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Jonah Averill, 24, a sous chef at Central Provisions, preps a dish before the Portland restaurant opens for lunch on a Friday in January. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald Given that Greater Portland restaurant closures are happening regularly these days, you’d be forgiven for feeling a bit bearish about the future of the local dining scene. But there’s cause for hope, too: Plans for new restaurants — many taking over the spaces vacated by the recently closed venues — are also being announced frequently.
There’s a steady stream of openings scheduled for the first half of 2025 already. There’s also a pipeline of highly impressive and ambitious young talent currently working in some of the area’s best eateries. We surveyed a dozen area chefs to get their recommendations for some up-and-coming chefs to spotlight.
The chefs featured here (all 30 years old or younger) have already proven themselves not just as great cooks with honed palates, serious technical chops and the creativity required to develop menus, but also as effective communicators and respected team leaders. As Twelve Executive Chef Colin Wyatt put it, “Just because you know how to cook doesn’t mean you know how to run a kitchen.” Though they’re working under more senior chefs or restaurateurs right now, they hope to open their own restaurants eventually, and we can celebrate the fact that all of them aim to launch in and around Portland.
Here are six local chefs to keep an eye on in the years to come. Jonah Averill, 24, senior sous chef at Central Provisions How it all started: Scarborough native Jonah Averill started his culinary career when he was 16, slinging pies at his local Pat’s Pizza. After a couple of years, he ran across Anthony Bourdain’s seminal book, “Kitchen Confidential.
” “The kid I was at the time really fell in love with the whole ‘cooks as pirates’ mentality,” he recalled. “His love for the industry and food really sold me on all this.” Averill, at Central Provisions where he is a sous chef.
Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald Then when Averill joined the kitchen team at Nonesuch River Brewing in Scarborough, his very first shift sealed the deal. “I started on a busy Saturday night and immediately fell in love with the adrenaline of a fast-paced kitchen,” he said. “And it was there that I also really fell in love with the food itself.
” By 2021, Averill wanted to start working on more upscale food. He lined up interviews at a few Portland venues, but his working tryout at Central Provisions instantly won him over. “The level of care and detail and intricacy that went into the food, and getting to work with ingredients I had never even heard of — I was like, ‘This is something I could see myself doing.
'” Averill started at Central Provisions as a line cook, worked his way through the kitchen stations and was promoted to junior sous chef after about a year. Where he’s at now: Averill was promoted to senior sous chef a year and a half ago. “He’s got a really good palate and a good mind for food,” Central Provisions chef and co-owner Chris Gould said.
“He’s also a hard worker and does everything the right way. One of the things I preach is not just doing things the right way when somebody is watching, but also when nobody is watching, even though you could cut a corner and nobody but you would know the difference. Jonah has that kind of self-discipline, and that’s not something everybody has.
” At Central, Averill met his wife, Riley, who is also a sous chef; they married last August. The two had worked the garde manger station closely together for over a year. “The chemistry you build with a good station partner can translate pretty well to romantic relationship,” he said.
Culinary influences: Averill says Tom Barthelmes, chef and co-owner at Saco’s Finestkind and a former kitchen manager at Central Provisions, is one of his best professional mentors. “He taught me so much about what it is to be a cook and a chef, partly through his borderline fanaticism for the job,” Averill said with a chuckle. “He was always innovating and looking for a better way to do things.
And even in the dead of winter when it’s slow, he was like, ‘Everything needs to be perfect. We should only put out food we are proud of.'” What’s next: Averill said among the many ideas he has for a local restaurant of his own would be a sandwich shop.
“But really elevated, delicious sandwiches with the level of care and attention to ingredients we have for every dish at Central,” he said. “Cost-wise, it doesn’t really work out, I know, because you can’t charge $25 for a sandwich. But that’s my pipe-dream spot.
” Simon Bartlett, 30, and Daniel Iwasko, 30, senior sous chefs at The Honey Paw How it all started: Bartlett said he realized he wanted to cook for a living when he was 19, working at the former Flipside Pizza in Brunswick. “I remember my chef just put salt on some mozzarella, and I had never had seasoned mozzarella like that,” said the Maine native. “I was just like, ‘Oh my god.
’ I fell in love with cooking there, the creative aspect of it. Nineteen-year-old Simon was blown away by food combinations and flavors.” Around the same time, Iwasko moved from the Philadelphia area to Maine to study woodworking and furniture design at the Maine College of Art & Design.
He took a dishwashing job at Duckfat and quickly moved over to the cooking side of the kitchen. Simon Bartlett, left, and Daniel Iwasko, senior sous chefs at The Honey Paw. Photo courtesy of The Honey Paw “I found a lot of similarities between woodworking and kitchen work, in terms of how organized you have to be and the craft of it all,” Iwasko said.
“It turned out college wasn’t for me, and I enjoyed cooking, so I decided to switch careers.” Bartlett racked up cooking experience at the former Sonny’s restaurant, Black Cow, Evo Kitchen+ Bar and Central Provisions before joining The Honey Paw almost four years ago. Iwasko stayed with Duckfat for about eight years, working his way up to sous chef, before joining The Honey Paw in January 2023.
Where they’re at now: “Simon has a wonderful curiosity about food and cooking, which you don’t always see,” said Big Tree Hospitality chef and co-owner Andrew Taylor. “He wants to learn everything and have a wide variety of skills, from charcuterie to bread making to fermentation — he’s interested in the whole gamut. “Daniel came with just the strongest recommendations from Rob (Evans, former chef and co-owner of Duckfat), and he’s delivered,” Taylor continued.
“We’ve been very impressed by his creativity and attention to detail. He’s a fantastic cook. I foresee him doing great things.
” Culinary influences: Both Bartlett and Iwasko say Honey Paw Chef Valerie Goldman — a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast — helped shape them as chefs. “She’s played a huge part in my growth as a manager and a chef,” Bartlett said. “She’s opened my mind to a healthier workplace: You can work in kitchens and not break your back or scream at people.
” “My main takeaway from her is how to season things,” Iwasko said. He also cited Evans and his wife, former Duckfat co-owner Nancy Pugh . “He showed me how to work in a kitchen, and he and Nancy both showed me how to manage people.
” What’s next: Bartlett said he’s been enamored in recent years by live-fire cooking and Chinese barbecue like Cantonese char siu, a dish he might feature at his own “casual, approachable” local restaurant someday. “I want it to be affordable and accessible to everyone. And I’d want to stay open late so there’d be another late-night option for service industry people besides burgers and chicken wings.
” Iwasko said he’s not so sure he wants to open a restaurant of his own. “I don’t feel like I’m much of an entrepreneur,” he said. “And it’s certainly a strange climate to open a restaurant these days.
” Jayde Miller, 25, head chef at The Send Brewing Co., South Portland How it all started: “Growing up as a kid in New Hampshire in a very lower-working-class family, food was a little bit hard to come by,” Miller said. “Some of the best times I had was when we’d go to my grandparents for weekend dinner.
Everybody would take part in prepping an amazing meal full of so much love and passion.” The lure of food and cooking soon proved irresistible for Miller. “One day I was watching the Food Network, and the only thing I could think was, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
This is one of the most beautiful expressions of art.'” Jayde Miller, head chef at The Send Brewing Co. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald Miller started her culinary career 12 years ago at The Carriage House in Rye, New Hampshire.
She eventually tired of the “stagnant” food environment in her area and moved to Maine in 2019. She cooked at former Elsmere BBQ in South Portland and Salvage BBQ, and more recently at CBG and The Continental, and became enamored with the local restaurant scene. “It’s amazing to see such a strong, tight-knit community with no infighting between restaurants or ownership groups,” she said.
“It feels like the whole food service community, from owners all the way down to dishwashers, is kind of like a small little family.” Where she’s at now: At The Send Brewing Co. which launched in late December , she oversees a sous chef and two line cooks.
The kitchen specializes in comfort food, a good fit for Miller, who spent a year in Japan cooking at multiple restaurants and writing her thesis for her degree from Johnson & Wales culinary school in Rhode Island. The Send owner Cole Corbin, who grew up in Japan, had some core dishes he wanted on the menu like Japanese fried chicken, tempura onion rings and onigiri rice balls. Miller contributed many other dishes and developed all the menu’s recipes herself.
“She was able to come up with some dish ideas that I hadn’t even thought of, but that fit the concept I was going for,” Corbin said. “That gave me a sense of ease to trust her with rounding out the menu. The main thing I’ve noticed with her is her curiosity and having a growth mindset, combined with a passion for Japanese cuisine and culture.
She’s constantly looking to improve menu items or thinking up new ideas for flavor combinations or techniques.” Her style: Miller said she’s adapted some traditional European techniques into coaxing out traditional Japanese flavors at her dishes at The Send. “I try to have a pan-cultural style with deep respect and understanding for the individual cultural reasons for a specific traditional food being the way it is.
” Corbin said Miller’s Curry Korroke, a croquette filled with potato, caramelized beef and golden Japanese curry, is one of the dishes that best reflects Miller’s culinary style. “It’s a simple dish, but it’s very labor-intensive,” he said. “The love and care she puts into it shows through.
” Miller said the same love and care applies to her tamagoyaki — a Japanese rolled omelet — along with plenty of practiced finesse. “The technical skill of being able to keep eggs at at specific temperature without browning requires that mastery over one’s own techniques.” Miller slices fried premium pork loin cutlet while preparing tonkatsu.
Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald What’s next: Within the next 10 years, Miller hopes to open her own dream restaurant. She said it’d have a farm-to table approach, catering to people who can’t afford traditional fine-dining restaurants. “It’d offer fancy dishes and a fancy place at an affordable price,” she said.
But for now, Miller is thrilled to be able to run her own kitchen. “I can’t be more appreciative to Cole for giving me the chance to finally show the world my skills,” she said. “I’ve been tirelessly working multiple jobs for the last 10 years to hopefully get here someday, so it’s honestly the best opportunity I’ve ever had.
” Hannah Ryder, 27, chef de cuisine at Twelve How it all started: Ryder has always known she wanted to be a chef, having grown up in Cumberland in a home where both parents were trained at renowned Rhode Island culinary school Johnson & Wales. Her first kitchen job was at the former Muddy Rudder in Yarmouth , and she also worked at the Dockside Grill in Falmouth, before heading off to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. From there, her work experience turned decidedly upscale.
“It’s pretty funny looking back to where it started versus where we are now,” she said. Hannah Ryder, chef de cuisine at Twelve. Photo courtesy of Prentice Hospitality Group Ryder said she had “formative” experience working at legendary chef Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud in New York City before starting at Evo in 2017 at the garde manger station.
She became a sous chef there after two years, but headed back to Manhattan to work for about a year at acclaimed Scandinavian restaurant Aquavit. Over the next few years, she continued to round out her experience cooking at Chebeague Island Inn and baking croissants for the Mercantile Restaurant Group in Denver. “You see opportunities to learn and grow your knowledge,” Ryder said.
“And for the time you have this opportunity, you should squeeze all you can out of it. I’ve kind of maximized on what I’ve been able to do.” Where she’s at now: Ryder has been with Twelve as chef de cuisine since it opened in the summer of 2022.
“She has all the facets you need to be a great chef,” said Twelve Executive Chef Colin Wyatt, lauding her attention to detail, creativity, organization and communication skills. “She has the complete package. “She can jump on the line and be the best cook in the kitchen, but she can also put together a menu and coach people,” he continued.
“There is so much more that’s involved in being a great chef, not just a great cook.” Former Evo Executive Chef Matt Ginn was dazzled by Ryder’s abilities when she worked under him. “You won’t find a more talented chef; she has so many gifts.
And she backs it up with hard work,” he said. “One night she was like, ‘Hey Matt, will you show me how to do the fish order?’ Forty-eight hours later, I’m like, ‘I’ve got to put this fish order together,’ and she was like, ‘I already did it.’ She’s one of those people you tell something once, and you never have to repeat yourself.
I could work with a cook for months, and they wouldn’t retain what she could in a day or two.” She’s already made a grand impression on the general public in Portland as well: Ryder’s dish of lobster, corn pudding and piquillo pepper lobster bisque won both the judge’s award and the people’s choice award at Harvest on the Harbor’s 2023 Lobster Chef of the Year competition. Her style: Ryder said her cooking approach is “based in tradition.
The way I try to train my cooks now is to really understand the root of why we do things, and why this sauce we’re making takes three days. Simplicity is also a big thing for me. And you really respect the ingredients the whole way through the process.
” She estimates she created about half the dishes on Twelve’s menu now, including a first course featuring molasses-braised sweet potato paired with a foritified vegetable consommé, which she feels exemplifies her culinary approach. “It presents very simply,” Ryder said. “But it uses sweet potato in various ways — it’s in the broth itself, it’s the star of the plate, and then it’s in a sweet potato tahini that’s hidden underneath the sweet potato.
The vegetable broth takes two days to make, and we clarify it into consommé. I would say the consommé is something you could pinpoint as like, OK, Hannah put this dish on (the menu), because it has a complicated vegetable consommé.” Culinary influences: Ryder said Ginn and former Evo Chef de Cuisine Hagai Bernstein had profound impacts on her professionally.
“They taught me how to use spice and season things in a way I never knew how to do before, and also how to bring in the influence of other cultures. And Matt has taught me so much over the years. Like how to be fast, not rush things, but get the job done no matter what it is.
I’ve seen him do a wedding for 300 people or a very fancy dinner for 12, and watching the way he adapts to create something so beautiful, it had a lot of influence on me.” What’s next: Ryder said she and her husband — Chaval General Manager Ryan Hudgins — hope eventually to open a “bistro-y but elevated, kind of dark, very sexy” restaurant focusing on local producers, with French and Scandinavian influences. “I’ve told (Ryan), these are the training years for us,” she said.
“Like we’re going to get really good in our positions, get a following, then when we decide it’s time, we’ll start looking for a space for ourselves. Once we get through these training years, we’ll have a pretty special space.” Ginn has no doubt she’ll succeed.
“I knew when I was teaching her that she would be a better cook than me,” he said. “And she has done that even faster than I envisioned. Someday I’ll get to say, ‘I got to work with Chef Hannah Ryder.
'” Ali-Marie Zoni, 29, head chef at Ocotillo How it all started: Growing up in northwestern Connecticut with a chef for a dad and family full of foodies, Zoni knew from very early age that she’d make cooking her career. “I’ve always found a lot of comfort in a kitchen, it kind of feels like home,” Zoni said. “A lot of people in my family are either career industry folks or just super into cooking.
My grandmother made sure I knew how to bake a pie before I could even read a pie recipe. It’s just something that runs deep in my family.” She’s lived in Maine for almost 10 years now.
For the first few years, Zoni cooked at Isa Bistro, Nosh Kitchen Bar and Bam Bam Bakery before joining Terlingua in 2019, and was promoted to sous chef the following year. Head Chef Ali-Marie Zoni prepares a plate at Ocotillo. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald Where she’s at now: When Terlingua owners Pliny and Melanie Reynolds opened Terlingua’s sister restaurant , the brunch-focused Ocotillo, on Danforth Street last spring, Zoni became head chef there.
“She has that drive that it takes to be a good chef,” said Terlingua Chef Wilson Rothschild, who has worked with Zoni since 2019. “She’s incredibly ambitious, kind of a grab-the-bull-by-the-horns person, and she’s super passionate about food. “She’s played a huge part in the creation of the (Ocotillo) menu,” he continued.
“She has a lot of creativity and is constantly coming up with new ideas through out-of-the-box thinking. She definitely has a bright future ahead of her.” Her style: “I like to do elevated spins on really approachable, homestyle comfort food,” Zoni said.
She finds herself most excited about two particular brunch dishes. She loves how the lox and avocado on sourdough toast dish draws from the talents of the community, by featuring bread from the adjacent Zu Bakery and salmon lox from Browne Trading Company. The dish is also topped with house salsa macha that Zoni learned from a Mexican staffer at Terlingua.
“He worked with me for quite a while to get it perfected,” she said. Then there are the buttermilk-masa pancakes with caramelized apple cider syrup and candied pepitas. The pancakes are gluten-free, which initially gave Rothschild pause.
“I worried about the texture, but I was proved wrong,” he said. “They’re incredible, with great corn flavor, and one of her coolest contributions to the menu. They’ve got a really nice corn flavor, and we use it for both sweet applications, like with the breakfast pancakes, and for savory.
” Rothschild and Zoni won the judge’s choice award at the 2024 Maine Lobster Chef of the Year competition for using the pancake recipe to make savory lobster and corn blinis with guajillo hollandaise. (Full disclosure: reporter Tim Cebula was on the judge’s panel for the event.) Culinary influences: “There’s something to be said about the matriarchs,” Zoni said.
“Moms have been feeding society since the dawn of time. My mom, grandmother and all my aunts definitely taught me a lot about food. When I travel, I’m always looking for the food stand that has an older lady making food from scratch, because I know it’ll be best.
You’re going to be able to taste the love in the food.” Zoni said Rothschild has also been a valuable teacher. “Wilson is a wealth of knowledge, and he kind of knows it all without being a know-it-all.
It’s easy to learn from somebody like that.” What’s next: Zoni said if she opened her dream restaurant someday, it would be community-oriented, showcasing local foods and farms, employee-owned and -operated. “I don’t think you see a lot of that in this industry,” she said.
“People go more for a cuisine and less for a community meeting place where you can get some good homestyle food that directly impacts the local economy and the local culture.” And she’d like to open it in Portland. “Portland has a massive personality for only being three miles long.
I don’t see myself going anywhere else anytime soon.” These 11 Greater Portland restaurants and bars are slated to open in 2025 We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website.
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