The Icons Who Continue to Reinvent Dining
They made (and remade) the industry.
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The hospitality hall-of-famers on this list have seen it all and done it all, and yet they keep going. They keep going because they see new opportunities and welcome new challenges. They need no introduction, but they still deserve the spotlight. They remade their industry and continue to do so.
Daniel Boulud
- Founder, The Dinex Group
Boulud has his iconic fine-dining flagship Daniel, which debuted in 1993, and a collection of elegant restaurants in New York, Miami and overseas. But another way to think about his impact is to consider the family tree of chefs who have cooked in his kitchens. At Daniel, the opening team included Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr (who now operate Frenchette and Le Rock) and Adam Perry Lang (who went on to become one of the most important faces in American barbecue). At Café Boulud, Boulud and Andrew Carmellini ran a hot spot that employed David Chang, Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone. Sometimes, an empire leads to many empires.
"Mentorship is something that has always played a major role in my career, first as a mentee of the many great chefs I looked up to, and then as a mentor for the young talent in my kitchens,” Boulud tells Observer. "For the past 30 years I have had the honor of teaching and guiding some incredible young chefs, a life-changing experience that has shaped my career as much as I hope it has shaped theirs. The community and camaraderie of the restaurant industry keeps on giving and pushes me to continue to be creative.”
In November, Boulud plans to re-open Café Boulud on the Upper East Side. In 2021, he opened Le Pavillon at One Vanderbilt. He recently became the culinary creative director for the American Express Centurion Club, also at One Vanderbilt.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
- Chef and proprietor, Jean-Georges Management
When other elite chefs and operators talk about success stories in their industry, they often bring up the impact and longevity of the truly legendary Vongerichten.
Vongerichten, who’s been working in kitchens for 50 years (since Bastille Day in 1973), has a global empire with more than 60 restaurants. He’s been a trailblazer in numerous ways. Known for everything from the tasting menus at his flagship Jean-Georges to the way he redefined the Las Vegas steakhouse at Bellagio’s Prime to how he embraced plant-forward cooking at abcV, Vongerichten has constantly woven together European, Asian and American influences to create elegant, game-changing food.
Last year, he opened the Tin Building, a 53,000-square-foot marketplace and restaurant collection at Pier 57. Like so much of what he’s created, the Tin Building was influenced by his travels.
“Going to Tokyo, Kyoto, Shanghai, Singapore, Paris, London, anywhere I go is inspiration,” Vongerichten tells Observer. “I’m about to go to Tokyo and China. I’ll come back from that trip with 50 new ideas.”
This fall, he will unveil Four Twenty Five, a new high-end restaurant at 425 Park Ave., where he’s tapped esteemed chef Jonathan Benno as culinary director.
“It’s all about finding great people and doing what you enjoy,” says Vongerichten, who feels a bit sentimental about Four Twenty Five because he cooked nearby at the Drake Hotel more than 35 years ago. “There’s so much talent out there. It gives me energy, creating a team. I always tell my team I run to work in the morning. If you love what you do, you do the best you can.”
José Andrés
- Founder, José Andrés Group and World Central Kitchen
It makes a lot of sense that Andrés, an immigrant who’s long understood what it means to be on the right side of the American Dream, is simultaneously one of the world’s greatest chefs and one of the world’s most inspiring humanitarians. Ask him whether he’s still optimistic about restaurants and he’ll think about what’s motivated him from the start, since he opened Jaleo in Washington D.C. three decades ago at the age of 23.
"Since the beginning, and even now today, our restaurants have had a shared and singular mission: to change the world through the power of food,” Andrés tells Observer. “That's pretty optimistic, no? Actually, it is realistic. Through food, we can create a much more perfect America, not only by feeding the hungry but by creating jobs and making sure everyone has food on their tables."
Beyond his restaurant company, his World Central Kitchen nonprofit has provided disaster relief around the world in the form of more than 300 million meals. Andrés has traveled extensively to feed the hungry amidst catastrophes and war, but one thing that gives him pride is how he’s created something that empowers others to take action whether he’s there or not.
"You see the amazing men and women of World Central Kitchen in the aftermath of disasters in every part of the globe, even right now, each doing their part,” Andrés says. “In an organization of any kind, I believe in fairly flat structures. When things are pyramidal, and if I’m at the very top, nothing will move, because they are waiting for me. But with more people in charge in different areas, nobody has to wait on José."
David Chang
- Founder, Momofuku
After creating one of American dining history’s most influential restaurant groups, a business now under the leadership of CEO Marguerite Zabar Mariscal, Chang has made a major push into multiple revenue streams.
"Restaurants were the first place I ever felt like I could communicate with other people,” Chang tells Observer. “They were my first love, and I will always be a fierce champion of the industry and its people. But the more I've grown and matured, the more apparent it's become that the most effective place for me isn't on the line. I love feeding people the food we cook, but what's always brought us the most gratification at Momofuku is to open minds to new flavors, experiences and ways of thinking.
Momofuku has products that include chili crisp, soy sauce and seasoned salt in major stores like Target and Whole Foods. After working on new noodle flavors for two years, Chang recently added sweet-and-spicy and spicy-chili noodle options to his consumer-packaged goods business.
With a new TV and podcast studio in downtown Los Angeles, Chang also continues to build his Majordomo Media business. If you own a LG smart television, turn to channel 101 for Majordomo TV.
“What I want to do now is spread the beliefs and ideals we've developed at the restaurants to as many people as possible,” Chang says. “That means bringing the flavors to people's homes through consumer goods, and reaching as many eyes and ears and minds as we can through our media projects. I'm not kidding myself—I know it's going to be extremely difficult, and we might fail spectacularly. And I'm fine with that, so long as we don't land in the middle.”
Wolfgang Puck
- Founder, Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group
The most important celebrity chef in the history of Los Angeles and arguably the world, Puck has a global empire of restaurants, an unrivaled catering business (which cooks for the biggest A-listers annually at the Oscars) and food in supermarkets and airports. At heart, he’s still a chef and restaurateur, who’s embarking on his grandest restaurant project yet: a Frank Gehry-designed structure that will break ground in 2024 on the oceanfront Pacific Palisades location where the storied Gladstones operated for 50 years.
“What I’m most proud of is our longevity and still being relevant,” Puck tells Observer. He celebrated the 40th anniversary of Spago last year and the 40th anniversary of Chinois this year. “When I look back at other restaurants that were very successful in the ’80s in L.A. or New York, most of them are gone. For us, the important part is how we are going to reinvent ourselves but also not to forget our traditions.”
Puck loves getting new ideas from his son, Byron, and his young employees. He knows it’s important to update menus, weave new technology into his businesses and spend millions to renovate and improve restaurants, but keeping things familiar for his customers is crucial.
“The guests are our number one priority,” Puck says. “They come to Spago and they remember the smoked salmon pizza. Or they go to Chinois and they love the lobster.”
The goal for Puck is to ensure that famous dishes like that hold up over time.
“I want them to say, ‘Wow, it’s as good as it was five years ago,” he says. “If things work well, you stay the course.”
Tilman Fertitta
- Chairman, President and CEO, Landry’s
With more than 80 restaurant brands and more than 600 locations in his portfolio, Fertitta is the industry’s biggest believer in high-end dining. His steakhouses alone include Mastro’s, Morton’s, Del Frisco’s, The Palm, Strip House and many others, and his New York properties include the restaurants created by legendary operator Steve Hanson’s BR Guest. Fertitta also partnered with Eugene Remm and Mark Birnbaum at Catch Hospitality Group, which continues to grow.
Ferttita remains bullish on upscale restaurants even after seeing pandemic-related challenges.
“I’ve always taken a long-term approach with anything I do and don’t really let a forecast of a negative year have any impact on my long-term decisions,” Fertitta tells Observer. He’s still actively looking at new investments and acquisitions while expanding existing brands.
“We look for concepts that we feel like aren’t a fad and are going to be successful in different parts of the country,” Fertitta says. “We look for strong management teams. I try to give my high-end people a lot of autonomy to make decisions.”
Michael Mina
- Founder, Mina Group
Mina, a pioneer who runs a hospitality company that has long specialized in partnering with hotels, has 32 restaurants and another eight in the pipeline. The forthcoming spots include restaurants in Austin (a new market for Mina), Washington D.C., Las Vegas (where he’s debuting Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurant Orla at Mandalay Bay) and Los Angeles (where he’ll open the second Orla at a Santa Monica hotel).
“I still love to work with showcase properties," Mina tells Observer. "And I’m not stopping.”
When things temporarily slowed down during the pandemic and Mina opened just one restaurant (Charleston’s Sorelle) in 22 months, he invested millions of dollars in “learning, development and career pathing” for his staff. Mina Group now has an 18-month program that sends employees from location to location. The roving team members help open and operate different restaurants while learning about different facets of the hospitality business.
“That’s what I think is going to be extremely valuable for us to continue to make an impact,” Mina says. “I’m a big believer that it really is about the chefs, the general managers, the people that are in these restaurants. Yes, I can create something, but we all learn from one another. I learn from them.”
Mina is also proud that he has a database of 40,000 recipes and 3,000 videos to give inspiration and guidance as his staff creates, updates and implements menus.
“The whole thing is utilizing everything we have in the company to teach one another,” he says. “The biggest thing we ever did for our growth was recipe exchange, which started 14 years ago. Complete transparency is the way we look at it. Share everything from day one.”
Marcus Samuelsson
- Founder, Marcus Samuelsson Group
“When I was coming up, I rarely saw people of color in leadership positions and I never saw women in leadership positions,” Samuelsson tells Observer. Samuelsson made a point to have a kitchen overseen by Black women at Hav & Mar, the high-profile restaurant he opened at Chelsea’s Starrett–Lehigh Building last year. “That’s something our industry could really improve on. When I’m opening a restaurant, I have the opportunity to really set the tone.”
Whether he’s running blockbuster restaurants, creating multimedia content or improving the fast-casual scene with the Streetbird spicy fried chicken he has at Yankee Stadium and Resorts World Las Vegas, Samuelsson is constantly thinking about the intersection of art, culture, heritage, commerce and the values that drive him. He’s opened restaurants in Harlem, Newark, Miami’s Overtown and Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward because he wants to create jobs and celebrate vibrant histories in predominantly African-American areas.
Meanwhile, his newest restaurant, Metropolis, will debut soon at the new Perelman Performing Arts Center. Metropolis, which serves contemporary American food, is inspired by how immigrants have shaped the diversity of New York’s five boroughs.
“It’s so exciting to be part of culture and art in New York City and to be able to provide a great restaurant under that roof,” Samuelsson says.
Eric Ripert and Maguy Le Coze
- Owners, Le Bernardin
Even after countless awards and multiple four-star New York Times reviews and earning and keeping three Michelin stars, Ripert is a chef who still gets emotional and celebrates exuberantly when his restaurant receives an important accolade.
“It’s a great reward for the team,” Ripert tells Observer. “I always say we have time to celebrate and then we have time to work hard. And when it’s time to celebrate, we have to not take it for granted and really acknowledge that we are very lucky.”
Ripert, who became Le Bernardin’s executive chef in 1994, and Le Coze have had an unprecedented stint atop the upper echelon of fine dining in New York City and the world. A lot of this has to do with their focus on day-to-day operations at one restaurant while other chefs build multi-location empires. Ripert says he has no criticism of anyone else’s expansion. But he’s constantly in the kitchen before and during both lunch and dinner service at Le Bernardin, a restaurant that just had its busiest summer ever.
“I’m still in my mind an artisan,” Ripert says. “I remember I came into this business because I love to cook and I love hospitality and I love to create. And this is what I’m doing. If I’m opening restaurants all over the place, I will lose that intimacy. I will lose that relationship to my staff that is so rewarding to me and to them.”
Danny Meyer
- Founder, Union Square Hospitality Group
Beyond dominating destination dining in New York at Union Square Hospitality Group (which strengthened its lineup in 2021 with the opening of Hillary Sterling’s Ci Siamo at Manhattan West) and creating a quick-service unicorn with Shake Shack, Meyer is financing the growth of many other hospitality brands.
At Enlightened Hospitality Investments, his portfolio includes SevenRooms, Tacombi, Slutty Vegan, Salt & Straw, Goldbelly and Dig. Meyer is savvy about betting on multiple players in sectors where he sees growth potential: He was previously a board member at OpenTable and made a profitable investment in Resy. He also put money into Sweetgreen, which went public, and Tender Greens, which has more than two dozen locations in California.
