The Power List: The 100 most powerful people in the restaurant industry

In putting this list together Restaurant has used its own extensive knowledge of the industry and also canvassed the opinions of numerous experts in the restaurant sector on who has the most clout. It then applied a framework to this list of names of what it believes constitutes true power, ranking people based on criteria including the size and strength of their businesses, their status in the industry and their influence on others in it, their consumer profile, the amount of media exposure they garner, their global reach and their future plans. 

The list has been divided into seven categories - Chefs​, Restaurateurs​, The boardroom,​ Power pairings​, Investors​, Disruptors​ and Generation next​ - ranked from either 1-10 or 1-20. 

Where required, we have used our discretion to decide if someone should be listed as a chef or restaurateur, an investor or part of the boardroom based on criteria such as whether that person still regularly cooks in the kitchen, has more than one business interest, makes executive decisions or has a more advisory role. 

Chefs​​

1. Jason Atherton
2. Tom Kerridge
3. Simon Rogan 
4. Marcus Wareing
5. Sat Bains
6. Clare Smyth
7. Helene Darroze
8. Fergus Henderson
9. Angela Hartnett
10. Nathan Outlaw
11. Michel Roux Jr
12. Glynn Purnell
13. Nuno Mendes
14. Tong Chee Hwee
15. Nieves Barragán-Mohaco 
16. Daniel Clifford
17. Stephen Harris
18. Atul Kochhar
19. Brett Graham
20. Martin Wishart

Restaurateurs​

1. Alan Yau
2. Jamie Oliver
3. Gordon Ramsay
4. Rainer Becker
5. Raymond Blanc
6. Russell Norman
7. Rick Stein
8. Mikhail Zelman
9. Marlon Abela
10. Mark Hix
11. Ruth Rogers
12. Arkady Novikov
13. Yotam Ottolenghi
14. Namita and Camellia Panjabi, Ranjit Mathrani
15. Tak Tokumine
16. Monika Linton
17. Tony Kitous
18. Nigel Platts-Martin
19. Mourad Mazouz
20. Terence Conran

Power pairings​​

1. Chris Corbin & Jeremy King
2. Heston Blumenthal and Ashley Palmer-Watts
3. Huw Gott and Will Beckett
4. Andy Bassadone and Chris Benians
5. Des Gunewardena and David Loewi
6. Yianni Papoutsis and Scott Collins
7. Thomasina Miers and Mark Selby
8. The Galvin Brothers
9. Nigel Haworth and Craig Bancroft
10. Sam and Eddie Hart

The boardroom ​

1. Nick Jones
2. Steve Richards
3. Richard Hodgson
4. Rob Papps
5. David Campbell
6. Steve Holmes
7. John Eckbert
8. Simon Blagden
9. Tom Byng
10. Tim Bacon
11. John Vincent
12. Danny Breithaupt
13. Julian Metcalfe
14. Alex Reilley
15. Simon Kossof
16. Robin Rowland
17. Jens Hofma
18. Karen Forrester
19. Alasdair Murdoch
20. Alex Scrimgeour

Disruptors​

1. Will Shu
2. Jonathan Downey
3. Peter Miller
4. Luke Lang
5. Mobile payment companies
6. Petra Barran
7. Roger Wade
8. Richard Turner
9. Carousel
10. Fred Sirieix

Investors​

1. Richard Caring
2. Luke Johnson
3. Charles Dunstone
4. David Page
5. Paul Campbell
6. Arjun Waney
7. The Sethi Family
8. Ajith Jaya-Wickrema
9. Ian Neill
10. Steve Hill

Generation next​

1. Isaac McHale
2. James Lowe
3. Mikael Jonsson
4. Peter Sanchez-Iglesias
5. Michael O'Hare
6. Tom Sellers
7. Jonathan Arana-Morton and Alison Rooney
8. Mark Birchall
9. Shamil and Kavi Thakrar
10. Andy Oliver, Mark Dobbie and Tom George