It's time again for Food & Wine Magazine's annual list of the Best New Chefs in the country, an honor that ranks up there in the industry with the James Beard Awards and Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurants list when it comes to career-making for up-and-coming chefs. And this year's San Francisco honoree is Val Cantu of two-year-old Mission spot Californios, as the magazine announced in a press release today. All ten honorees fly to New York for the annual party tomorrow, April 4 — they're flown in on a Monday because it's a traditional industry night off — and they'll all be featured in the mag's July issue, and at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June.

Cantu previously was named a Chronicle Rising Star in 2016, and Californios earned a Michelin star right out of the gate in its first year, 2015. Cantu specializes in incorporating Mexican flavors and influences into high-end, modern, California cuisine.

"This is our favorite time of year at FOOD & WINE, when we get to celebrate our latest class of Best New Chefs," says Editor-in-Chief Nilou Motamed. "For me, there’s a special thrill in getting to share the news with our winners — nothing beats that moment of surprise and pure joy, when they realize their careers are about to change forever."

Criteria for the honor include running one's own kitchen, as an executive chef, for less than five years, which sometimes leads to relatively seasoned talents getting the honor in the middle of their careers. Last year's honorees, for instance, included relatively new and self-taught Lazy Bear chef David Barzelay, and Ravi Kapur, who opened Liholiho Yacht Club in 2015, but had previously spent two years as executive chef at Prospect and eight years in the kitchen at Boulevard, ultimately as its chef de cuisine.

But a list past years' honorees is a who's-who of the national food scene, proving that this list does a lot to catapult chefs' careers, including people like, in recent years, Saison's Joshua Skenes, Benu's Corey Lee, Meadowood's Christopher Kostow, and, in years' past, Thomas Keller, Nancy Oakes, and Stuart Brioza.

"It’s no surprise that this year’s class has really pushed the envelope, reimagining what restaurant cooking means in 2017," says Motamed.

Here's the full online announcement of this year's class of 10, and closer to the release of the July issue each chef will get a full profile, with a few recipe highlights as well. Below, the complete list.

Jay Blackinton, Hogstone’s Wood Oven, Orcas Island, WA

Val Cantu, Californios, San Francisco

Peter Cho, Han Oak, Portland, OR

Nina Compton, Compère Lapin, New Orleans

Diego Galicia and Rico Torres, Mixtli, San Antonio

Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer, Kismet, Los Angeles

Jordan Kahn, Destroyer, Los Angeles

Angie Mar, The Beatrice Inn, New York

Yoshi Okai, Otoko, Austin

Noah Sandoval, Oriole, Chicago

Previously: Two SF Chefs, Ravi Kapur And David Barzelay, Named Food & Wine Best New Chefs
Go Eat This: Kanpachi Crudo at Californios