Owner of lauded restaurant Darjeeling Express, star of Netflix’s Chef’s Table, two-time cookbook author, Chef Advocate for the UN World Food Programme – Asma Khan is an unstoppable force for social change in the food industry. Her kitchen team is entirely female, many of whom started out as home cooks, and her efforts to reshape the industry are inspiring.

With six restaurants and two Michelin stars to his name, Adam Handling is a chef at the top of his game. What makes him really stand out, however, is his dedication to sustainable, low-waste cooking. Clever solutions and out-of-the-box thinking have set the tone for countless other chefs in the industry.

Most chefs model their kitchens around their sole vision. Ollie Templeton invited every other chef he possibly could into his. After opening Carousel in 2014 – a restaurant acting as a constantly refreshed supperclub with a new chef cooking for a short, limited run every month or so – he’s brought over 300 chefs from over 50 countries to London and showcased their unique cooking.

The lines between professional chef and home cook have never been more blurred – and that’s thanks to chefs being far more open about the tips, tricks and techniques they use in their own kitchens. Will and Jack – or Fallow Chefs, to give them their social handle – are at the forefront of that movement. Rather than keeping their skills to themselves, they share them with the world.

Pubs are a cornerstone of British culture – but Ashley Palmer-Watts proved you can still breathe new life into them when he opened The Devonshire in Soho with Oisin Rogers and Charlie Carroll. With a background at the upper echelons of fine dining with Heston Blumenthal, Ashley’s latest venture is far more relaxed – but just as (if not more) successful.

A true icon of the industry and a household name thanks to his stint on MasterChef: The Professionals, Marcus Wareing is a formidable judge and excellent mentor. His focus on inspiring, training and celebrating the next generation of chefs is admirable.

Ask chefs who their favourite chef is and many will say Phil Howard. After two decades reshaping the fine dining scene with his two-starred restaurant The Square, he opened Elystan Street and continued to simply serve food that everyone wants to eat. Nowadays he focuses on nurturing talent, highlighting the dangers of substance abuse and getting involved in charity work – all while manning the pass during service.

Bristol’s own Josh Eggleton made waves when he announced the closure of his Michelin-starred restaurant The Pony & Trap so he could turn it into The Pony – a site with its own cookery school and kitchen garden. Working closely with local charities and schools to extol the virtues of field-to-fork eating and food education, he’s a real force for good.

Running a successful catering business, creating engaging content for socials, working as a private chef around the world and publishing a cookbook – things that many might consider the peak of their career. Georgia has done all of them in her first five years since graduating from Leiths School of Food and Wine. Who knows what the next five years will bring.

Influenced by her Mexican grandfather, Brazilian mother and a childhood partly spent in Italy, Ixta is a natural talent at making combining worldly flavours look effortless. After working with Yotam Ottolenghi and releasing two smash hit cookbooks, she has built a reputation on knowing how to blend multicultural inspiration on the plate.

Known for both incredible baking and an ability to create fun fusion dishes which always hit the spot, Remi’s social content on @foodbyremi is one of the best out there. A master of not just cooking but capturing the process for her followers, it feels like she’s only getting started.