At Food & Wine, we pride ourselves on being talent scouts, and when we look back on 19 years' worth of Best New Chefs, we do, indeed, feel we have reason to be proud. Our editors have scoured the country over the last two decades, searching for the best of the best, and the men and women we've chosen have proven to be the movers and shakers of the food world. Just look at our first class of Best New Chefs and you'll see names like Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller, some of the greatest chefs in the world today--and we discovered them in 1988. And the relationship doesn't end when we select a new group of winners; we follow each class from year to year, celebrating their accomplishments and cheering as their stars rise. Recently, we caught up with our family of Best New Chefs and invited them to update us on their lives, careers and plans for the future. Here is the latest on our Best New Chefs, starting with the very first class.

By Kate Krader and Jessica Tzerman