 12 winners who could do what they do the way they do it. And that is definitely worth celebrating.

—Hillary Dixler Canavan, Eater restaurant editor

The Eater Young Guns Class of ’19

Max Boonthanakit

27, Los Angeles

When it was time for Eater Young Gun Mei Lin (’14) to open her own restaurant, she knew Max Boonthanakit, whom she met when he was a pastry cook in the kitchen at Ink, would be a big part of it. Now, as chef de cuisine of the buzzy LA hotspot Nightshade, Boonthanakit is responsible for keeping the kitchen functioning smoothly and creating the dessert menu, which has gotten serious kudos for his gorgeously otherworldly, tropically tinged creations. But that’s not all: this Young Gun, who eventually plans to open a restaurant, is growing his own sauce company, Boon Sauce.

Francesca Chaney

23, Brooklyn

Brooklyn’s Francesca Chaney is doing wellness on her own terms. Her vegan cafe, Sol Sips, isn’t about selling customers thinness or whiteness; instead, from her tiny Bushwick cafe, she’s serving resonant, comforting vegan dishes like jerk jackfruit and green banana tamale in a coconut okra-tomato stew. She’s also making sure her work is accessible to everyone in the neighborhood, organizing weekly sliding-scale brunches and periodic cooking classes. Building on the success of her first cafe, Chaney plans to open a full-service restaurant and will continue to center communities of color in the wellness movement.

Jason Chow

32, Chicago

Jason Chow is a butcher with a plan. His background in biology led him to a career distributing sustainable fish to restaurants in Honolulu, and from there, animal butchery caught his interest while he was working on the line at chef Ed Kenney’s Mud Hen Water. He moved to California to learn the trade at the Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley, and is currently honing his craft at Butcher & Larder in Chicago. His dream? To return to Honolulu soon and open a butcher shop focused on local, ethically raised meats, all in hopes of helping the region become more food secure and decreasing its reliance on imports.

Jacob Harth

27, Portland

Jacob Harth grew up on a farm in southern Oregon; now, he uses his foraging skills and commercial fishing license to bring unexpected ingredients to Portland diners. A veteran of several prominent Portland kitchens, Harth is focused on acquainting his guests with by-catch, native, and invasive species from the state’s shores at his surprising new tasting-menu spot, Erizo. Portland is not exactly known for fine dining or seafood, but Harth might be the one to change that.

Annie Kamin

28, San Francisco

You don’t typically hear of “chief of staff” positions opening up in the artisanal food world, but it works for Annie Kamin, whom Dandelion Chocolate has tasked with managing the construction of its new 28,000-square-foot factory, cafe, chocolate salon, and workspace in San Francisco. She draws upon her deep expertise in chocolate making, as well as the knowledge she’s gained working her way up from assistant cafe manager at the company, to make sure the project succeeds for everyone involved, from chocolate makers to guests; the craft chocolate world is expanding quickly, and it’s Kamin’s job to make sure growth happens smartly. She’s an empire builder in the making.

Zoë Kanan

27, New York City

Zoë Kanan’s outstanding baked goods — especially anything with lamination, like her sourdough croissants, cinnamon raisin kouign amanns, and chocolate morning buns — have quickly earned must-try status in New York City, garnering the kind of attention from both food media and diners that portends bigger things to come. So it’s not surprising that her job has expanded accordingly. Her role at Manhattan’s Freehand Hotel has recently grown from head baker, creating and executing all pastries and bread, to head baker and pastry chef, creating plated desserts for the hotel’s restaurant Simon & the Whale, all while managing a team of four — and completing her transition from baker to leader.

Claudia Martinez

26, Atlanta

A favorite among Eater’s Southern staff, Claudia Martinez is making pastry magic happen in Atlanta. A spin through her pastry menu at Tiny Lou’s might yield references to Martinez’s Venezuelan background or Hotel Clermont’s storied history, while her dessert cart moves through the Tiny Lou’s dining room offering anything from fruit tarts to a solid chocolate pump. She might rely on nostalgic dessert classics for inspiration, but the playfully unconventional final product is all her.

Levi Raines

28, New Orleans

Sometimes a nomination comes in and it’s hard to believe that the person is new enough to professional cooking to meet the criteria. Levi Raines is a known quantity within the sometimes-insular restaurant world, having worked at the Dutch Miami and as sous chef of Nina Compton’s acclaimed Compère Lapin. When Compton and her husband, Larry Miller, tapped him as chef and partner in her newest NOLA restaurant, Bywater American Bistro — which became one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants of 2018 — it cemented his place in the ecosystem, even if Raines himself has stayed characteristically quiet about it. But there’s no doubt that Raines will soon be a name to know for restaurant-goers too.

Ashleigh Shanti

29, Asheville

Not every path to chefdom is linear. Ashleigh Shanti’s star rose as the culinary assistant for chef Vivian Howard’s PBS show A Chef’s Life, and now she’s working as the chef de cuisine at Benne on Eagle, a new Asheville restaurant from big-deal Southern chef John Fleer. In her role there, Shanti brings her unique perspective to the restaurant’s mission of showcasing the African-American foodways of Appalachia, combining her love of culinary history and storytelling with the relentless forward momentum needed of anyone opening a restaurant.

Lucas Sin

25, New York City

There’s so much Lucas Sin wants to prove through his work as chef and culinary director of the burgeoning fast-casual chain Junzi Kitchen. He wants to show that cooking at scale doesn’t have to mean cutting corners when it comes to flavor or freshness; that regionally specific cooking is just as bankable as the context-free stuff; and above all else, that good, creative food doesn’t have to be out of reach for his college-aged diners in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. As the brand starts exploring packaged foods, delivery, and other service formats, Sin’s got plenty of chances on the horizon to keep making his case.

Libby Willis

28, Brooklyn

There are many reasons we go out to eat: for fun, for comfort, for a sense of belonging. As the chef and co-owner of the smash-hit Brooklyn diner MeMe’s, Libby Willis delivers all three. An alum of the mission-oriented bakery Ovenly, Willis tackled first-time restaurant ownership with a spirit of collaboration and creativity, partnering with longtime friend and coworker Bill Clark. In the process of making a bonafide new classic, she’s prioritized keeping the space welcoming for New York’s queer community, even as it seems all roads in Brooklyn lead to MeMe’s.

Kae Whalen

27, Los Angeles

Natural wine has a cool-kid reputation, but Kae Whalen isn’t cliquish with their pours. As Kismet’s beverage director, Whalen has crafted an entirely natural wine list and found ways to make learning more about it fun, with natural-wine happy hours where guests can come and explore Whalen’s list and chat with them directly about what’s in the glass. And Whalen’s interested in bringing this education beyond the walls of Kismet, whether by broadcasting knowledge to Kismet’s 21,000-plus followers on Instagram stories or by jumping into the wine writing world.

As Eater Young Guns, we are committing to making the food and restaurant world respectful and inclusive. We denounce the discrimination that results in inequity in this industry, including but not limited to sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and harassment. We pledge that we will not perpetuate an abusive culture through our words or behavior, and urge all members of our industry to do the same.