Food is one of the top reasons Canadians choose to travel. We are 38% more likely than diners from the U.S., “to book a trip based on culinary offerings,” according to data released by Kayak and Open Table. Canadians are also more willing “to travel an hour or more to eat at a restaurant on their wish list,” writes Coast Mountain News.
Like food lovers in the rest of the world, Canadians are also fans of celebrity chefs, who showcase their skills on high-stakes competitive cooking shows, such as Chopped on Food Network. Some chefs are known for their personalities as well as their skill, including the always fiery Gordon Ramsay.
Propelled by their television fame or reputation as Michelin Star and James Beard Award winners, many celebrity chefs go on to open acclaimed restaurants.
If you’re looking for a food destination for your next travel adventure, check out our list of some of the top celebrity chef restaurants worldwide. We have the details on each chef’s restaurants, claim to fame and unique approach to food.
After a shoulder injury derailed him from his dream of becoming a professional baseball catcher in his native Japan, Morimoto quickly pivoted to another passion, culinary arts. He began studying sushi in his hometown, Hiroshima, and at age 24, opened his first restaurant. Decades later, Morimoto is an Iron Chef, James Beard Award winner and chef and owner of the Morimoto Restaurants empire, which spans 24 cities worldwide.
Here is a full list of restaurants in Manhattan, Boston, Jakarta, Mexico City, Bordeaux and more locations.
Flavour profile: “Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto has created a bridge between the culinary traditions of his native Japan and the American palate, bringing intense excitement, exquisite technique, and perfectly balanced flavors to countless diners throughout the world,” writes Morimoto's team.
Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Sherman fondly remembers the taste of home cooked dishes from his childhood, prepared from wild caught game and homegrown vegetables on the reservation. At the age of 13, he began working in restaurants and supported himself during college as a cook. By his 20s, Sherman was a successful executive chef.
Sherman’s prowess in the kitchen comes from in his mastery of indigenous methods of cooking, food preservation and foraging from North America. A job as a field surveyor for the U.S. Forest Service gave him a knowledge of native plants that would prove invaluable in his culinary career.
Sherman co-founded the highly celebrated Owami restaurant in Minneapolis in 2021 with a mission to promote Native cuisine, provide jobs for Native people and support Native food producers. Owami won a James Beard award in 2022. Sherman was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2023.
Flavour profile: “His menus are inspired by the seasons and the land, featuring traditional ingredients like bison, hand-harvested wild rice, cedar, and sumac,” writes Sherman’s team.
One of the most renowned celebrity chefs on the globe, Puck received his first cooking lessons in his childhood kitchen in Austria from his mother, herself a chef. Puck has won multiple James Beard Awards and today, Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining restaurants can be found in Las Vegas, Beverly Hills, Maui, London, New York, Singapore, Budapest, Istanbul, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. His popular Wolfgang Puck cooking show on Food Network has won two Emmy awards.
Flavour profile: "Chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck was pivotal in the rise of California cuisine during the late 1970s. He also launched modern fusion cuisine by combining classic French techniques with California and Asian influences, using fresh ingredients showcasing California's agricultural bounty,” writes California Museum.
In 2019, Moore- Russell became the first Black woman to be awarded a Michelin Star. Moore-Russell was recognized for her work as Chef de Cuisine at the upscale Kikko, Omakase-style restaurant in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago, the city’s dining hotspot. She learned the art of Japanese cookery over time, through diligent practice and experimentation.
An Ohio native, Moore-Russell caught the cooking bug hanging out in the kitchen with her mother, who cooked soul food and midwestern comfort foods. She trained at The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, a Le Cordon Bleu school that closed in 2017.
After leaving Kikko in 2020, Moore-Russell started the highly anticipated pop-up Connie’s Underground in Chicago in 2024.
Flavour profile: “Menus at Connie’s prioritize sustainability, seasonality, influenced by my mother's love of familiar and fresh and my father's affinity for sea-centric fare,” writes Moore-Russell. “Connie’s embodies my values— It will celebrate Black farmers, artists, and my family, reflecting the love of my community and honoring the lives of my ancestors. Emulating the safe spaces I grew up in.”
You probably know Ramsay as the hot-tempered chef who turns around failing restaurants in the critically acclaimed show Kitchen Nightmares. He certainly has the cooking chops to guide wayward chefs and restauranteurs toward the light.
Ramsay holds an impressive seven Michelin Stars and has started a string of successful restaurants in the UK and US. Ramsay opened his first restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, in 1998 and it quickly received three Michelin Stars – the most prestigious accolade in culinary arts. Today, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is the longest-running restaurant in London to maintain three Michelin Stars, and Ramsay is one of four chefs in the UK to maintain the award, according to his website.
Ramsay has stared in multiples shows loved by foodies across the world and received an Order of the British Empire awarded by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006, in recognition of his contributions to culinary arts.
Here’s a full listing of his restaurants in the US and UK including major cities such New York, Las Vegas, Edinburgh, Liverpool and other locations.
Flavour Profile: “Now in its 23rd year of holding three Michelin stars, Gordon Ramsay's flagship restaurant provides elegant modern French cuisine using the finest seasonal ingredients and employing both classic and modern techniques,” writes Ramsay’s team.
Korean American chef Kristen Kish is known for starring on tenth season of Top Chef. In season 21 of the hit show, she returned as co-host in 2024. Kish is also known as host of 36 Hours on Travel Channel, a co-host of Fast Foodies on TruTV, and host of National Geographic’s Restaurants at the End of the World.
"Food is a vehicle to help tell a story," Kish shared on a 2023 "Salon Talks" about her Nat Geo show, "but really we're creating a relationship with another human being."
Trained at the Cordon Bleu College in Chicago, Kish has served as Chef de Cuisine at a high-profile restaurant in Boston. She opened her own restaurant, Arlo Grey, in Austin in 2018.
Flavor profile: Proclaiming its food as "elevated Midwestern," Arlo Grey works to find space between nouvelle cuisine and the comfort foods of Michigan, circa 1980. Challenge accepted,” writes Culinary Culture.
A member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, Wahpepah was raised in Oakland, California, on land belonging to the Ohlone Tribe. Her approach to cooking pulls from her upbringing in a multi-cultural Indigenous community.
Wahpepah was the first Native American chef to appear on Food Network’s Chopped and competed on the Beat Bobby Flay cooking show. She opened the celebrated Wapepah’s Kitchen in Oakland to promote and preserve seasonal, Indigenous cuisine, created from food grown by local Native farmers.
Wahpepah received the Indigenous Artist Activist Award and has been inducted into the Native American Almanac for being one of the first Native American women to own a catering business.
Flavor Profile: “' It has to taste amazing, ' Wahpepah says of dishes such as charred-and-marinated deer-meat sticks dipped in chokecherry sauce, blue-corn tacos covered in rare varieties of smoked Lakota and Cherokee squash, and bison-based Kickapoo chili, which is served with blue cornbread topped with maple cream,” writes Visit California.
Your next journey to sample some of the best food in the world isn’t complete without travel insurance. You should know that your Canadian government health insurance plan may not fully protect you if you experience a medical or dental emergency outside of your home province. Emergency medical and dental coverage by Allianz Global Assistance.
Our Trip Cancellation and interruption benefits also reimburse non-refundable expenses if your trip is cancelled or delayed for a covered reason.
Travel insurance is underwritten by CUMIS General Insurance Company, a member of The Co-operators Group of Companies, administered by Allianz Global Assistance, which is a registered business name of AZGA Service Canada Inc.
