Who are our Healthy Chef 2026 Competitors & Judges?
Our Healthy Chef Challenge Competitors have been announced!
EMILY Schneman
Growing up in rural Illinois gave Emily a deep appreciation for where her food comes from. From working on the farm in the morning to using what she harvested for dinner service, she learned to respect every ingredient.
After leaving small‑town Illinois, she moved to the East Coast, where she worked at the acclaimed Asta under Chef Alex Crabb in Boston. There, she learned new techniques and began developing her own culinary style.
About four years ago, she arrived in Chicago and has since worked with incredible teams at Atelier, Jeong, Motorshucker, and now the Michelin-starred, El Ideas. At El Ideas, Chef Phillip Foss and the team have challenged her to express herself through her dishes in an extremely creative—and fun—work environment.
Emily is very excited for the opportunity to cook alongside some of Chicago’s amazing chefs, all in support of a cause that is very close to her heart.
JOSE MARQUEZ
Jose Manuel Marquez has spent the past 30 years working in the restaurant industry. At the age of 16, he immigrated from Mexico to the United States and began working at Orso’s as a dishwasher. After only a year, he left to find work closer to home, spending the next two years as a waiter in various Hispanic restaurants.
Later, he decided to return to Italian cuisine and began working as a line cook at Becco d’Oro under Head Chef Gaetano. About a year later, Gaetano left to open his own restaurant and invited Jose to continue working with him. Over the next 20 years, Jose worked his way through every position in the kitchen, gaining experience in all aspects of Italian cooking.
Once the pandemic hit however, Jose decided to move on and began searching for new opportunities. In the following years, he helped open two successful restaurants, La Parra and Regalia, serving as head chef for both. Having built the two kitchens from the ground up, he felt confident in taking the next step. With the support of his close friends Israel, Toni, and Paco, he went on to open two restaurants of his own—one in Forest Park and the other in Uptown.
Sieger Bayer
Chicagoan, Sieger Bayer spent his early years in and around his mom’s garden, but it wasn't until high school, that he made the decision to pursue a career as a chef. After graduating from Kendall College’s culinary school, he traveled Europe staging in kitchens across Spain, France, Germany, England, and Italy before working his way through prestigious kitchens in Chicago, including Nellcote, the James Beard Award-winning restaurant The Publican, Tortello, and his first concept The Heritage.
Seeking change, Sieger traveled to Los Angeles during the pandemic, where he headed the kitchens of etta, Sqirl, and Here’s Looking at You. After consulting with Netflix and Curtis Stone, he returned to Chicago in 2024 to open his dream project, bar Berria.
Featuring an ever changing contemporary American menu, the restaurant showcases Sieger’s fresh take on seasonal ingredients and techniques he has learned from around the globe. bar Berria grows its ingredients onsite with over 30 raised bed gardens. Preservation and fermentation helps bar Berria highlight local products through the city's winter season. At bar Berria, he prides himself on supporting his community and creating intimate hospitality experiences.
GREG WADE
Leading America’s bread renaissance in Chicago is Greg Wade, Managing Partner at Publican Quality Bread, the renowned bakery under the Publican family of restaurants by Chicago’s nine-time James Beard Award-winning One Off Hospitality group and Partners Donnie Madia, Paul Kahan, Terry Alexander, and Eduard Seitan.
A graduate of the Illinois Institute of Art’s Culinary Program, Wade started his career specializing in breads and pastries. Joining Publican Quality Bread as head baker in 2014, Wade has transformed the concept’s baking program from a seedling operation within Publican Quality Meats to a highly successful wholesale division that works hand-in-hand with One Off Hospitality’s other concepts as well as the top chefs, farmers and retail owners in the Windy City.
In 2022, Wade and partners opened a standalone bakery for Publican Quality Bread in West Town, bringing his award-winning loaves and an expanded menu of artisan sandwiches, tartines and decadent pastries to a public-facing location for the first time ever, followed by a second location in Oak Park in spring of 2024. Specializing in whole grains and fermentation, Wade was honored with a James Beard Award for “Outstanding Baker” in 2019 and is an active member of the Artisan Grain Collaborative, an organization of farmers, millers, and chefs committed to biodiversity and preserving ancient grains.
He is the author of “Bread Head: Baking for the Road Less Traveled” (Food & Wine, Eater, Epicurious: "Best Cookbooks of 2022") and has been featured in the documentary, "Sustainable: A Documentary on the Local Food Movement in America," which is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
Phil Vettel
Phil Vettel is an acclaimed journalist who wrote for the Chicago Tribune for 41 years, with 31 years dedicated to being a restaurant critic. He served on the James Beard Foundation’s Restaurant and Chef Awards committee for 11 years.
Besides his weekly review column, Vettel addressed crucial issues in the hospitality industry, raising Chicago's profile as a premier culinary destination. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Illinois Restaurant Association's 2021 annual meeting.
In 2023, Phil received the Jean Banchet Award for Culinary Excellence of the Year, the highest honor for his contributions to Chicago’s restaurant scene.
Currently Phil writes a monthly column of restaurant features for Naperville Magazine and does consulting for a restaurant group.
ANDREW ZIMMERMAN
Andrew Zimmerman is a Chicago‑based chef and restaurant consultant with more than 25 years of experience building enduring hospitality programs. A five‑time James Beard Award finalist, he is best known for his tenure as executive chef of Sepia, where the restaurant earned a Michelin star for 15 consecutive years, beginning with the guide’s first year in Chicago.
Andrew’s career includes leading roles at Del Toro, NoMI at the Park Hyatt Chicago, Sepia, and co‑founding Proxi in 2017. His work has been recognized with honors from StarChefs (Rising Star Chef, Chicago Mentor Award), Jean Banchet Awards (Chef of the Year; Restaurant of the Year), and Plate Magazine (Humanitarian of the Year). He has also served in the American Chefs Corps for the U.S. State Department and appeared on Iron Chef America, where he defeated Iron Chef Marc Forgione.
Today, Andrew applies the same discipline that sustained Sepia’s Michelin consistency to his consulting work, partnering with restaurants, hotels, and brands on concept development, menu strategy, and operational excellence—always focused on building programs designed to last.