The 2nd Annual Brooklyn Foodie Awards
Best Chef (Female)
Pam Yung (Chez Jose)
Ayesha Nurdjaja (Red Gravy)
Elise Kornack (Take Root)*
Sawa Okochi (Shalom Japan)
Lisa Giffen, Maison Premiere
We adore all the ladies on this list, from Red Gravy’s fierce consigliere Ayesha Nurdjaja (Saul Bolton who?), to Maison Premiere’s new head chef Lisa Giffen, who’s managed to make us (occasionally) look past those incredible dollar oysters. Anissa and Good Fork vet Sawa Okochi effectively circumvented schtick at Shalom Japan, and Pam Yung added extra incentive to eating ones vegetables in order to get to dessert at Chez Jose. We’re giving it up to Elise Kornack, though, who serves truly intimate yet entirely exquisite 12-seat suppers in the front room of her partner’s former yoga studio.