Boia De, Paya, Zitz Sum, Sunny’s
Miami's Best Chefs: Here are the People Defining Magic City Dining
By Eric Barton
Jan. 21, 2025
It wasn’t long ago in Miami that the name of the chef making the ropa vieja at your favorite restaurant was just an anonymous-to-you somebody. Then the Food Network happened, and the era of celebrity chefs, and social media.
Now, those of us who make a sport out of eating out follow chefs like they’re sports stars, reciting their culinary histories as if talking about the batting average of a Marlins prospect.
These days, Miami is inarguably, in my opinion, one of the best restaurant cities on the planet, and it’s the city’s chefs who can take credit. Here then are the best chefs in Miami, who, thankfully, are far from anonymous.
1. Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer, Boia De
This dynamic duo is doing things with Italian cuisine that would make your nonna weep with joy. Their Michelin-starred spot, Boia De, is turning out dishes like cold tagliolini nero with king crab that'll have you questioning everything you thought you knew about pasta. The place is tiny, vibrant, and feels like you've stumbled into the coolest dinner party in town.
2. Niven Patel, Paya
Patel is the guy who redefined what Miamians thought of Indian food. Using produce from his own farm, Patel created dishes at Ghee Indian Kitchen that somehow were full of spice and heat and also elevated the flavors of fresh produce and proteins, a curried carrot still tasting unbelievably like carrot. At Erba, he took that same formula and applied it to Italian dishes. But for me, his best showing so far is at Paya, where he’s combined Caribbean flavors and local ingredients to create something very exciting.
3. Pablo Zitzmann, Zitz Sum
I had a call a while back with Zitz Sum chef Zitzmann, and he started off telling me how he was disappointed that a publication in town recently posted something about his ramen. Everybody was coming in and ordering the ramen. So he took it off the menu. “I don’t want to be a ramen place,” he said. Zitzmann is like that with everything he does, bucking traditional and typical for something entirely unique. What restaurant owner takes a dish off the menu that’s selling well? He does it regularly, specifically removing the things people are ordering the most so that they’re forced to try something new. His creations, somehow blending flavors he experienced in travels around the world into things that have never before been created, always do the thing that’s most difficult about fusion: they are delicious. And because he’s always changing his menu, a meal at Zitz Sum will just simply never be the same twice. It just doesn’t get more unique and original than Pablo Zitzmann.
4. Aaron Brooks, Sunny’s
Brooks is the Aussie who came to Miami and decided to show us how steak should really be done. At Edge Steak & Bar, he went beyond the call of a hotel restaurant. Now at Sunny’s, he’s created a menu that’s a modern take on a steakhouse and maybe also with a dash of supperclub. I’ve never had anything he’s cooked that’s not shy of perfect, which is why Sunny’s was 2024’s best new restaurant in Miami.
5. Masayuki Komatsu, Ogawa
I had a moment eating at Ogawa that I think sums up what makes Masayuki Komatsu so good at what he does. Technically, this is a true omakase counter, where it’s chef’s choice, all night. But Komatsu noticed that my wife had handed me her uni handroll (thankfully for me), and so when we’d hit another dish with uni on it, he whipped up something entirely different for her, delivering it without saying a word about the substitution. It’s one sign of this Osaka native’s deep pedigree, which includes a Michelin star before coming to this 12-seat spot. Watch him behind the counter, and it’s catching a master painter at work, each plating done with expert precision.
6. Tam Pham, Tâm Tâm
At his downtown restaurant, Tam Pham crafted a menu inspired by his childhood in Saigon's Chinatown, combining Vietnamese flavors with the Cantonese dishes his mom made at home. That means Cantonese-style grouper, crispy wings in caramel fish sauce, and a wagyu tartare topped with citrusy fire ants. With Harrison Ramhofer handling the front-of-the-house vibes, they’ve created one of the more fun restaurants at the moment in Miami, and it’s also a place where everything on the menu reflects the chef cooking it.
7. Valerie Chang, Maty’s
Until 2024, Valerie Chang was one of Miami’s up-and-coming chefs, this name we were all watching to see what she did next. But then she opened Maty’s, the Midtown restaurant that’s an homage to, and also an entirely original recreation of, her grandmother’s traditional Peruvian dishes. But in 2024, Chang’s status as soon-to-be changed when she took home the regional James Beard Award for Best Chef: South. She's no longer the upstart but a proven talent, with Maty’s among the city's best.
8. Michael Beltran, Ariete
At whatever restaurant he’s opening next, and he has several around town, Beltran manages to build a menu that reflects his background. There’s always the traditional fine-dining techniques, sure, but then there’s also dishes that tell his story, that Cuban heritage and Miami-against-the-world spirit that he brings to his kitchens. At Ariete, that’s best exemplified by the duck press, one of the most unique and special dishes in Miami. At Chug’s, that’s represented on his Chef’s Breakfast plate (white rice, three eggs, sazón completa, herbs), which is what any good chefs needs to start the day. Whatever he’s opening next, his restaurant will be pure Michael Beltran.
9. Michael Schwartz, Michael's Genuine
Michael Schwartz is practically Miami restaurant royalty at this point, a chef who mentored many of the others on this list. His commitment to local, seasonal ingredients at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink has been setting the standard in the Design District for over a decade. His menu is a hit list of crowd favorites, which is why even after all these years it’s still always crowded.
10. Michelle Bernstein, Cafe La Trova
Michelle Bernstein is the chef who proves that sometimes, you can go home again. At Cafe La Trova, she's taking her Cuban-Jewish heritage and turning it into dishes that feel both nostalgic and completely new. It's like she bottled the essence of Little Havana and served it on a plate. Meanwhile, Bernstein just brought back the restaurant that helped make her a local favorite, Sra Martinez, now in Coral Gables, a place where many Miamians, including me, celebrated birthdays and anniversaries over sweetbreads and short ribs that helped define those dishes.
11. Michael Pirolo, Macchialina
Like the dishes he makes, Michael Pirolo’s background is a blend of things. He was born in Queens but raised in Italy, giving him a unique alchemy, with a family that was as much New York as it was the tiny village they called home outside Salerno. That means his house-made pasta can break rules, bring in new ingredients, and just simply take Italian classics to new places. Or sometimes not, staying true to tradition when he wants. You find his Italian upbringing in the very much traditional spaghetti pomodoro and cacio e pepe. His American birthright can be found in the creamy polenta—one of my very favorite dishes in Miami—and the cavatelli with baby meatballs, porchetta and pecorino. Miami is America’s melting pot, and Pirolo is very much a melting pot of Italian styles, and that’s very good for us.
12. Danny Ganem, Fiola Miami
At Fiola Miami, Ganem is proving that Italian cuisine can be both classic and innovative. His dishes are like the culinary equivalent of a perfectly tailored Italian suit – elegant, precise, and impossible to ignore. Now overseeing Daniel’s, A Florida Steakhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Ganem’s reach is only expanding.
13. Jeremy Ford, Stubborn Seed
Ford isn't just a "Top Chef" winner; he's the chef who's making sure his Michelin-starred Stubborn Seed lives up to its name by stubbornly refusing to compromise on quality. His tasting menu is like a greatest hits album of American cuisine, with tracks like cacio e pepe cheese puffs that'll be stuck in your head for days.
14. Bernardo Paladini, Torno Subito Miami
It’s hard to imagine a better chef pedigree than the one amassed by Bernardo Paladini. Raised in Rome, he spent seven years in the kitchen the three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana under the tutelage of famed chef Massimo Bottura. Then, Bottura sent Paladini to Dubai to oversee the kitchen at the Torno Subito there. After it won a Michelin, he named Paladini to run the kitchen at Bottura’s first American import here in Miami. There’s dishes at Torno Subito Miami that seemed designed, maybe destined, to earn him another Michelin nod, like the shrimp cocktail floating below a cloud of shrimp-head foam. Torno Subito Miami is still in its infancy, and I’m eager to see what Paladini comes up with next.
15. Shingo Akikuni, Shingo
If you’re lucky enough to snag one of the 14 seats at Shingo in Coral Gables, you’re in for an omakase experience that feels like stepping straight into Tokyo. Chef Shingo Akikuni, a third-generation sushi chef from Osaka, honed his craft at Michelin-starred spots in Tokyo and Miami, including leading Hiden to its first Michelin star. At his namesake restaurant, he serves an 18-course menu featuring pristine nigiri and seasonal sashimi, with ingredients flown in from Japan and paired with premium sake. The space itself, crafted from rare Hinoki wood and imported from Kyoto, is as much a work of art as the dishes Akikuni meticulously prepares right before you.
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