The 2026 Chefs of the Year

An aguachile dish in progress at Maria Isabel. | Michelle Min/Eater

Each of the chefs featured in our new national Chef of the Year category made news in a major way. But their most recent projects are just one part of their story.

This year we celebrate five chefs who are making an impact both on the city where they cook and on the larger culinary conversation. — Missy Frederick, editorial director

Learn more about this year’s Eater Awards, presented by Capital One, and how editors selected them, here.

Laura Ozyilmaz, Maria Isabel

San Francisco, California

San Francisco diners became acquainted with powerhouse couple Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz through their championing of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine at Dalida. That restaurant told the story of Sayat’s upbringing and influences in Istanbul, Turkey, opening in 2023 inside a historic building within the lush environs of the Presidio and earning critical acclaim for the duo’s cooking. 

In the years since, diners came to know Laura outside of Dalida. She completed an impressive run on Top Chef in 2024, where viewers saw her deftly plant one foot in Mediterranean food and another in Mexican cuisine, showcasing her skill in both fields throughout the season. With the 2026 debut of the Ozyilmazes’ restaurant Maria Isabel, the food feels like an even fuller expression of Laura’s heritage and personal history. 

Named after Laura’s sister (Maria) and her mother (Isabel), the restaurant steeps in Mexican matriarchy, highlighting female winemakers, ceramics made by Mexican producers, and indigenous Mexican ingredients. The menu channels Laura’s upbringing in Guerrero and her family’s Sinaloan roots, as recounted through mariscos and maiz, moles and salsa macha. The ceviche Acapulqueño reimagines the Fanta- and ketchup-laden version instead with marigold flowers and preserved Seville oranges dressing tender shrimp and raw scallop; petals — and three fried shrimp heads — adorn the top. Duck enmoladas showcase the power of mole negro against a seasonal mole (sometimes a peach manchamanteles, other times a rhubarb rendition, but always compelling). Chochoyotes, a lesser-seen dish in San Francisco, demonstrates the restaurant’s ability to apply masa in different ways — in this case, dumplings — while harnessing the earthy flavor of huitlacoche. Maria Isabel is both a conduit for diners to connect with complex Mexican flavors and a view into Laura’s vision of the Mexico of her past and future. — Dianne de Guzman, editor, Eater SF

Carlos Delgado, Maru San

Washington, D.C.

Chef Carlos Delgado’s meteoric rise in D.C. began in 2022 with the opening of tiny tasting room Causa, located in Shaw, where he sends diners on a seafaring voyage along the Peruvian coastline and into the Andes he grew up around, and its accompanying upstairs pisco destination Bar Amazonia. His meticulous sourcing and culinary skills quickly drew critical acclaim.

2026 might be the Lima native’s biggest year yet: His breakout project, Maru San, commanded instant Capitol Hill buzz upon opening in February for its orchestra of Nikkei-style hand rolls, sashimi, and other polished seafood plates he and fellow José Andrés alum Simon Lam pass across a 25-seat black marble counter under a big pink octopus mural, as his favorite tropical house blasts in the background. A rare few get to sample the restaurant’s elaborate tasting menu full of ingredients like high-end uni and dry-aged fish; reservations for the 15-course feast are nearly impossible to get. 

The ambitious chef, at 36, isn’t afraid to stretch in many directions. He linked up with the Eaternity Group last year to give the Mediterranean-themed La Vie a needed menu makeover at D.C.’s Wharf development — meanwhile, at least one more Maru San is in the works elsewhere in D.C.

Sounds a lot like his former mentor: Before Causa, Delgado honed his craft under José Andrés as the longtime executive chef at Penn Quarter’s Peruvian mainstay China Chilcano. They still text frequently. — Tierney Plumb, Northeast editor

Amir Hajimaleki, Roya

Austin, Texas

While Amir Hajimaleki has had American-leaning restaurants in Austin for well over a decade, he hasn’t had the opportunity to fully express himself as an Iranian-born, Texas-raised chef. That is, until he opened Roya, his most personal restaurant and a project that has been in the works for more than eight years. Here, he manifests the depth and diversity of Persian cuisine, a bold feat for the middle of Texas. The space, designed with his brother Ali Hajimaleki, feels transportive, with intricate tile mosaics, burnished gold and dark blue hues, and delicate chandeliers. 

Roya shows what Hajimaleki is capable of, best seen through the sofreh experience, an $85 prix fixe menu. After placing down a delicate white lace tablecloth, servers walk you through Hajimaleki’s interpretation of Iranian hits, like shirin polo, a nutty, crunchy, sweet jeweled rice; ghormeh sabzi, a tangy short-rib herb stew made richer with roasted bone marrow; and a trio of juicy kebabs. Tea service, dessert, and a take-home box of tea and cookies follow, evoking the feeling of receiving parting gifts from a family home. (Hajimaleki calls his grandmother to consult on new dishes.) In effect, Hajimaleki has shaped a tribute to the region that also walks you through his personal history. — Erin Russell, freelance contributor

Phila Lorn, Sao

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

There’s been an electric energy to the Philly restaurant scene in recent years. The city, ever the underdog, has long punched above its weight; now, the rest of the world has come to the same realization. Amid this buzz, two newer restaurants have outrun the shadow cast by the city’s big names: Cambodian noodle house Mawn, which opened in 2023, and Southeast Asian oyster house and raw bar Sao, which opened last September. 

At their helm is the slick, stylish Phila Lorn. The restaurants he runs with his wife Rachel feel singular, blending the influences of his Philadelphia upbringing with his Cambodian background in food that feels playfully free and emboldened by a lack of boundaries between cuisines. At Mawn, funnel cake meets coconut macaroons, and vinegar peppers enhance scallops in red curry. At Sao, the crispy rice in the nam khao salad, which features Italian sausage, feels analogous to arancini. Tuna carpaccio is served with crispy shallots and jalapeños, then cured in lime until it picks up the aura of the bowls of beef pho on Washington Avenue. 

Hear Lorn talk, with his South Philly-bred bravado (and requisite uses of “jawn”) giving him a commanding presence, and it’s clear that the city’s culinary community is listening, rallying, and getting stoked to eat more of his food.  — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter

Aaron Lopez, Ursa

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson-based chef Aaron Lopez had a vision that started in his small California city of El Centro, an agricultural city near the U.S.-Mexico border. There, he hatched a plan to create a menu imbued with the techniques and flavors of the Sonoran Desert that spans northern Mexico, Arizona, and southeastern California. Trained at top kitchens in Los Angeles and beyond, Lopez researched by going deep into the desert, armed with a camera and his wits. A year later, he and his wife June Chee carried the project to Tucson, a larger venue still deeply embedded in the desert, but with a new audience. 

Inside the high-ceilinged, brick-walled downtown space, Ursa serves as a hushed gallery for Lopez and his team’s $150 tasting menu, which merges Indigenous cooking techniques with foraged and locally farmed ingredients. Barrel fruit (a yellow cactus) topped with the tang of pickled chiltepin leaves is the first bite, a luscious treat you may never see on a European plate. Quail breast arrives on a metal skewer dressed in pickled yucca, hovering over a jujube broth like a quiet offering. Goat roasted in agave, pit barbacoa-style, is unveiled tableside and served over softened tepary beans. 

At every turn, with no extraneous adornments, the kitchen lets the produce and meats boast their innate nature. Lopez eschews conventional comfort, reimagining a meal of cactus, corn, sunflower tea, and beans as true luxuries, and the results are evocative and powerful. His message — seeing the value and beauty of this landscape, its people, its ingredients, and the way it all comes through the cooking — is the luscious pith of the cactus you find beneath the surface of the American Southwest. — Matthew Kang, correspondent