Here is Your First Have a look at All of the Contestants on Season 22 of ‘High Chef’

Anya El-Wattar

Hometown: Moscow, Russia 
At present dwelling in: San Francisco

Born and raised in Moscow, Anya El-Watter’s culinary training started together with her mom educating her about foraging, preserving, and exhibiting love by means of cooking. El-Watter emigrated to America at 18, incomes an undergraduate diploma at Columbia College earlier than attending the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico to check the therapeutic properties of meals. She continued her formal culinary training at New York’s Pure Connoisseur Institute. In 2016, El-Watter launched Challenge Butterfly in San Francisco, a catering enterprise devoted to offering meals for charity fundraisers. El-Watter later opened Birch & Rye, an ode to Russian gastronomy with a up to date Californian twist. By 2022, Birch & Rye earned a coveted spot within the Michelin Information and a James Beard Awards semifinalist for Greatest New Restaurant.

Bailey Sullivan

Hometown: Chicago
At present dwelling in: Chicago

Chicago native Bailey Sullivan was born into the hospitality trade. Rising up in her dad’s pub, Goldyburgers, she all the time knew she needed to pursue a profession as a chef. Whereas attending culinary college at Kendall School, Sullivan interned and labored at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago earlier than working beneath Chef Matthias Merges at Yusho Logan Sq., the place she developed an appreciation and keenness for Asian substances and ramen. After commencement, Sullivan’s path continued at “High Chef” alum Beverly Kim’s Michelin-starred restaurant Parachute earlier than becoming a member of Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio to study the artwork of handmade pasta and regional Italian delicacies beneath James Beard Award-winning chef and “High Chef” finalist Sarah Grueneberg. Identified for embracing seasonal produce and international flavors with an Italian hand, Sullivan has earned a repute for embracing the “atipica” aspect of Italian delicacies — mixing custom with daring, whimsical twists. When she’s not within the kitchen, Sullivan enjoys singing karaoke or spending time together with her two cats, Giuseppe and Arthas.

César Murillo

Hometown: Dallas
At present dwelling in: Chicago

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Dallas, César Murillo was drawn to the hands-on, inventive nature of the kitchen from an early age. After graduating from the Texas Culinary Academy, Murillo secured a job in Chicago working beneath chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless at Frontera Grill and Xoco. Fascinated by studying extra about farming, foraging, and utilizing hyper-local substances, Murillo went to San Francisco to increase his data of Mexican delicacies at Nopalito and Cocina Latina. After two years, Murillo returned to Chicago, becoming a member of the workers of the fine-dining restaurant Grace as a sous chef, the place the workforce earned three Michelin stars.

After three years, Murillo climbed the culinary ladder and moved to Sepia. In 2020, he grew to become the chief chef at North Pond. His dishes mix his heritage with the restaurant’s farm-to-table philosophy, utilizing substances from his rooftop backyard and surrounding nature. When he isn’t climbing by means of nature, Murillo is working alongside Lake Michigan, coaching for the subsequent marathon.

Corwin Hemming

Hometown: Augusta, Georgia
At present dwelling in: Brooklyn, New York Metropolis

Corwin Hemming is an Augusta native whose cooking is impressed by his Jamaican heritage and experiences dwelling aboard along with his U.S. Military dad and mom’ the place he eagerly tried native dishes and expanded his palate by means of many culinary adventures. Whereas attending Howard College to pursue a level in advertising and marketing, it was his part-time jobs working at eating places that fueled his drive to pursue coaching to develop into a chef. As a post-graduate scholar in 2013, Hemming enrolled in culinary college on the Artwork Institute of Washington and hasn’t seemed again since. Over the past 10 years, he has labored in lots of notable Michelin-starred eating places throughout the nation, together with Le Coucou and the Nomad in New York Metropolis, and Acadia in Chicago. Because of the pandemic within the fall of 2020, Hemming pivoted and launched his personal enterprise as a personal chef working across the nation and specializing in pop-ups. An aviation aficionado, Hemming describes his delicacies as “up to date Caribbean” and is raring to deliver the style of the islands into the fine-dining house and open his personal brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Henry Lu

Hometown: The Bronx, New York Metropolis
At present dwelling in: Houston

A Bronx native, Henry Lu’s first foray into his future profession within the kitchen was working at his dad and mom’ Chinese language eating places. After incomes a level in artwork historical past, Lu enrolled within the French Culinary Institute, the place he honed his abilities, making ready to work in a number of the most famed kitchens in Manhattan, together with his stints as a sous chef at Pearl & Ash, which earned two stars from The New York Instances and Williamsburg’s Llama Inn which additionally obtained two stars from The New York Instances. Lu then spent three years as the chief chef on the 4 Pleased Males Hospitality Group, the place he was featured in Meals & Wine’s 2019 listing of Issues You Gained’t Wish to Miss.

In 2020, Lu moved to Houston, the place he partnered with “High Chef” alum Evelyn Garcia to open their first restaurant, JŪN, within the Houston Heights neighborhood. Since opening, JŪN has been a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist for Greatest New Restaurant. Lu and Garcia additionally work collectively on byKIN, a Southeast Asian-inspired catering, pop-up, and product line firm. Most lately, they had been named 2025 James Beard semifinalists for Greatest Chef: Texas. 

Kat Turner

Hometown: Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
At present dwelling in: Los Angeles

A proud Midwesterner from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Kat Turner fell in love with cooking at an early age together with her mother’s intensive and international cookbook assortment. Whereas making a reputation in Hollywood as an actress and burlesque dancer, Turner realized she needed to pursue cooking full-time and headed to New York Metropolis to jumpstart her culinary profession. After attending the Pure Connoisseur Institute in New York and dealing a stint at Blue Hill, she returned to Los Angeles to work as a personal chef, touring the world with a roster of A-list clientele, together with the Smashing Pumpkins. She additionally served as a culinary producer, organizing high-profile occasions for Summit Collection and different purchasers. Turner is at present the chief chef and associate of the critically acclaimed Extremely Possible in Los Angeles, the place she showcases her distinctive cooking fashion that melds basic recipes with worldwide flavors and strategies to create accessible dishes with a well-known however provocative high quality.

Katianna Hong

Hometown: Clifton Park, New York 
At present dwelling in: Los Angeles

Born in Korea and raised in upstate New York, 2018 F&W Greatest New Chef Katianna Hong studied on the Culinary Institute of America and the UNLV Faculty of Hospitality. After graduating, she secured a job on the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Melisse in Santa Monica, California, the place she met her culinary associate and future husband, John. Shifting to Napa Valley in 2011, Hong labored as a line prepare dinner at chef Christopher Kostow’s The Restaurant at Meadowood, and in 2014 was not solely the restaurant’s first chef de delicacies but in addition the one lady within the nation holding that title in a three-Michelin-starred kitchen.

In 2018, Hong opened Kostow’s second Napa restaurant, the Constitution Oak, the place she and her workforce earned a James Beard Award nomination for Greatest New Restaurant and a spot on Bon Appétit’s High 50 Greatest New Eating places Record. Following the start of their daughter, Alessia, Hong and her husband relocated to Southern California in 2019 to pursue their dream of opening a solo restaurant challenge collectively, Yangban, which affords a multi-dimensional, autobiographical expertise that showcases their respective backgrounds and upbringings whereas offering a dynamic neighborhood house for locals to assemble. Since its 2019 opening, the restaurant has garnered essential acclaim, showing on a number of publications’ new eating places lists. It was a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist for Greatest New Restaurant.

Lana Lagomarsini

Hometown: The Bronx, New York Metropolis
At present dwelling in: Harlem, New York Metropolis

Bronx native Lana Lagomarsini started her culinary journey whereas learning journalism at Northeastern College, the place she ultimately traded her medium of expression from phrases to flavorful dishes. A graduate of Northeastern and the Culinary Institute of America, Lagomarsini labored at Gramercy Tavern and in quite a lot of Michelin-starred kitchens, together with Restaurant Daniel and Momofuku Ko. She spent a month apprenticing beneath famend Argentinian chef Francis Mallmann, studying the artwork of open-fire cooking on his island in Patagonia. Acknowledged inside her group, Lagomarsini was inducted into the Prestigious Dames d’ Escoffier Worldwide in 2023, in addition to being honored by her friends by successful a culinarian award from the Black Girls in Meals Awards by Dine Diaspora. She additionally was lately part of the summer season cohort for the James Beard Basis’s Chef Boot Camp for Coverage and Advocacy. Lately, Lagomarsini has been exploring her voice as a girl of colour, organizing pop-ups of every kind. She describes her delicacies as soul meals by means of a fine-dining lens and is obsessed with studying extra in regards to the connection between meals all through the African diaspora and its affect on staple meals in America.

Massimo Piedimonte

Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
At present dwelling in: Montreal, Quebec

Massimo Piedimonte was born in Montreal into an Italian household the place meals has all the time been on the coronary heart of each dialog. His first foray into the skilled kitchen was whereas attending faculty and taking a summer season job as a chef. Educated within the French fashion, Piedimonte finessed his strategies in eating places throughout town till touchdown a job as chef de partie beneath chef Daniel Boulud at Maison Boulud, later doing a four-month stage with chef René Redzepi at Noma in Copenhagen and returning to Montreal to affix Le Mousso as an government chef. In 2022, he opened his personal fine-dining restaurant, Cabaret L’Enfer, that includes a tasting menu expertise that showcases his daring cooking fashion, celebrating native seasonal substances, hospitality, and the humanities.   

Mimi Weissenborn

Hometown: Frederick, Maryland
At present dwelling in: Portland, Maine

Mimi Weissenborn studied at L’Academie de Delicacies earlier than deciding to pursue a profession within the culinary arts in New York Metropolis. As she labored her manner up in numerous kitchens within the metropolis, Weissenborn began to search out her voice, which grew to become clearer throughout her profitable run as the chief chef of Vinateria in Harlem. Throughout her time there, she earned the restaurant a Michelin Suggestion, helmed a sold-out dinner on the James Beard Home, and collaborated on the Worldwide Girls’s Day Beard Home dinner. She ultimately discovered her strategy to Portland, Maine, and have become the chief chef at Sur Lie, a James Beard Award semifinalist, and a 2023 nominee for Excellent Hospitality. Since then, she has additionally taken over the kitchen of Collect and lately opened Catface Cafe. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ group, her aim is to serve and be a part of an inclusive group.

Paula Endara

Hometown: Quito, Ecuador 
At present dwelling in: Lexington, Kentucky

James Beard Basis Bootcamp alum Paula Endara started her culinary profession in her house nation of Ecuador at 18 years outdated. A 13-year veteran of the trade, she has constructed a formidable resume that features specializing in avant-garde delicacies on the Basque Culinary Middle, working at a nomad restaurant idea in Quito the place she collaborated with Amazonian farmers, and opening her restaurant, Roots, in Arkansas, the place she blended Ecuadorian flavors with contemporary native substances. Enthusiastic about sustainability and strengthening the community-driven meals infrastructure, Endara makes use of regional substances to showcase her cultural heritage by means of her distinctive, ingenious dishes. She at present resides in Lexington, Kentucky, the place she’s the chief chef of the Bluegrass-inspired Granddam and Misplaced Palm, a rooftop parlor that includes tropical-infused Latin bites and cocktails positioned on the Gold Key Awarding-winning boutique The Manchester.

Shuai Wang

Hometown: Queens, New York Metropolis
At present dwelling in: North Charleston, South Carolina

Born in Beijing, China, Shuai Wang was raised in Queens, New York, from the age of 9. Though he was surrounded by the scrumptious meals his grandmother and mother ready, his pleasure for stepping into the craft got here solely after he took a culinary class in highschool and browse Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Wang attended the Artwork Institute of New York, the place he dove into his future occupation head-on, taking a hefty course load whereas nonetheless discovering the time to volunteer on the James Beard Home each time his schedule allowed. Following his tenure in New York, he and his spouse moved to North Charleston, South Carolina, the place his recognition within the trade continued to rise. In 2017, he was nominated by the James Beard Basis for the Rising Star Chef award. Wang is the proprietor and chef of Jackrabbit Filly, a heritage-driven Chinese language-American Restaurant in Park Circle, North Charleston, and King BBQ, a Chinese language barbecue restaurant, which, in 2024, was named a finest new BBQ restaurant by Southern Dwelling journal. Wang and his spouse, Corrie, received StarChef Charleston Restauranteur of the 12 months 2024 and most lately, Shuai was named as a 2025 South Carolina Chef Ambassador.

Tristen Epps

Hometown: Virginia Seaside, Virginia
At present dwelling in: Houston

Tristen Epps is a Caribbean-American chef who focuses on neo-Afro-Caribbean delicacies in a fine-dining format. Raised in a single-parent army household, Epps found his love for cooking early on. After graduating from Johnson & Wales, he honed his craft in Michelin-starred eating places, ultimately incomes his personal Michelin recognition as the chief chef at Marcus Samuelsson’s Crimson Rooster in Miami. Epps, who’s a recipient of StarChef’s Rising Star Chef award, additionally served as government chef of Cooks & Captains in Brooklyn, New York, and Ocean Social by Tristen Epps for the Eden Roc Resort in Miami, the place he earned a James Beard Award nomination for Greatest Chef: South. Devoted to bringing recognition to Black foodways and showcasing them inside positive eating tradition, Epps aspires to be a trailblazer and position mannequin for the subsequent technology of cooks. His numerous travels — from Guam and Stockholm to West Virginia and New York — have formed his worldview and profoundly influenced his culinary method. After relocating again to Houston to open his personal restaurant, Epps based Epps & Flows Culinary, a platform for collaborative dinners showcasing his neo-Afro-Caribbean delicacies. He’s at present laying the groundwork for 2 thrilling ideas Buboy, a woodfired Afro-Caribbean tasting menu, in addition to an off-the-cuff scorching canine bar that reimagines the beloved staple with daring flavors and distinctive toppings.  

Vincenzo “Vinny” Loseto

Hometown: Massapequa, New York
At present dwelling in: Napa, California

Rising up fishing and clamming on the shores of Massapequa, New York, Vincenzo “Vinny” Loseto shortly discovered the significance of utilizing regionally sourced substances and time-honored trades comparable to butchery from his Italian household to create deliciously memorable dishes. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he made his manner into the kitchens of Daniel Humm and the late James Kent on the NoMad, the place he labored his manner as much as sous chef earlier than being transferred to Eleven Madison Park to additional hone his abilities beneath Chef Brian Lockwood. In 2016, he grew to become concerned with the Ment’Or group, the place he positioned first within the Younger Chef Competitors. That honor allowed Vincenzo to affix Matthew Peters and Philip Tessier as a part of Group USA within the 2017 Bocuse d’Or, the place they took house a gold medal. Vincenzo at present works with Chef Tessier as chef de delicacies at Press Restaurant in Napa, California, the place he’s identified for elevating native farm produce with precision and approach within the restaurant’s California-American dishes.

Zubair Mohajir

Hometown: Chennai, India 
At present dwelling in: Chicago

Initially from Chennai, India, chef Zubair Mohajir was as soon as a monetary analyst, solely starting his profession within the culinary discipline after getting laid off throughout the 2008 monetary disaster. Beginning as a prep prepare dinner and dealing his manner as much as sous chef in Chicago at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s The Pump Room, Mohajir studied French strategies and Southeast Asian flavors earlier than transferring to Los Angeles, the place he continued to finesse his abilities at Otium. Mohajir later joined Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Napa as chef de partie. Whereas there, he contacted the famend Gaggan Anand to precise his curiosity in an apprenticeship and was later invited to work at Gaggan in Bangkok. Returning to Chicago after six months, he launched his acclaimed pop-up Wazwan earlier than opening his first brick-and-mortar restaurant in 2021. Two years later, he remodeled the house into two ideas: Lilac Tiger, highlighting South Asian avenue meals, and the Coach Home, his fine-dining restaurant. He lately opened his latest endeavor, Mirra, the place diners expertise a mix of Indian and Mexican flavors. Mohajir has garnered trade acclaim as a 2022 Jean Banchet Rising Chef of the 12 months and a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist — first in 2023 as Greatest Chef: Nice Lakes after which in 2024 as Rising Chef of the 12 months.