Here’s Your First Look at All the Contestants on Season 22 of ‘Top Chef’

Anya El-Wattar

Hometown: Moscow, Russia 
Currently living in: San Francisco

Born and raised in Moscow, Anya El-Watter's culinary education began with her mother teaching her about foraging, preserving, and showing love through cooking. El-Watter emigrated to America at 18, earning an undergraduate degree at Columbia University before attending the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico to study the healing properties of food. She continued her formal culinary education at New York's Natural Gourmet Institute. In 2016, El-Watter launched Project Butterfly in San Francisco, a catering venture dedicated to providing meals for charity fundraisers. El-Watter later opened Birch & Rye, an ode to Russian gastronomy with a contemporary Californian twist. By 2022, Birch & Rye earned a coveted spot in the Michelin Guide and a James Beard Awards semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.

Bailey Sullivan

Hometown: Chicago
Currently living in: Chicago

Chicago native Bailey Sullivan was born into the hospitality industry. Growing up in her dad’s pub, Goldyburgers, she always knew she wanted to pursue a career as a chef. While attending culinary school at Kendall College, Sullivan interned and worked at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago before working under Chef Matthias Merges at Yusho Logan Square, where she developed an appreciation and passion for Asian ingredients and ramen. After graduation, Sullivan's path continued at “Top Chef” alum Beverly Kim’s Michelin-starred restaurant Parachute before joining Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio to learn the art of handmade pasta and regional Italian cuisine under James Beard Award-winning chef and “Top Chef” finalist Sarah Grueneberg. Known for embracing seasonal produce and global flavors with an Italian hand, Sullivan has earned a reputation for embracing the “atipica” side of Italian cuisine — blending tradition with bold, whimsical twists. When she’s not in the kitchen, Sullivan enjoys singing karaoke or spending time with her two cats, Giuseppe and Arthas.

César Murillo

Hometown: Dallas
Currently living in: Chicago

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Dallas, César Murillo was drawn to the hands-on, creative nature of the kitchen from an early age. After graduating from the Texas Culinary Academy, Murillo secured a job in Chicago working under chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless at Frontera Grill and Xoco. Interested in learning more about farming, foraging, and using hyper-local ingredients, Murillo went to San Francisco to expand his knowledge of Mexican cuisine at Nopalito and Cocina Latina. After two years, Murillo returned to Chicago, joining the staff of the fine-dining restaurant Grace as a sous chef, where the team earned three Michelin stars.

After three years, Murillo climbed the culinary ladder and moved to Sepia. In 2020, he became the executive chef at North Pond. His dishes blend his heritage with the restaurant’s farm-to-table philosophy, using ingredients from his rooftop garden and surrounding nature. When he's not hiking through nature, Murillo is running along Lake Michigan, training for the next marathon.

Corwin Hemming

Hometown: Augusta, Georgia
Currently living in: Brooklyn, New York City

Corwin Hemming is an Augusta native whose cooking is inspired by his Jamaican heritage and experiences living aboard with his U.S. Army parents’ where he eagerly tried local dishes and expanded his palate through many culinary adventures. While attending Howard University to pursue a degree in marketing, it was his part-time jobs working at restaurants that fueled his drive to pursue training to become a chef. As a post-graduate student in 2013, Hemming enrolled in culinary school at the Art Institute of Washington and hasn’t looked back since. Over the last 10 years, he has worked in many notable Michelin-starred restaurants across the country, including Le Coucou and the Nomad in New York City, and Acadia in Chicago. As a result of the pandemic in the fall of 2020, Hemming pivoted and launched his own business as a private chef working around the country and focusing on pop-ups. An aviation aficionado, Hemming describes his cuisine as “contemporary Caribbean” and is eager to bring the taste of the islands into the fine-dining space and open his own brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Henry Lu

Hometown: The Bronx, New York City
Currently living in: Houston

A Bronx native, Henry Lu’s first foray into his future career in the kitchen was working at his parents’ Chinese restaurants. After earning a degree in art history, Lu enrolled in the French Culinary Institute, where he honed his skills, preparing to work in some of the most renowned kitchens in Manhattan, including his stints as a sous chef at Pearl & Ash, which earned two stars from The New York Times and Williamsburg’s Llama Inn which also received two stars from The New York Times. Lu then spent three years as the executive chef at the Four Happy Men Hospitality Group, where he was featured in Food & Wine’s 2019 list of Things You Won’t Want to Miss.

In 2020, Lu moved to Houston, where he partnered with “Top Chef” alum Evelyn Garcia to open their first restaurant, JŪN, in the Houston Heights neighborhood. Since opening, JŪN has been a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant. Lu and Garcia also work together on byKIN, a Southeast Asian-inspired catering, pop-up, and product line company. Most recently, they were named 2025 James Beard semifinalists for Best Chef: Texas. 

Kat Turner

Hometown: Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Currently living in: Los Angeles

A proud Midwesterner from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Kat Turner fell in love with cooking at an early age with her mom’s extensive and global cookbook collection. While making a name in Hollywood as an actress and burlesque dancer, Turner realized she wanted to pursue cooking full-time and headed to New York City to jumpstart her culinary career. After attending the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York and working a stint at Blue Hill, she returned to Los Angeles to work as a private chef, traveling the world with a roster of A-list clientele, including the Smashing Pumpkins. She also served as a culinary producer, organizing high-profile events for Summit Series and other clients. Turner is currently the executive chef and partner of the critically acclaimed Highly Likely in Los Angeles, where she showcases her distinctive cooking style that melds classic recipes with international flavors and techniques to create accessible dishes with a familiar but provocative quality.

Katianna Hong

Hometown: Clifton Park, New York 
Currently living in: Los Angeles

Born in Korea and raised in upstate New York, 2018 F&W Best New Chef Katianna Hong studied at the Culinary Institute of America and the UNLV School of Hospitality. After graduating, she secured a job at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Melisse in Santa Monica, California, where she met her culinary partner and future husband, John. Moving to Napa Valley in 2011, Hong worked as a line cook at chef Christopher Kostow’s The Restaurant at Meadowood, and in 2014 was not only the restaurant’s first chef de cuisine but also the only woman in the nation holding that title in a three-Michelin-starred kitchen.

In 2018, Hong opened Kostow’s second Napa restaurant, the Charter Oak, where she and her team earned a James Beard Award nomination for Best New Restaurant and a spot on Bon Appétit’s Top 50 Best New Restaurants List. Following the birth of their daughter, Alessia, Hong and her husband relocated to Southern California in 2019 to pursue their dream of opening a solo restaurant project together, Yangban, which offers a multi-dimensional, autobiographical experience that showcases their respective backgrounds and upbringings while providing a dynamic neighborhood space for locals to gather. Since its 2019 opening, the restaurant has garnered critical acclaim, appearing on several publications' new restaurants lists. It was a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.

Lana Lagomarsini

Hometown: The Bronx, New York City
Currently living in: Harlem, New York City

Bronx native Lana Lagomarsini began her culinary journey while studying journalism at Northeastern University, where she eventually traded her medium of expression from words to flavorful dishes. A graduate of Northeastern and the Culinary Institute of America, Lagomarsini worked at Gramercy Tavern and in a number of Michelin-starred kitchens, including Restaurant Daniel and Momofuku Ko. She spent a month apprenticing under renowned Argentinian chef Francis Mallmann, learning the art of open-fire cooking on his island in Patagonia. Recognized within her community, Lagomarsini was inducted into the Prestigious Dames d’ Escoffier International in 2023, as well as being honored by her peers by winning a culinarian award from the Black Women in Food Awards by Dine Diaspora. She also was recently a part of the summer cohort for the James Beard Foundation’s Chef Boot Camp for Policy and Advocacy. Recently, Lagomarsini has been exploring her voice as a woman of color, organizing pop-ups of all kinds. She describes her cuisine as soul food through a fine-dining lens and is passionate about learning more about the connection between food throughout the African diaspora and its influence on staple foods in America.

Massimo Piedimonte

Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
Currently living in: Montreal, Quebec

Massimo Piedimonte was born in Montreal into an Italian family where food has always been at the heart of every conversation. His first foray into the professional kitchen was while attending college and taking a summer job as a chef. Trained in the French style, Piedimonte finessed his techniques in restaurants across the city until landing a job as chef de partie under chef Daniel Boulud at Maison Boulud, later doing a four-month stage with chef René Redzepi at Noma in Copenhagen and returning to Montreal to join Le Mousso as an executive chef. In 2022, he opened his own fine-dining restaurant, Cabaret L’Enfer, featuring a tasting menu experience that showcases his bold cooking style, celebrating local seasonal ingredients, hospitality, and the arts.   

Mimi Weissenborn

Hometown: Frederick, Maryland
Currently living in: Portland, Maine

Mimi Weissenborn studied at L’Academie de Cuisine before deciding to pursue a career in the culinary arts in New York City. As she worked her way up in various kitchens in the city, Weissenborn started to find her voice, which became clearer during her successful run as the executive chef of Vinateria in Harlem. During her time there, she earned the restaurant a Michelin Recommendation, helmed a sold-out dinner at the James Beard House, and collaborated on the International Women’s Day Beard House dinner. She eventually found her way to Portland, Maine, and became the executive chef at Sur Lie, a James Beard Award semifinalist, and a 2023 nominee for Outstanding Hospitality. Since then, she has also taken over the kitchen of Gather and recently opened Catface Cafe. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, her goal is to serve and be part of an inclusive community.

Paula Endara

Hometown: Quito, Ecuador 
Currently living in: Lexington, Kentucky

James Beard Foundation Bootcamp alum Paula Endara began her culinary career in her home country of Ecuador at 18 years old. A 13-year veteran of the industry, she has built an impressive resume that includes specializing in avant-garde cuisine at the Basque Culinary Center, working at a nomad restaurant concept in Quito where she collaborated with Amazonian farmers, and opening her restaurant, Roots, in Arkansas, where she blended Ecuadorian flavors with fresh local ingredients. Passionate about sustainability and strengthening the community-driven food infrastructure, Endara uses regional ingredients to showcase her cultural heritage through her unique, inventive dishes. She currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky, where she’s the executive chef of the Bluegrass-inspired Granddam and Lost Palm, a rooftop parlor featuring tropical-infused Latin bites and cocktails located at the Gold Key Awarding-winning boutique The Manchester.

Shuai Wang

Hometown: Queens, New York City
Currently living in: North Charleston, South Carolina

Born in Beijing, China, Shuai Wang was raised in Queens, New York, from the age of 9. Even though he was surrounded by the delicious meals his grandmother and mom prepared, his excitement for getting into the craft came only after he took a culinary class in high school and read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Wang attended the Art Institute of New York, where he dove into his future profession head-on, taking a hefty course load while still finding the time to volunteer at the James Beard House whenever his schedule allowed. Following his tenure in New York, he and his wife moved to North Charleston, South Carolina, where his popularity in the industry continued to rise. In 2017, he was nominated by the James Beard Foundation for the Rising Star Chef award. Wang is the owner and chef of Jackrabbit Filly, a heritage-driven Chinese-American Restaurant in Park Circle, North Charleston, and King BBQ, a Chinese barbecue restaurant, which, in 2024, was named a best new BBQ restaurant by Southern Living magazine. Wang and his wife, Corrie, won StarChef Charleston Restauranteur of the Year 2024 and most recently, Shuai was named as a 2025 South Carolina Chef Ambassador.

Tristen Epps

Hometown: Virginia Beach, Virginia
Currently living in: Houston

Tristen Epps is a Caribbean-American chef who focuses on neo-Afro-Caribbean cuisine in a fine-dining format. Raised in a single-parent military family, Epps discovered his love for cooking early on. After graduating from Johnson & Wales, he honed his craft in Michelin-starred restaurants, eventually earning his own Michelin recognition as the executive chef at Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster in Miami. Epps, who is a recipient of StarChef’s Rising Star Chef award, also served as executive chef of Cooks & Captains in Brooklyn, New York, and Ocean Social by Tristen Epps for the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, where he earned a James Beard Award nomination for Best Chef: South. Dedicated to bringing recognition to Black foodways and showcasing them within fine dining culture, Epps aspires to be a trailblazer and role model for the next generation of chefs. His diverse travels — from Guam and Stockholm to West Virginia and New York — have shaped his worldview and profoundly influenced his culinary approach. After relocating back to Houston to open his own restaurant, Epps founded Epps & Flows Culinary, a platform for collaborative dinners showcasing his neo-Afro-Caribbean cuisine. He is currently laying the groundwork for two exciting concepts Buboy, a woodfired Afro-Caribbean tasting menu, as well as a casual hot dog bar that reimagines the beloved staple with bold flavors and unique toppings.  

Vincenzo “Vinny” Loseto

Hometown: Massapequa, New York
Currently living in: Napa, California

Growing up fishing and clamming on the shores of Massapequa, New York, Vincenzo “Vinny” Loseto quickly learned the importance of using locally sourced ingredients and time-honored trades such as butchery from his Italian family to create deliciously memorable dishes. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he made his way into the kitchens of Daniel Humm and the late James Kent at the NoMad, where he worked his way up to sous chef before being transferred to Eleven Madison Park to further hone his skills under Chef Brian Lockwood. In 2016, he became involved with the Ment'Or organization, where he placed first in the Young Chef Competition. That honor allowed Vincenzo to join Matthew Peters and Philip Tessier as part of Team USA in the 2017 Bocuse d'Or, where they took home a gold medal. Vincenzo currently works with Chef Tessier as chef de cuisine at Press Restaurant in Napa, California, where he’s known for elevating local farm produce with precision and technique in the restaurant’s California-American dishes.

Zubair Mohajir

Hometown: Chennai, India 
Currently living in: Chicago

Originally from Chennai, India, chef Zubair Mohajir was once a financial analyst, only beginning his career in the culinary field after getting laid off during the 2008 financial crisis. Starting as a prep cook and working his way up to sous chef in Chicago at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s The Pump Room, Mohajir studied French techniques and Southeast Asian flavors before moving to Los Angeles, where he continued to finesse his skills at Otium. Mohajir later joined Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Napa as chef de partie. While there, he contacted the renowned Gaggan Anand to express his interest in an apprenticeship and was later invited to work at Gaggan in Bangkok. Returning to Chicago after six months, he launched his acclaimed pop-up Wazwan before opening his first brick-and-mortar restaurant in 2021. Two years later, he transformed the space into two concepts: Lilac Tiger, highlighting South Asian street food, and the Coach House, his fine-dining restaurant. He recently opened his newest endeavor, Mirra, where diners experience a blend of Indian and Mexican flavors. Mohajir has garnered industry acclaim as a 2022 Jean Banchet Rising Chef of the Year and a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist — first in 2023 as Best Chef: Great Lakes and then in 2024 as Emerging Chef of the Year.