10 Atlanta Celebrity Chefs You Should Know
Atlanta isn’t New York or Los Angeles when it comes to celebrity chef driven cuisine, but it is a rising star with chefs from the city and surrounding suburbs featured on the Food Network.
Sources: Atlanta About.com, Access Atlanta, Atlanta Magazine
1. Anne Quatrano
The co-host of the 2014 James Beard Foundation benefit in Atlanta on Sep 12, Anne Quatrano, who starred on the Chefs A’ Field show runs four Atlanta restaurants including Bacchanalia.
2. Richard Blais
The star of “Top Chef” Season 4, who then took first place in Top Chef All Stars, has a couple of Atlanta restaurants including the FLIP Burger locations, a fancy sausage restaurant called HD1 in the trendy Poncey-Highland hood and The Spence in Tech Square.
3. Jeffrey Gardner
The Food Network “Chopped” star runs South City Kitchen Midtown.
4. Eli Kirshtein
One of many Atlanta based chefs competing on Season 6 of “Top Chef“, Eli Kirshtein no longer has a restaurant in Atlanta, but was the chef at Eno in Midtown, which is now shuttered. Instead he is flirting around the country and hoping to eventually open a small restaurant with affordable, market-driven seasonal cuisine.
5. Hector Santiago
Santiago runs one of Atlanta’s top tapas restaurants, Pure Vida in Poncey-Highland. Santiago was on “Top Chef” Season 6.
6. Kevin Rathbun
The “Chopped” and “Iron Chef” American star has multiple Atlanta restaurants including Rathbun’s, Kevin Rathbun Steak and NAVA.
7. Justin Burdett
The “Chopped” star runs Miller Union and cites quick butchery as one of his competitive edges.
8. Janine Falvo
On “Top Chef” in 2011 (Season 9), Janine Falvo’s restaurant Briza is located inside the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel. She swears by her lobster gnocchi with buttered popcorn sauce.
9. Kevin Gillepsie
On the sixth season of the Bravo cooking phenom “Top Chef,” Gillepsie runs the kitchen at Woodfire Grill on Cheshire Bridge Road, which is super popular and known for its seasonal menu.
10. Whitney Otawaka
Featured on “Top Chef” season 9, Whitney Otawka now runs Farm 255 just north of Atlanta in the college town of Athens. It is the sister restaurant to Atlanta’s Farm Burger.