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Fortune and Food and Wine have come together to produce a list of the most innovative women in food and drink for 2017, women who have “had the most transformative impact in the last year on what we eat and drink.”
The 20-strong list is a who’s who of chefs, CEOs and entrepreneurs who are changing the game. Here are seven we's like to highlight:
April Bloomfield
The New York-based British chef behind The Breslin and the Spotted Pig, has helped launch the careers of scores of female chefs and continues to push for sustainable and local sourcing.
Ntsiki Biyela
South Africa’s first black female winemaker and winner of the 2009 South Africa Woman’s Winemaker of the Year award, now mentors students to get jobs in the industry through her own wine company Aslina.
Vivian Howard
The Multi award-winning chef, restaurateur, author and broadcaster, is currently working on her second book, with a new season of her hit PBS reality show, A Chef’s Life due to hit screens soon.
Karissa Kruse
As President of Sonoma Winegrowers, Kruse has helped lead the company towards its goal of being 100% sustainable within five years. Three years later, it’s 85% there.
Isabelle Legeron
Legeron is the only woman in France to achieve the title of Master of Wine and one of only 343 in the world. She’s also the founder of Raw Wine, an influential New York and now LA-based wine fair celebrating the best in natural and organic wines.
Rosio Sánchez
If you ever find yourself in Copenhagen craving a taco, former Noma pastry chef Rosio Sánchez’s Hija de Sanchez, should be your first port of call. It’s as authentic as they come in this part of the world, with many of the ingredients imported from Mexico. Sánchez also spent the summer cooking with Copenhagen’s favourite culinary son, René Redzepi, at the Noma Mexico pop-up in Tulum.
Joy Spence
Spence is the first woman to hold the title of Master Blender at any spirits company, at the famous rum-producing Appleton Estate in Jamaica, and also teaches chemistry at universities around the world.
