Food & Wine magazine’s 2023 list of Best New Chefs in America includes an up-and-coming D.C. chef.
Isabel Coss, executive pastry chef at Lutece in Georgetown, is one of 11 chefs named in this year’s “Best New Chefs” list — nice recognition just one month before she opens a new restaurant.
“This award is for my country, and especially for immigrants,” said Coss, a Mexico City native. “The ones that travel looking for opportunities, for refuge, by force or by choice, and for those who, through this craft and lots of hard work, have found a career and a home.”
Lutece, a rebranding of the former Cafe Bonaparte by its owner The Popal Group in 2020, is a Michelin Guide-recognized restaurant.
In 2022, the New York Times named it in its Best Restaurants in the Country list. Lutece also won the 2023 Best Service Program of the Year award at the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s RAMMY Awards.
Popal Group also owns Afghan restaurant Lapis in Adams Morgan. It’s former Georgetown beer hall, The Berliner, closed last October.
Coss, 32, will add to her responsibilities next month, partnering with Popal Group and her husband and executive chef Matt Conroy with the opening of their new restaurant Pascual on Capitol Hill.
This is Food & Wine’s 35th annual Best New Chefs list.
The list starts with nominations from food writers, cookbook authors and former winners. With list in hand, Food & Wine editor Khushbu Shah traveled the country visiting 23 cities, and dozens of restaurants.
Food & Wine’s full 2023 Best New Chefs list is online, and in its October print issue, which is available on newsstands starting Sept. 22.