Meet the Most Badass Female Chefs in New York

If the modern culinary landscape painting has taught us anything , it ’s that cleaning lady are a personnel to be reckoned with . But even in an years where there ’s a totally distaff - focused food for thought outlet likeCherry Bombe ; back-to-back womanhood being named editor in chief - in - chief ofFood & Wine ; andbig winsfor woman at the James Beard awards , female chefsstill do n’t get the same airtime as their male similitude .

It ’s high time to bust through the kitchen ’s glass ceiling . While this listing is just a starting signal , these 11 distaff chefs are wipe out stereotypes and influencing the national culinary landscape from the five borough . Some are already household figure and powerful musician in the diligence ; the rest are about to take the cookery human race by tempest .

Daniela Soto-Innes

Cosme

What were you doing when you were 25 ? ( If our own experience is any clew , it probably had something to do with $ 1 selective service and a plenty of gain out . ) At that age , very few of us can say that we were featured in adocumentary seriesabout powerhouse young cleaning lady , or had won a James Beard Award . Chef Daniela Soto - Innes can claim both – she was the subject of the short filmLa Cocinera , which was screened at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival , and she took home the award for rise Star Chef at the 2016 James Beard Awards . Age has rarely been an event for Soto - Innes , though it did realise a chuckle from those who invigorate her , like a retiring chef at a Marriott hotel kitchen who address at her eminent school and later ( after get past her spring chicken ) took her on as an medical intern . Since then , she ’s given a metaphorical middle finger to sexism in the kitchen by turning down oeuvre with a manlike chef who once told her , “ We do n’t lease women . ” Now , she ’s chef de cuisine at Enrique Olvera‘s much - exalt Cosme , where she ’s cookery upscale , modern Mexican dishes like cobia al pastor , duck’s egg carnitas , and spelt esquites .

April Bloomfield

The Spotted Pig(address and info),The Breslin Bar & Dining Room(address and info),The John Dory Oyster Bar(address and info),Salvation Burger(address and info),Salvation Taco(address and info ) , andTosca Cafe(address and info)Multiple locationsSome might find it exhausting to read out the names of six separate eating place , allow alone head for the hills them . It ’s no admiration that April Bloomfield was once planning on becoming a law officer ; she ’s an infrangible force to be regard with . Bloomfield once beat Michael Symon in an Iron Chef contention , was named one ofFood & Wine ’s “ Best New Chefs ” in 2007 ( alas , one of only 44 women to have the title ) , and has earned Michelin stars and a James Beard .

A truthful English “ Girl and Her Pig ” ( borrow from her 2012 Word of God ) , Bloomfield and business concern partner Ken Friedman start the Spotted Pig over 11 years ago – a praiseworthy life span in New York ’s dining conniption – which boast not just iterate earnings of a Michelin star , but also the form of address of the city ’s first - ever gastropub . Her culinary triumphs do n’t finish there ; another institution under the Bloomfield - Friedman name , The Breslin Bar & Dining Room , has also received a Michelin star . And with her immobile intellectual nourishment - inspired joint , Salvation Burger , continuing to realize honor on a nigh - weekly basis , it looks like Bloomfield is here to outride for a foresighted while .

Amanda Cohen

Dirt Candy

shoot the breeze the website for popular vegetarian restaurant Dirt Candy , and above chef / owner Amanda Cohen ’s bio , in position of a headshot , you ’ll chance a Lisa Frank - esque ikon of a unicorn . It ’s a fitting image for Cohen , who has seemingly reach the unsufferable : managing a vegetarian eating house – one that ’s been around since 2008 – that ’s also a five - prison term receiver of Michelin stars ( one of two within that category in 17 years).Hailing from Canada , Cohen has always seemed ahead of her time – first , by show that vegetarian food for thought can be “ coolheaded , ” and then by pee Dirt Candy the very first New York City restaurant to do away with tipping . “ I need to pay all my employees a better wage,”she ’s state , and “ raise the salaries of all my stave , from my dishwasher to my Captain Cook to my server . ”Oh , andDirt confect : A Cookbookis a graphic novel cookbook – the first of its kind in North America . NBD .

Suchanan Aksornnan (aka “Chef Bao Bao”)

Baoburg

The fortitude to compete on a show calledKnife Fight(on the Esquire internet ) is evidence enough of a sure character huskiness . But if that ’s not enough , just check out theInstagram accountof Suchanan Aksornnan ( better known as Chef Bao Bao ): you ’ll find scene of her creation at Baoburg , where she ’s chef / possessor , that ’ll make you want to stuff your grimace , alongside bikini and workout photos that ’ll make you want to do hours of Pilates . Bao Bao was born and raised in Thailand , where she was secret to some of the world ’s best organic , regional factor . Since then , she ’s cooked for the likes of the Princess of Saudi Arabia and Cameron Diaz , and has worked alongside Jean Georges andTop Chef ’s Tiffany Derry . Today , her dishes at Baoburg draw influence both from Spanish and Asiatic culinary art , like Spanish - trend garlic runt , and four unlike bao variety . To those who oppugn the authenticity of such fusion , she says , “ add up to Baoburg and I will prove it ! ”

Angela Dimayuga

Mission Chinese

Anyone who ’s spend time in San Francisco knows that Mission Chinese is the stuff of legend . It pop out as Mission Street Food , with wife - and - husband duet Karen Leibowitz and Anthony Myint selling pork barrel stomach & jicama sandwich from a sub - leased taco cart , and then sharing a kitchen with Lung Shan Restaurant two days a workweek . Now under the name Mission Chinese Food , and with the recollective - time partnership of chef / carbon monoxide gas - owner / originator Danny Bowien , the caption is thoroughgoing thanks to an ever - popular New York location that boasts Angela Dimayuga as executive chef . Dimayuga is appropriately a California indigene who ’s call up New York home for nearly a decennary now , moving here after college and starting at the very bottom as a line Captain James Cook at Vinegar Hill House . Today , she ’s been interviewed by Into The Gloss about herbeauty routineand Grub Street for a detailed look intoa Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in the lifeas a chef , the latter of which involves her cooking food for the mould ofHamiltonwith telling frequency .

Sarah Nelson

Beauty & Essex(address and information ) andThe Stanton Social(address and info)Lower East SideQuality and consistency : it ’s a culinary intersection that chef Sarah Nelson enunciate many of her New York peers discover knotty . But , as she set up it , “ I ’m not fucking frightened ! ”

Nelson – in her respective role as chef de culinary art and executive chef at popular Lower East Side finish Beauty & Essex and The Stanton Social – proudly dismantles the stereotype still attach to female chefs . To embark on woth , she says , there ’s no difference between a sturdy man and a tough woman in the kitchen . “ I never accept no as an answer , ” she says , “ and I will never back down . ” That mental attitude encompasses her sweat to always challenge herself , the end end always being cracking solid food . She sets expectations high for her faculty at both restaurants , as well . She ’s one of the brains behind the menus ( think beer - battered lobster tacos , octopus cassoulet , and brunch oblation that let in mini lamb gyros ) . Not that we needed any further proof of her coolness , but when asked to divvy up a fun fact about herself , she only respond , “ Whiskey . Just whiskey . ”

Lucero Martinez

Pampano

tally chef Martinez to the list of those who tried follow the traditional trajectory , only to reach a point of not being able to deny a honey for food for thought any longer . She boast a stage in graphic design and administrative experience at the Mexican Embassy , but it was in Atlanta where she found her truthful calling as a preparation cook at Bice restaurant . She came without courtly training , though , which only worsen the battle of work in a male - dominated kitchen , fighting for every shift and ounce of regard she received , and supplement the slight salary with a landscape gardening job . Though she still bear an averting to the scent of impudently cut grass today , Martinez has made telling strides – from go her way up to pastry chef at Bice , to open Atlanta ’s Zocalo ( where she still carries the turn title of executive chef and partner ) , to most latterly being levy by chef Richard Sandoval to take on the role of executive chef at New York ’s Pampano . In her latest spatial relation , she ’s putting her own delicious turn on dishes like risotto with a Mexican corn truffle and manchego , chipotle - miso shameful seedcase , and shrimp chicharrónes .

Tiffany Minter

The Cecil

Make no error : solid food can be really , really sexy . That ’s the delegacy of chef Tiffany Minter , who , in her recent furtherance to chef de cuisine at Afro - Asian - American eating place The Cecil , is influence to serve up a menu that ’s soulful , sultry , and street - inspired – from braised goat dumpling , to okra fries , to a pick - your - own - topping - style wok bar . With an equal taste for both street food and industrial plant - establish cuisine , chef Minter plays with a broad range of relish in what she cooks . Her Education Department sweep from the Scandinavian technique she larn from Marcus Samuelsson at Aquavit , to the farm - to - table fashion with which she became enamored while working under April Bloomfield at The Spotted Pig . As a black female chef , she ’s especially proud to be kick downstairs boundaries in a leadership function inside one of the city ’s most established kitchens .

Ann Redding

Uncle Boons(address and info ) andMr . Donahue’s(address and info)Nolita“Heavenly Pig Ears ” may sound like something out of a sprite tale , but it ’s characteristic of the creative , pleasant-tasting and – at time – surprisingly light and refreshing dish antenna conceptualise by co - chefs / owner Ann Redding and Matt Danzer at Uncle Boons . With an telling cocktail card that is rivaled only by an extensive offering of modest plates , the Nolita pet fits into what some might describe as a Thai gastropub , with a computer menu full of flavors that are at once smartly fleeceable and lenient .

It reach mother wit once a little light is shed on the chef / owner duo ( who are also matrimonial ) . Danzer was call down in Long Island , while Redding was bear in Thailand and spent her childhood there , as well as the Philippines and portion of the US . But the restaurant ’s influence is no doubt spearheaded by Redding ; it ’s key out for her uncle ( Boon , of course ) , who served as an informal family circuit scout of never - repetitive eatable and potable theatre trip throughout Thailand . Now , the family is turn : the brace ’s tiny , non - arriere pensee - taking Mr. Donahue ’s spread on Mott Street in February , proffer a menu of upscale take on such classic as rotisserie chicken , joint bitch , and volaille fried porc cheek .

Caroline Schiff

Maysville(address and info ) andKenton’s(address and info)Flatiron and New OrleansWhen New York native Caroline Schiff was tasked with compiling a bourbon - centric menu , the outcome was , essentially , a palatable wipeout of the notion that bourbon is a “ man ’s drink , ” proving that it ’s something everyone can revel in plate and glasses alike . As the head pastry chef at both New York ’s Maysville and Kenton ’s in New Orleans , Schiff has create delectable desserts and savory scratch that align perfectly with their Bourbon dynasty pairings .

The only thing that rivals chef Schiff ’s passion for carbs is her love of running . Regularly vie in internal marathons do for great fodder on herInstagramaccount , with maps of her run routes appearing flop next to photos of multi - layer cakes .

Sarah Simmons

Birds & Bubbles(address and info),City Grit(address and information ) , andRise(address and info)Lower East Side , Nolita , and South CarolinaCity Grit was a game - auto-changer , not only for female chefs , but for the NYC dining finish at large – a combination restaurant mathematical group / culinary schooling / up - and - coming chef and restaurant blog , with chef Sarah Simmons as its chief executive officer . Simmons was appoint one ofFood & Wine ’s 2014 Top 50 Chefs in New York , and also incline the full - help locale Birds & Bubbles ( which is exactly what it sounds like : a restaurant exclusively focalise on fried Gallus gallus and Champagne ) , as well as Rise Gourmet Goods and Bakeshop in Columbia , SC . And since she ’s also speak on SXSW panels and working on her own product channel as part of the Williams - Sonoma Chefs ' Collective , it ’s clear that chef Simmons is keeping those business insightfulness brawn flexed .

Cosme chef de cuisine Daniela Soto-Innes