Category / 2025 Top Chefs Issue

Feels like Family

Where Filipino Roots Meet Texas Heat Words Codi Chen | Photos Baptiste Despois Stepping into OKO Austin off East 6th Street, the intimate ambiance, welcoming bar, and generous staff instantly make guests feel excited about the culinary journey that’s about to happen. This is a place where Filipino and Southeast Asian cuisines collide with a...

Chef Brian Batch {Bird Bird Biscuit}

Practiced hands, a serene mind, and a palate highly attuned to the nuance of a seemingly simple staple in Southern cuisine birthed the blue-ribbon biscuits that hold Bird Bird Biscuit together. The fast casual eatery led by chef Brian Batch is now itself a celebrated staple in the Austin food scene. Chef Brian prides himself...

2025 Top Chefs Issue Feature

Chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel {Birdie’s}

Not every neighborhood in East Austin can claim walkability to a Michelin recommended restaurant, but Rosewood residents of the 12th Street block know that an exceptionally crafted seasonal meal is just a breezy stroll away. Chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel runs a scrappy kitchen at Birdie’s, the counter-service eatery that, in just under five years of operation,...

2025 Top Chefs Issue Feature

Chef Kazu Fukumoto {Fukumoto}

Chef Kazu cut his teeth in the thick of the dish pit, working his way up to head sushi chef of Austin restaurant Musashino Sushi Dokoro. He led the charge there for a decade before launching Fukumoto, a sushi and yakitori destination modeled after Japan’s izakayas. The casual pubs, comparable to a modern tapas bar,...

2025 Top Chefs Issue Feature

Chef Fermin Nunez {Suerte, Bar Toti, & Este}

Perhaps one of the most well-known faces of Texas cuisine for his appearance in Netflix’s Taco Chronicles, chef Fermin Nunez brings the flavors and traditions of his native Mexico to a ravenous American public at two Michelin Guide recommended restaurants. The sister concepts, Suerte which focuses on contemporary Mexican cuisine and house-made masa and Este...

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Chef Sonya Coté {Store House Market & Eatery}

Sustainable agriculture advocate chef Sonya Coté connects people with their environment through vibrant plates plucked straight from the land. After the pandemic-induced closure of Eden East, the restaurant she opened on Springdale Farm in 2013, Sonya didn’t allow her concept to wither away. Today, she runs Store House Market & Eatery in Bastrop. Though a...

2025 Top Chefs Issue Feature

Chef Kareem El-Ghayesh {KG BBQ}

Pit master and chef Kareem El-Ghayesh, or KG for short, took a leap in 2016 and relocated to Austin from Egypt, bringing the flavors of his culinary mother-tongue with him. The synthesis of Egyptian and Middle Eastern flavors with Texas barbecue is stupendous. Chef KG opened KG BBQ, his inaugural food truck, in the parking...

2025 Top Chefs Issue Feature

Chef Je Wallerstein {Fabrik}

Global influences and attention to sustainable practices mark the menu at Fabrik, the white-tablecloth marvel of Austin’s ever-expanding plant-based scene. Bostonian chef Je Wallerstein pulls from Nordic, Japanese, and Italian traditions that together culminate in kaleidoscopic seasonal prix-fixe menus. The Northeasterner traded her snow boots for cowboy boots in 2020 when she relocated to Austin...

2025 Top Chefs Issue Feature

Chef Jesse Griffiths {Dai Due}

Regional food reigns supreme at chef Jesse Griffiths’ Dai Due. The Michelin Bib Gourmand and Green Star award winning butchery focuses on crafting dishes around what is geographically available: organic local produce and, most importantly, wild game and fish. The result is a menu representative of the unique provenance of Texas. Chef Jesse promotes sustainability...

2025 Top Chefs Issue Feature

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