Linton Hopkins

Linton Hopkins is the internationally acclaimed chef and owner of Hopkins and Company. The Atlanta native is known for his deceptively simple cooking style that celebrates local produce and community-driven cuisine, with restaurants that embody his Southern heritage.

Expertise: cheese, Southern cuisine, vegetable cookery, whole animal philosophy, steaks.

Experience: With deep Atlanta roots, Linton Hopkins is a graduate of Westminster and Emory University, as well as the Culinary Institute of America. In 2004, he opened his first restaurant, the now-closed Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, with his wife Gina, the co-founder and co-CEO of Hopkins and Company. The duo proceeded to open Holeman and Finch Public House in 2008, followed by Holeman and Finch Bottle Shop in 2011, and two locations of H&F Burger and Hop's Chicken at Ponce City Market in 2015. In summer 2017, they opened C. Ellet's, a modern American steakhouse in The Battery Atlanta, followed by The Buttery ATL marketplace in late 2020.

In 2009, Hopkins was named one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs and in 2012, Food & Wine named him Best of the Best. Hopkins also received the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2012 and was named champion of Iron Chef: Atlanta, moving on to take the silver medal on Iron Chef: America after facing Japanese chef Masaharu Morimoto.

Linton has served as president of the Southern Foodways Alliance, partnered with Michelle Obama to celebrate the First Lady's Chef's Move to Schools Initiative, and additionally supports the James Beard Women in Culinary Leadership Program.