LAURENCE JOSSEL, BEST CHEF
Because he brought Mexican food out of the Mission, leaving burritos behind in favor of bírria.
Market-driven. Laurence Jossel didn’t grow up eating goat stewed in dried chilies or lamb steamed in banana leaves, and he didn’t learn to cook those dishes at La Folie; the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco; Chez Nous; or even Chow—just a handful of the kitchens he’s worked in over the course of his 26-year career. It wasn’t until he opened Nopa in 2006, a restaurant famous for its grass-fed-beef burger and long waits lubricated with pisco sours and sazeracs, that Jossel fell in love with the traditional Mexican food prepared for staff meals by two of his line cooks, José Ramos and Gonzalo Guzman. “One day,” Jossel recalls, “I was describing a dish made with nopales, only the cactus pads were very small, so I called them nopalitos. As soon as I said the word, I knew we had to open a Mexican restaurant.” The biggest difference between the two eateries, says Jossel, is not so much what’s on the menu as it is the emotional impact of what’s being served. “I love the food at Nopa,” he says, “but it’s not necessarily a taste memory for people. The food at Nopalito has a cultural context that makes it more powerful.”
Nopa: 560 Divisadero St., S.F., 415-864-8643; Nopalito: 306 Broderick St., S.F., 415-437-0303



GINEVRA IVERSON & ERIC KORSH, RISING STARS
Because her bold gestures and his love of tradition mean their restaurant wil never be stodgy.
Family style. It’s the kind of place you imagine finding on a backcountry road, with a young couple working in the kitchen while their towheaded toddler plays out back. At Restaurant Eloise, the food is served on unmatched dishes collected from local thrift shops, and the menu is French inspired, finessed but not fussy, and steers clear of clichés. “We’re not a bistro,” says Eric Korsh. “We’d never serve steak frites.” Instead, you’ll find ravioli enriched with eggs from chickens raised by a neighbor, dressed with peas from the restaurant’s own garden and butter made just a few miles away; coarse-textured terrines; sweetbreads paired with apples and bacon; and, on weekend mornings, cold-smoked sable and lox made in-house. The two chefs, who met in the kitchen of Manhattan’s Picholine, have worked as a duo for the past 10 years. “We have friends who love being away from home all day and don’t mind only seeing their families in the evenings and on weekends. But that’s not how we’re built. We do better when we spend a lot of time together,” says Korsh.
Restaurant Eloise: 2295 Gravenstein Hwy. South, Sebastopol, 707-823-6300




JAKE GODBY, BEST PASTRY CHEF
Because when other pastry chefs look at government cheese and ask, "why?," he asks, "why not?"
The emperor of ice cream. Cornflakes, prosciutto bones, jalapeños, and, yes, government cheese aren’t items usually found on a pastry chef’s grocery order. But then, usual isn’t a word that comes up much when people describe Jake Godby’s ice cream. The 60 or so flavors that rotate in and out of his freezer case include Red Hot–banana, peanut butter–curry, salt and pepper, and his famous Secret Breakfast, made from a base infused with cornflakes and flavored with bourbon. Godby, who has worked in the pastry departments of such restaurants as Boulevard and Fifth Floor, named his store after two characters from the popular British farce Are You Being Served?. “It’s hard to say ‘Humphry Slocombe’ without smiling,” he says. Since he opened his scoop shop in the Mission district last December, he’s gained plenty of ink for his attention-grabbing flavors, including Jesus Juice, a Coke-and–Côtes du Rhône sorbet memorializing Michael Jackson. To keep things interesting, Godby pulls a flavor out of rotation if it gets too popular. What’s his current favorite? “Whatever I haven’t made lately.”
Humphry Slocombe: 2790 Harrison St., S.F., 415-550-6971

RAJAT PARR, BEST WINE DIRECTOR
Because he proves that you don't have to wear a suit to pour great wine.
Burgundy and blue jeans. In this era of the cocktail—and let’s not even mention that nasty economic collapse—opening a restaurant to showcase one of the world’s most impressive and (we’ll go ahead and say it) expensive wine collections is the work of either a madman or a genius. We’re betting on the latter. Rajat Parr calls the wine list at his new RN74 “stunning”: With 20 vintages of Château Lafite Rothschild, including several from the 1870s, a collection of California cabernets dating to the 1950s, and vintage champagnes going back five decades, he clearly has the juice to back up his claim. But Parr reads the papers, too, so he has created a restaurant with a casual vibe, where the staff wear blue jeans and the wine list offers a notable range of selections by the glass, starting at $7. And he brought in executive chef Jason Berthold, a former sous-chef at the French Laundry, to cook up a menu with serious flavor that’s still right in step with RN74’s informal atmosphere. “Someday, I’m going to open an Indian restaurant,” says Parr, “but in the meantime, I’ll be right here.”
RN74: 301 Mission St., S.F., 415-543-7474