April 13, 2017
Michael Persico/for PhillyVoice
Photograph from Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Photography copyright ©2015 by Michael Persico. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Zagat recently named 60 semifinalists in its first-ever national "30 Under 30" and three Philadelphia chefs had enough chops to snag a mention.
Zagat, which rates and reviews restaurants across the country, had been doing its "30 Under 30" list for the last six years in individual cities but expanded the premise to a national level this year.
The Philly semifinalists are Malik Ali, a 26-year-old sous/pastry chef at Neuf; Caitlin McMillan, a 28-year sous-chef at CooknSolo restaurants like Zahav and Dizengoff; and Jesse Ito, the 28-year-old chef-owner of Royal Sushi & Izakaya.
Ito was a semifinalist in this year's James Beard Awards under its "Rising Star Chef of the Year" category.
The chefs were chosen based on an open call in January which were whittled down by readers, editors, previous honorees and industry insiders and then narrowed down further by a panel, according to Zagat.
Zagat announced the semifinalists earlier this week and has plans to cut the list down to 45 finalists by June.
The final 30 will be revealed in September.
