The Maldon® Salt 50 – 2026 edition

The Maldon® Salt 50 is back for 2026.

This year, the celebrated list - honouring the 50 most influential users of Maldon’s iconic sea salt flakes - casts its net wider than ever before.

The Maldon® Salt 50 highlights five completely new categories, each shining a light on a different dimension of influence.

The Disruptors

The chefs, entrepreneurs and industry figures who are rewriting what a career in food can look like. Some are challenging the culture of professional kitchens from within, championing wellbeing, transparency and sustainable working practices.

Others are building entirely new business models – ghost kitchens, supper clubs, product ranges, content empires – that bear little resemblance to the conventional restaurant path. Others still are pushing at the boundaries of what food itself can be.

The Voices

Media figures with an appetite for the authentic. Across print and digital, radio and television, podcasts and newsletters, they are the ones asking the questions, filing the reviews and bringing the world of professional cookery to a wider audience.

Whether they are championing a debut restaurant, interrogating the ethics of the food industry or simply making people hungry with the quality of their storytelling, their influence on food culture runs deep.

The Nomads

Some chefs find their voice in a single kitchen, in a single postcode, over the course of a career spent in one remarkable place.

The Nomads have found theirs everywhere, and in everything that came before. Rather than staying in one place, they are the cooks imbued with a sense of wanderlust – always on the move – travelling across continents, absorbing techniques and flavours with the kind of reverence that only comes from genuine curiosity.

What they share is the understanding that great cooking is rarely native to a single address.

The Patrons

The hospitality industry gives an enormous amount. It feeds people, gathers communities, creates livelihoods and, at its best, offers a genuine sense of belonging to those who work within it, creating fulfilling lifelong careers.

Altruistic chefs, organisations and industry figures who understand that a rising tide lifts all boats, The Patrons are investing their time, expertise and resources into the industry they love.

Some are mentoring the next generation of chefs, offering opportunities to those who might otherwise never find their way in. Others are addressing food poverty, championing inclusivity or working to make the hospitality sector more sustainable, more equitable and more representative of the communities it serves.

The New Wave

Chefs and food personalities who, while only just getting started, are already making it incredibly difficult to avert our collective gaze.

Some have come through the traditional route: culinary college, long stints in demanding kitchens, accolades earnt the hard way. Others have arrived via social media, supper clubs or pop-ups, building devoted followings and honing their skills entirely on their own terms. What they have in common is momentum.

These are the names being passed between industry insiders, the talents being watched by the chefs who trained them, the rising stars who are undoubtedly destined for greatness.

Reflecting the culinary landscape

Together, the five categories reflect a rich, culinary landscape - one that is more diverse, more connected and more dynamic than ever before.

From Michelin-starred chefs to community projects, brand launchpads and charities to fresh and exciting social media sensations, this year’s Maldon® Salt 50 is a portrait of an industry that flatly refuses to stand still. 

To give you a flavour of this year’s inductees; Fallow chefs, Susie Flory, Tom Kerridge, Rachel Khoo and Cherish Finden.

To discover all inductees for the Maldon® 50, find the complete list here.

The twisting shorelines of Maldon

All inductees of the Maldon® 50 are influential users of Maldon hand-harvested flakes; an essential ingredient in any professional or home kitchen.

Maldon® Salt’s heritage dates back almost 145 years. Our salt continues to be crafted using traditional methods, resulting in a consistency trusted by chefs all over the globe.

In recent years Maldon® has expanded its range to include flavoured salts – expertly blending their beloved sea salt flakes with premium ingredients to create chilli, garlic, salt & pepper varieties as well as its ‘Selected by Maldon®’ Merchants range: consisting of the finest sea salts from around the world, including Himalayan pink salt and Kalahari desert salt.

Find out more about our range here