Chris Kronner, 27,
executive chef, Bar Tartine 
Anthony Strong, 27,
executive chef, Locanda

Chris Kronner and Anthony Strong might be the envy of every chef in town. They rein over two of the city’s most nationally acclaimed kitchens: Anne and Craig Stoll’s Pizzeria Delfina and Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson’s Bar Tartine. Strong is transitioning to be executive chef of Locanda, Delfina’s new Roman restaurant at Valencia and 16th streets. It has a hopeful January opening, as does the expansion of Bar Tartine, which will include a stand-alone bakery for Robertson’s breads. Now that they’ll be next-door neighbors, Kronner and Strong will share something less glamorous—an alleyway trash area.

While Kronner grew up in North Carolina with an Italian grandmother who taught him how to make pasta by hand, Strong was a Midwest boy raised on Tater Tot Hotdish. Nevertheless, both men have clearly learned the ins and outs of SF’s culinary values by working for restaurant royalty—the two families that have made the Mission a national dining destination. “From Flour + Water to Saison, the restaurants here offer progression in all the right ways,” says Kronner. “It’s a little bit like Naples—vibrant, kind of dirty, full of life, young, and loud,” adds Strong, who, as you read this, is working at Osteria San Cesario, located just outside Rome, for research purposes. “I’m jealous of me!” he says. “I’m just a kid who loves to cook. I fell into, like, the coolest job ever.” Undoubtedly, Kronner would second that.