The Top 20 Plant-Based Chefs and Foodies

On Foodable

The consumer demand for plant-based menu items is at an all-time high. According to recent Foodable Labs data, there was a 129 percent spike in whole vegetable dishes on chef menus year over year.The plant-based movement only continues to gain more momentum and this is thanks to chefs and foodie cooks presenting veggie-centric dishes that aren't only appealing to vegans and vegetarians. Not to mention, more and more meat-eaters have become flexitarians, where their diet is primarily plant-based but they occasionally eat meat.

Smoothie bowl with raw foods | Shutterstock

So what chefs and foodies are getting the most social attention for their plant-based dishes? We pulled from Foodable Labs data to curate a list of the Top 20 Plant-based Chefs and Foodies based on their combined social Sentiment and Engagement score. Let's take a closer look at the top five vegan chefs and foodies dazzling taste buds with their plant-based dishes.

No. 1 Matthew Kenney

This east coast celebrity chef and author has been a trailblazer in the industry with his vegan cuisine and opened his 15th vegan restaurant this last summer. After attending the French Culinary Institute (which is now known as the International Culinary Center,) he worked at multiple upscale restaurants in New York City where he rose through the ranks. He opened his first restaurant Matthew's in 1993 and it quickly received multiple accolades. Then in 2004, he opened his first vegan concept Pure Food and Wine. He later founded the PlantLab, (formerly known as The Matthew Kenney Academy) a raw vegan and plant-based focused culinary school.Today Kenney continues to build his culinary empire. He now has 15 restaurants around the world with nine more in the works.Kanu, his newest restaurant in Canada, serves plant-based dishes all day including the Butternut Squash Nachos with guacamole, salsa verde, lime crema, radish over blue corn chips and Heirloom Tomato & Zucchini Lasagna with sun-dried tomato marinara, macadamia ricotta, and pistachio pesto.

No. 2 Angela Liddon

This blogger turned award-winning writer has built a plant-based recipe empire. She started her blog Oh She Glows back in 2008 when she was recovering from an eating disorder and wanted to share her journey of finding a healthy lifestyle. The blog and its unique recipes quickly garnered millions of online readers and this home chef has built the Oh She Glows blog into a vegan lifestyle brand. In 2014, Liddon published her first book "The Oh She Glows Cookbook," which was a "New York Times" Bestseller. Fast forward to today and the blog now has 1 million unique readers a month and features over 550 healthy plant-based recipes like the Instant Pt Cauliflower and Butternut Thai Curry and vegan 3-Ingredient Chia and Quinoa Flatbread.

No. 3 Chloe Coscarelli

This vegan chef started her own vegan lifestyle in 2004. This is when she realized that the options for vegan eaters were scarce, so she started on a mission to bring more plant-based dishes to the masses. She studied at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City and went on to focus on plant-based nutrition with a certification from Cornell University's online program. But it was eight years ago when Coscarelli's culinary career blew up. This is when she appeared on the wildly popular baking competition TV show "Cupcake Wars" and was the first vegan to win a competition on television. After that, she published her first cookbook "Chloe's Kitchen" in 2012, then another cookbook "Chloe's Vegan Desserts in 2013" and "Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen" in 2014. She went on to open the fast-casual chain By Chloe, which there are five stores of now and she is no longer affiliated. In March of this year, she published another plant-based cookbook "Chloe Flavor: Saucy, Crispy, Spicy, Vegan" which features recipes like the No-Huevos Rancheros, and Banaba Doughnuts with Maple Glaze. Want to see what other chefs and foodies made this list? Check out the video above and the full top 20 list below.

Matthew Kenney | Instagram | 192.15

Angela Liddon | Instagram | 192.08

Chloe Coscarelli | Instagram | 190.85

Timothy Pakron | Instagram | 191.27

David Lee | Instagram | 189.67

Dana Shultz | Instagram | 189.37

Ayindé Howell | Instagram | 189.02

Horacio Rivadero | Instagram | 188.27

Josef Centeno | Instagram | 186.08

Chef Babette | Instagram | 186.07

Todd Erickson | Website | 186.06

Laura Oates | Instagram | 185.34

Eddie Garza | Instagram | 185.27

Gaz Oakley | Instagram | 185.02

Maya Sozer | Instagram | 184.99

Charlie Grippo| Instagram | 183.08

Isa Chandra Moskowitz | Instagram | 181.49

Doug McNish | Instagram | 180.91

Tal Ronnen | Instagram | 180.55

Richa Hingle | Instagram | 180.18