Thomas Boemer

Restaurant Corner Table (Read a review)

Location Minneapolis, MN

Why He’s Amazing Because he combines European techniques, Low-Country influences and prime Midwestern ingredients in clever ways.

Culinary School Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (Mendota Heights, MN)

Background Hotel Sofitel, 20.21 (Minneapolis); Mandalay Bay, Mix (Las Vegas)

Quintessential Dish Pork belly with braised cabbage, apple puree and pickled watermelon rind

Hog Crazy Boemer uses Red Wattle and Berkshire hogs from southern Minnesota, going through a whole animal every two weeks.

Heartland Pride “I feel like the Midwest has a lot to contribute to the food culture as a whole. I’ve worked in the opulence of a Michelin-level restaurant. But the Midwest approach is very simple: [It’s] ‘I don’t need all that.’ There’s a Midwestern way that things are done, and that doesn’t have to mean steak and crappy burgers.”

Tim Dahl

Restaurant Nostrano (Read a review)

Location Madison, WI

Why He’s Amazing Because although he trained as a pastry chef, Dahl’s Italian-inflected savory dishes are spot-on.

Culinary School Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (Mendota Heights, MN)

Background Blackbird, Avec, NoMI (Chicago)

Quintessential Dish Seafood brodetto in chile oil-spiked tomato broth

Local Produce Dahl planted a garden at his parents’ nearby business, a kids’ learning center.

On Learning the Value of Simplicity “I think as most chefs progress, they find that simplicity is where it’s at. I need three things on a plate, and that’s it. I think that when you’re younger and a little bit more inexperienced, you want to keep adding more and more and more because you think that’s going to make it better, when really that’s what’s holding you back.”

Mike DeCamp

Restaurant La Belle Vie (Read a review)

Location Minneapolis, MN

Why He’s Amazing Because of his playful and down-to-earth takes on high-end cuisine, which involve inspired techniques like microwaving foie gras for an appetizer with rhubarb and pickled raisins.

Culinary School Self-taught

Background D’Amico Cucina (Minneapolis), NoMI (Chicago)

Quintessential Dish Braised rabbit agnolotti with fava beans, pancetta, morels and mascarpone

Most Notable Feature His red goatee

How He Got into the Food Business “I started washing dishes in high school. It seemed like working in a kitchen was awesome.”

On Whole Animal Cooking “We use Au Bon Canard foie gras, so I think we should use the rest of the birds. So we have a duck breast on the menu and we use everything, down to the feet for stocks.”

Justin Haifley

Restaurant The Tavern (Read a review)

Location St. Louis, MO

Why He’s Amazing Because he’s brought upscale gastropub cooking (with a Hawaiian accent) to St. Louis.

Culinary School The Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts (Pittsburgh)

Background MK, Tru (Chicago); Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine (Chicago, New York City, Hawaii and San Diego)

Quintessential Dish Char siu pork steak with pineapple-habanero salsa and fried-egg fried rice

Culinary Roots His grandmother was a food writer for Good Housekeeping magazine.

How He Fell in Love with Food “My grandma lived on a farm and she made everything from scratch. I always helped her out. Everything from canning to butchering was done there.”

On Roy Yamaguchi “The nicest guy in the world, so chill. I owe it all to Roy. He was a coach, an inspiration, as well as a listener, a mentor and a friend.”

What Makes the Tavern’s Steaks So Good “‘Meat butter,’ a compound butter made with lemon juice, lemon zest, shallots, fresh thyme and a little ground bay leaf, our secret ingredient.”

Thomas Hauck

Restaurant C.1880 (Read a review)

Location Milwaukee, WI

Why He’s Amazing Because of the unexpected flavors in his hyper-seasonal cooking, for instance, venison with brussels sprouts, pear, salsify and coffee-cardamom dust.

Culinary School The Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY)

Background Le Globe (Perpignan, France), l’Essentiel (Chambéry, France), Citronelle (Washington, DC), Mason Street Grill (Milwaukee)

Quintessential Dish Lamb with baba ganoush and pita panzanella

Insider Info C.1880 is known simply as “Circa” by locals.

Super-Seasonality “When tomatoes are good, we’ll serve tomatoes. We’ll have them everywhere because it’s awesome. For two weeks, we’ll go crazy on tomatoes. You’ll get your fill while you can.”

Hometown Pride (and Humility) “We do things really well here (in Milwaukee), but we don’t bang our chests and brag. [But] we can compete with anyone. We’ve got it here. Great beer, great meats, great farmers.”

Jamie Malone

Restaurant Sea Change (Read a review)

Location Minneapolis, MN

Why She’s Amazing Because she’s masterfully running one of the country’s best sustainable seafood restaurants.

Culinary School Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (Mendota Heights, MN)

Background Porter & Frye, Barrio, Cocina del Barrio, internship at La Belle Vie (Minneapolis)

Quintessential Dish Scallops with chicken “crumble” (fried chicken skin) and carrots three ways: blackened, as a confit and as a foam

Young Adventurer After high school, she traveled alone to Hong Kong, Beijing, Vietnam and Europe, sampling street food and exploring food markets.

On Fresh Ocean Fish in the Midwest Recently, “I’d ordered an ahi tuna [for the restaurant], and it missed its flight.” The fish she serves isn’t “just a commodity that you can go and get at the store. Each fish is special, and if he misses his flight, we don’t get to have that fish.”

Favorite Non-Fish Ingredient Jidori (free-range Japanese chicken) eggs. “They’ve got a superbright-orange yolk, and a rich, farm-y flavor.”

What She Learned from Chef Tim McKee “Keep your head down. Don’t talk. Be organized.”

Patrick Ryan

Restaurant Port Fonda (Read a review)

Location Kansas City, MO

Why He’s Amazing His food truck was such a sensation, he had to open a restaurant to meet the demand for his deftly spiced regional Mexican cooking.

Culinary School The Western Culinary Institute (Portland, OR)

Background Frontera Grill, Topolobampo (Chicago); Room 39, The River Club (Kansas City, MO)

Quintessential Dish Tacos de lengua (braised beef tongue tacos)

On the Port Fonda Trailer In addition to serving Mexican street food to sidewalk customers, “We would do four-, five- or six-course dinners inside the trailer. Just one table could fit inside. It was the hardest table to get in the city for sure, probably the hardest in the Midwest.”

Most Underappreciated Ingredient The tomatillo

What’s Banned in His Kitchen Black chef coats, combat boots, Zubaz pants (garishly patterned baggy pants from the ’90s) and floppy chef hats.

Cassy Vires

Restaurant Home Wine Kitchen (Read a review)

Location Maplewood, MO

Why She’s Amazing Because she channeled her love for throwing dinner parties for friends into a full-time career, serving delicious, inspired New American dishes.

Culinary School The Art Institute of Houston

Background Ernesto’s Wine Bar, Viking Cooking School (St. Louis)

Quintessential Dish Chicken confit with rosemary waffles and maple-balsamic gravy

On Being a Female Chef “I always really struggled to make my way into the kitchen. Growing up in a small town, putting a female in the kitchen wasn’t at the top of most chefs’ lists, but my mom told me, ‘You’re my daughter. You’re a fighter. You’re going to go to culinary school and knock those doors down.’”

Double Threat Vires was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award—for her writing as a columnist for Feast magazine.

Wine List All glasses on Vires’s list are $8; all bottles, $30. She wanted patrons to pick based on preferences, not price.