Two Los Angeles Chefs Will Compete for the Title of ‘Top Chef’ on Season 22

Period 22 of Bravo’s Leading Cook, which premieres on March 13, will certainly see 2 Los Angeles cooks among its participants. Katianna Hong, a chef and partner at Los Angeles’s genre-bending Oriental American restaurant Yangban, and Kat Turner, the executive chef and partner at all-day coffee shop Very Likely, will head to Canada and compete with 13 various other participants to be named the following Leading Chef champion. Together With Hong and Turner, the other “cheftestants” will consist of Anya El-Watter (Birch and Rye), César Murillo (North Pond), Shuai Wang (Jackrabbit Filly and King BBQ), Mimi Weissenborn (Sur Lie), and much more.

Turner is the exec cook and partner behind Highly Likely, an all-day coffee shop and restaurant with locations in Highland Park and West Adams. Before opening the dining establishment, she attended cooking school at the Natural Exquisite Institute in New York and worked at Blue Hill at Rock Barns, before returning to Los Angeles to work as a personal cook. Highly Likely is recognized for its easygoing feelings and a menu of sandwiches, salads, and morning meal plates that highlight The golden state’s fruit and vegetables.

Before Yangban, Hong was the very first cook de cuisine at the Dining establishment at Meadowood in Napa Valley, prior to going on to open up the Charter Oak with Christopher Kostow. Yangban first opened in 2022 under the name Yangban Culture with a menu of meals like beef back rib galbi and twice-fried potatoes. In the years given that opening, Yangban has actually revamped its offerings to consist of dishes like matzo sphere mandu, gochujang braised black cod, and the now-famous Yangban fried hen wings. The restaurant is currently momentarily shut for improvements.