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

Who are the people who really shape the UK's eating out industry? Here Restaurant reveals the chefs, restaurateurs, boardroom bigwigs and others who exercise significant influence over this country's restaurant scene and who are the true power people behind UK dining.

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