Top 10 Female Chefs To Recognize on National Women's Equality Day

In honor of National Women’s Equality Day (today, August 26), what better way to celebrate than to recognize some of the best female chefs with top-rated restaurants? OpenTable's Chief Dining Officer Caroline Potter, a culinary school graduate, former food journalist and Certified Master Gardener, shares her list of top 10 female chefs turning out delicious dishes and creating memorable dining experiences , all while building successful businesses and continuing to pave the way for up-and-coming female culinary talent.

"Obviously, there are countless gifted female chefs and restaurateurs across the nation,” says Potter. “These women represent just a handful of the professionals who are contributing deliciousness to their local communities and leveling the culinary playing field, from Jennifer Jasinki’s charity Work Options for Women, to Niki Nakayama being an almost singular female kaseiki chef — and beyond."

While we feel everyday should be Women's Equality Day, let's take a moment today to recognize these 10 female chefs blazing trails and raise a glass to them and their dedication to their craft:

Amanda Cohen, Dirt Candy, New York, New York

Back when bacon was all the rage, Amanda Cohen turned her attention and chef’s knife to Mother Nature’s best – and most healthful – bounty: vegetables. Dirt Candy has evolved from a modest 18-seat restaurant to a grand veggie-centric dining destination with approximately 60 seats. Despite the restaurant’s growth, Dirt Candy remains one of the most sought-after reservations on OpenTable. In between winning stars from the Michelin Guide and The New York Times, she penned the very first graphic-novel cookbook to be published in North America.

Melissa Perello, Frances, San Francisco, California

Frances restaurant has been at the forefront of the sophisticated neighborhood restaurant movement since chef Melissa Perello went into business in 2009. The restaurant’s warm, welcoming interior is the perfect backdrop to the accessible-yet-refined fare that highlights the finest Northern California produce and products. On most nights, a line forms outside the restaurant’s door before it opens, dotted with walk-ins shut out from advance reservations. Hungry hopefuls, take heart: Perello recently opened Octavia in San Francisco’s posh Pacific Heights neighborhood.

Stephanie Izard, Girl & the Goat, Chicago, Illinois

Winning Top Chef is not a foolproof recipe for success. Izard understands that a chef is only as good as her latest dish. Five years in, she continues to innovate and dazzle crowds at Girl and the Goat in Chicago, a lively restaurant that specializes in meat-centric dishes (think goat ribs and pig face). She expanded her culinary empire with the popular Little Goat Diner and Little Goat Bread, all nestled on Chicago's hot restaurant row also known as West Loop’s Randolph Street.

Barbara Lynch, Menton, Boston, Massachusetts

Chef Lynch is one of the originals of both female chefdom and the revival of fine dining, having founded the immediately acclaimed No. 9 Park in 1998. Championed time and again by the likes of Bon Appétit and Food and Wine magazines, she is also a James Beard award winner whose enterprise Barbara Lynch Gruppo employs more than 200 people at several concepts, including the still-wildly-successful No. 9 Park and Menton, Boston’s first and only Relais & Châteaux property.

Niki Nakayama, n/naka, Los Angeles, California

Nakayama is a giant in the kitchen, despite her small frame. n/naka’s Spartan interior and exterior are the yin to the yang of her elegant, precise creations. With roots in Los Angeles but a passport that belies her extensive culinary studies over three years in Japan, Chef Nakayama uses a canvas of California’s seasonal bounty to bring her unique take on kaiseki cuisine to LA diners. It's worth noting that she is one of the world’s few female kaiseki chefs.

Aimee Olexy, Talula’s Daily Secret Supper Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The woman who helped put the Philadelphia food scene on the national radar, Aimee Olexy is an unstoppable restaurateur. Her name is synonymous with the laid-back-yet-out-of-this-world farm-to-table dining experience that has become her trademark since she first found success at Django. The restaurant remains the only BYOB restaurant to ever be awarded the coveted four bells by reviewer Craig LeBan, and she has parlayed that into numerous awards for her current restaurants, which also include Talula’s Garden, which operates out of her fun and fresh market.

Katie Button, Cúrate, Asheville, North Carolina

Chef Button famously turned her back on a career in science to work the front of house at the now-shuttered El Bulli, eventually working her way into its storied kitchen and toward a restaurant of her own. At Curate, she serves Spanish tapas featuring humble ingredients nestled alongside those of a higher pedigree, to the delight of Asheville locals – and the culinary world. The James Beard Rising Star Chef of 2014, Button, who also owns Nightbell, a newly opened, nearby boîte, was named a Food and Wine Best New Chef of 2015.

Jennifer Jasinski, Stoic & Genuine, Denver, Colorado

Reality television fans know chef Jasinski from her turn on season five of Top Chef Masters, on which she was a finalist, but Coloradans have long been intimate with her culinary ability from her four acclaimed restaurants, which include Rioja and Euclid Hall, at which she showcases her technique-driven, super-seasonal food. A James Beard Foundation award-winner for Best Chef Southwest in 2013, Jasinski toiled for her toque in several of Wolfgang Pucks’s highly demanding kitchens, including Spago, long before chef whites were chic.

Melissa Kelly, Primo, Rockland, Maine

Melissa Kelly can be credited as one of the first chefs to move the farm a bit closer to the table. In 2000, she opened Primo, at which the walk-ins were kept full with ingredients from Primo’s two-acre garden that now includes chickens, ducks, guinea hens, and pigs. Chef Kelly serves farm-fresh, Mediterranean-inspired cuisine that has earned her a record two Beard awards for Best Chef Northeast. As she operates two additional Primo locations, in Orlando and Tucson, and has become a cookbook author, her restaurants remain a shining model for from-scratch, sustainable, and  humane dining.

Susan Spicer, Bayona, New Orleans, Louisiana

Chef Spicer is whom we talk about when we talk about dining in the Big Easy. So much a part of the fabric of the NOLA restaurant culture, she helped shape the experiences of character (and food served by) chef Janette Desautel as a consultant on HBO’s Treme. Another OG who’s been cooking in high-end, high-stakes Louisiana kitchens since 1979, she opened the beloved Bayona in 1990 in the city’s fabled French Quarter, and also operates Mondo. The James Beard award winner can still be found regularly working on the line at both constantly establishments.

Who do you feel needs to be on this list of talented female chefs?