Each chef strives to reach a self-actualization level of success in his or her industry. Some of the chefs find success by being well-known celebrities. Popular television shows such as Masterchef and Nailed it has taken quite a few chefs into star territory.
Many chefs have got popularity in their profession by serving world-class dishes using exclusive techniques in renowned restaurants. These famous chefs have gained their status by making meals that leave their customers in admiration.
Here are twenty-five of the top best chefs in the world you would love to read about.
1. Wolfgang Puck
The Austrian-American chef, restorer and actor, Wolfgang Puck is a factor to be dealt with. With over 30 restaurants under his watch, Chef Puck is renowned for his innovative French cuisine in American cuisine. He has catered for many celebrities such as Kim Kardashian. Puck is a frequent special guest for MasterChef and Hell’s Kitchen. He even starred at CSI, The Muse, Las Vegas, and The Simpsons and has been a hit.
This Michelin star chef has a chain of his famous restaurant CUT in London, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas and Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. He also owns CUT by Wolfgang Puck at The Address Downtown Dubai and in Four Seasons Hotels Bahrain Bay, The Source, Wolfgang Puck B&G (2009) that is in Los Angeles. Puck’s Wolfgang Puck Steak is quite a famous restaurant of MGM Grand Detroit in Detroit and Wolfgang Puck American Grille, a signature restaurant located in the Borgata Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City and a lot more.
2. Alain Ducasse
Perceived by many to be one of the best chefs in the world, over the few years he has established a corporate empire of 36 restaurants located around the world. He is now one of the two chefs in his profession to have 21 Michelin stars, and the very first chef to even own three Michelin star diners in three cities. Chef Ducasse is the only person in this category who has put his meals into space, in addition to being renowned for world-class French cuisine. In2015, Ducasse sent food to astronauts orbiting Earth on the International Space Station, an achievement that Ducasse said he saw as seizing the final frontier of preparing food.
3. Gordan Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay is probably the most beloved chef in the world. Ramsay’s profession has made him a popular chef in the cooking industry, but his fame has taken him towards the next level as being one of the top TV celebrities for cooking shows. Chef Ramsay is known to have pretty high expectations and to be a difficult person to work with.
His quest for excellence is a contributor to his grand achievements. His famous recipe is a Beef Wellington meal that he prepares to superiority. It contains breaded beef filets rolled in ham, pastry, and mushroom paste. Ramsay’s popularity is well known, making his Beef Wellington much more enticing to pursue.
4. Gale Gand
Gale Gand is a Chicago-based pastry chef, cookbook author and television personality. He has achieved tremendous success in the world of food as well as other mainstream successes that helped her prosper. The large variety of dishes provided by Chef Gand sees that she has a lot of expertise in every part of the meal.
Dessert is another one of her powerful sets. One of the best chefs in the world, Chef Gand has a classic Lemon Meringue Pie dish for those that have a sugar craving. It replaces the conventional crust with the sugared phyllo dough. The complexities of lemon curd and brown-sugar meringue render Gand’s Lemon Meringue Pie, unlike every version one can locate in a grocery store or ordinary bakery.
5. Rick Bayless
Rick Bayless is yet another talented American chef, famous for manufacturing great dishes that emerged in Mexico. Bayless’ experimentations have led to the invention of numerous recipes and old recipes having a fresh twist that fascinates his buyers. He has gained further popularity as a TV host on cooking shows and is well-known as one of the best chefs in the world. Carne Asada With Black Beans is a signature dish that Bayless swears by. This meal is served in his restaurant in the Chicago area. It includes grilled marinated steak with fried plantains, black beans, and special guacamole. Chef Bayless does have few other excellent dishes, but for a valid reason the Carne Asada dish marks out as its strongest.
6. Jamie Oliver
British chef and restaurant owner Jamie Oliver, is among the most beloved chefs in the world. Not only does he produce and design flavoursome, simple recipes but also is an influential campaigner for vulnerable young people. He has written 26 cookbooks, has 35 of his tv shows, and is a father to five children. His finest cookbook 30-Minute Meals broke a record in 2010 selling more than 735,000 copies in 10 weeks, being Britain’s quickest non-fiction book in the world.
7. Ferran Adria
Without the Spanish chef Ferran Adria, the list of best chefs in the world would not be complete. Chef Adria’s restaurant, elBulli has been ranked five times amongst the greatest restaurants in the world. In 2011, he shut his three Michelin star restaurants to compose culinary encyclopaedias and also credited with developing “culinary foam” that is used by cooks from around worldwide.
8. Shannon Bennett
Making next to our list of the best chefs in the world is Shannon Bennet. Primarily remembered for his French-inspired cuisine, Australian chef Shannon Bennett has gained a reputation for himself both regionally and globally. He is a regular guest at MasterChef Australia and is the Audi Ambassador, best known for his innovative recipes as Head Chef at Melbourne Restaurant, Vue de monde.
9. Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller, the first-ever American chef on this list, is a power to be reckoned. He is perhaps the winner of the Best Chef in America in 1997 and a consistent winner of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World. Chef Thomas now has a total of 7 Michelin stars. He even had the distinction of hosting the Vanity Fair Oscars Afterparty in 2018.
10. Curtis Stone
Curtis Stone is amongst Australia’s most celebrated chefs, growing to popularity after featuring on The Celebrity Apprentice. Chef Stone started to cook at the age of four, under the influence of his grandma. His career has seen him travel to Los Angeles and show at Surfing the Menu, Dinner in the Box, Healthy Food Live and Saturday Kitchen. It is not just that, but he is also the anchor of ‘My Kitchen Rules’ which is Australia’s first series and became the face of Coles’ supermarkets.
11. Sanjeev Kapoor
He is the most celebrated and praised Indian chef in the world. Sanjeev Kapoor is a talented chef, working for an influential ‘FoodFood’ TV channel. He is indeed one of the world’s best chefs who has judged prominent food tv shows. He is a chef extraordinaire, who is also a well-known cookbook author and entrepreneur. He plans to make Indian food the most evident in the world and engage Indians by cooking to end their active lifestyle.
12. Pierre Gagnaire
Pierre Gagnaire is a sought-after French chef, spent his 40-year professional life earning Michelin stars. This countercultural chef is said to be at the frontline of the fusion cuisine revolution by the Michelin guide, famous for disintegrating the norms of traditional French food. For more than twenty years, Chef Gagnaire’s iconic flagship eatery on Rue Balzac in Paris has managed to retain three Michelin stars, a veritable accomplishment in the culinary world. He currently monitors eighteen restaurants all over the globe.
13. Emeril Lagasse
The founder of the New Orleans style, Emeril Lagasse is among the best chefs in the world. Sources say that his array of media, goods and restaurants earns an estimated $150 million per year. He also was the winner of the National Best Recipe prize for his ‘Turkey and Spicy Sausage Chili’ dish in 2003. Chef Emeril created the Emeril Lagasse Foundation in 2002 to establish learning opportunities for underprivileged kids.
14. Daniel Boulud
Daniel Boulud has a massive following in the cooking industry considering the massive establishments he’s in charge of. Chef Boulud’s work has produced many excellent menus and recipes that contribute to real food art; without a doubt, he is in this list of best chefs in the world. Everyone who eats a few of his top dishes will fall in love and still want to try it again. His iconic recipe is the Chilled Spring Pea Soup. It requires a lot of faith for a professional chef to make a soup his top piece. Boulud does a fine job making this soup just like any other. He uses different kinds of peas to produce a mix for the optimal result.
15. Anne-Sophie Pic
Anne-Sophie Pic is the only female chef by far with the most Michelin stars, possessing eight, in her five kitchens. She had zero specialized culinary education when she took over the management of her family’s Maison Pic restaurant after her father died in 1997. After receiving three stars at the restaurant, Chef Pic started a new restaurant, Restaurant Anne-Sophie Pic, which honours Valence’ culinary legacy of her kin. It attempts to illustrate the creative spirit of innovation that as the Michelin Guide itself says, “binds the history of the Pic family with that of French gastronomy.”
16. Paco Perez
This Spanish chef, as a child, had fantasies to become a soccer player. However, he uncovered his inner calling when he began working at the tapas bar of his family at an early age of 12. So then, Chef Perez proceeded to coach in numerous restaurants. Currently, he is one of the leading sources of inspiration for state-of-the-art 21st-century food culture. Perez got recognized in the culinary industry for his two-star Michelin restaurant, Miramar, a gorgeous Mediterranean eatery.
17. Heston Blumenthal
Known as the best chef in the world with his iconic black frames to his creative and classic recipes, Heston Blumenthal is a pioneer of multi-dimensional cooking. He is a great believer in the use of scientific methods in his cuisine and has received honorary doctorates from Reading, Bristol, and London universities. The renowned British chef is also a frequent fixture on MasterChef and other TV shows.
18. John Besh
John Besh’s career has helped him to become such a popular TV personality in the food entertainment business. People enjoy watching Besh and figuring out what makes his recipes so unique. Chef Besh is famous for several various great things, although there’s one unique thing. His August Chopped Salad is yet another salad has now become a prestigious chef’s signature piece. Besh likes the salad enough to make it an official signature dish that people will notice as they look up their jobs.
19. Yoshihiro Murata
With four fine dining restaurants and seven Michelin stars, this Japanese chef has been a culinary symbol of Japanese cuisine for nearly half a century. A practitioner of kaiseki cuisine, he was called the winner of the esteemed American Express Icon Award in 2020 as one of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant Award winner. He is the current owner of his family’s century-old three-star Michelin ryotei (high-end Japanese restaurant), Kikunoi in Kyoto, whereby he pays homage to the traditional Kaiseki cuisine of his ancestors via a new and unique method.
20. Seiji Yamamoto
Among the most loved Japanese chefs of the century, Seiji Yamamoto reportedly sent a CT scan eel to understand better his anatomy. In addition to his dedication to learning the theory of cooking, he is renowned for combining the revered cooking practices of kaiseki with progressive haute cuisine techniques. After its launch, his Tokyo Restaurant, Ryugin, is becoming a haven for other culinary gurus, like Joël Robuchon. It now has two branches, one in Hong Kong and another in Taipei, both of which appeared in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking.
21. Jordi Cruz
At the young age of 24, Jordi Cruz has become the youngest chef in Spain and the second youngest in the world to earn a Michelin star. Ever since Cruz has won several more honours, and now he has five Michelin stars in his honour. Now wonder how why he is in our list of best chefs in the world. He leads the ABaC Restaurant, which is known as the culinary guide of the Catalans. Under his proper leadership, the establishment now earns three Michelin stars. The definition of ABAC is simple: custom, progressivism, and service.
Using fresh, elevated ingredients, the kitchen is beautifully mixed with tradition and imagination. What is put in front of the diners is the outcome of several hours of research and testing. His culinary expertise reaches far beyond the kitchen, as he is also the author of six books and the judge of MasterChef Spain.
22. Andreas Caminada
The multi-award winner Swiss chef, Andreas Caminada, began his career as a modest baker. At the age of 26, however, he took over as a landlord and chef de cuisine at Schloss Schauenstein, an iconic castle restaurant in the Swiss Alps. Ever since, the eatery has enjoyed unprecedented success, with 3 Michelin stars and 19 Gault Millau scores. Known as the best chef in the world, Chef Caminada owns two other Michelin-starred eateries, IGNIV Andreas Caminada at Grand Resort Bad Ragaz and Badrutt’s Palace-Hotel.
23. Paco Perez
As just a boy, this Spanish chef had visions to become a soccer player. Even so, he discovered his true love for cooking when he began working at his family’s tapas bar at the age of 12. After this, Chef Perez started training in different restaurants. Currently, this is one of the leading sources of inspiration for government 21st-century cuisine. In general, it is renowned in the culinary industry for its two-star Michelin restaurant, Miramar, a gorgeous Mediterranean diner.
24. Marco Pierre White
Dubbed the very first celebrity chef, British chef, TV host and restaurant owner Marco Pierre White is very popular across nations. At 32, he became the youngest chef and the very first British chef to win three Michelin stars. No surprises as to why he makes it to our list of the best chefs in the world! He has been the trainer of some of the best chefs in the world, such as Curtis Stone, Gordon Ramsay, and Shannon Bennett and more.
25. José Andrés
Last but not the least on our list of the best chefs in the world is José Andrés. His work has made him accountable for several amazing recipes of exceptional quality. He has established top-notch restaurants in various cities, but the most remarkable of them is in Washington, DC. There are some top-notch dishes, but only one of them stands out as his signature, the Shrimp and Squid Paella. It contains a rice dish with several various types of seafood.
Chefs everywhere in the world devote their lives to winning only one coveted star in appreciation of their perfection. Although, there are those lucky few that have managed to attract incredible numbers of stars in their cluster of fine dining establishments. Years of rigorous hard work, patience and determination is what makes them the best chefs in the world.