The American Academy of Chefs American Academy of Chefs Culinary Hall of Fame™ Celebrated Chefs

The American Academy of Chefs Culinary Hall of Fame™ Committee has created a new category of induction. This category recognizes individuals for their outstanding achievements in the culinary industry by inducting them into the American Academy of Chefs Culinary Hall of Fame™ as Celebrated Chefs.

Requirements

  • Recipients of this honor are trendsetters in the industry and have distinguished themselves in the culinary world.
  • These individuals are nationally and/or internationally recognized through print and/or live media for their contributions to the profession.
  • They are culinary icons and continue to serve as role models by mentoring and providing support to future culinarians.

Inductees

Alan Wong
Alan Wong
Photo by David Murphey

2013

Alan Wong has made a name for himself internationally with his marriage of different ethnic cooking styles with the finest island-grown ingredients, creating local dishes with a contemporary twist. The James Beard Award winner for Best Chef - Northwest 1996, Wong was a founding member of the Hawaii Regional Cuisine Chefs. Wong was one of 10 U.S. chefs nominated by the Wedgewood Awards for the title of World Master of Culinary Arts in the same year that Alan Wong’s Restaurant was inducted in the Nation’s Restaurant News’ Hall of Fame. Bon Appetit magazine has recognized Chef Wong among its culinary legends as the “Master of Hawaii Regional Cuisine,” and Alan Wong’s Restaurant has been ranked by Gourmet magazine twice as the only Honolulu restaurant rated in the top ten among America’s Best Fifty Restaurants.

Chef Wong is the author of New Wave Luau and The Blue Tomato, and ten-time winner of the Hale “Aina and Ilima Awards in Hawaii, for “Restaurant of the Year” and “Best Restaurant,” respectively. Chef Wong is also the Chef/Owner of Alan Wong’s Restaurant and The Pineapple Room in Honolulu, as well as license-operations with the Grand Wailea Resort for Alan Wong’s Amasia on Maui and Watabe Wedding Company for the Honu Kai Lani Reception Facility on Oahu in Ko’olina.

Cat Cora
Cat Cora
Photo by David Carlson

2012

Cora is passionate about her profession and her career highlights are numerous. She is the owner of four restaurants, including Kouzzina by Cat Cora, at Disney World’s Boardwalk Resort in Orlando. She has published three cookbooks, and is a contributing editor to O, the Oprah Magazine. She has made numerous television appearances and is a co-host of Bravo’s new show, “Around the World in 80 Plates,” which premiered May 9. She made television history on Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” as the first and only female Iron Chef in 2005.

Cora is president and founder of Chefs for Humanity, a not-for-profit organization that gathers the culinary community together to raise funds and provide resources for emergency educational and hunger-related causes. In 2010, she joined the Chefs Move to Schools campaign that seeks to provide nutritional guidance and education to schools.

2010

Charlie Palmer

2009

Patrick O’Connell

2008

Charlie Trotter

2007

James Andrew Beard (accepted by Chef Norman Van Aken on behalf of James Beard and the James Beard Foundation)

Thomas Keller