Cat in the Kitchen

Cat Cora, the first female Iron Chef on one of the Food Network's top-rated shows, Iron Chef America, shares a place in front of the Viking with Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Masaharu Morimoto. With her boundless energy and southern drawl—she grew up in a Greek-American community in Jackson, Mississippi—the kitchen goddess charms audiences and dazzles palates with Mediterranean-inspired dishes. Cora, at 38, has trained under Michelin masters in France and with celebrated chefs on both coasts, is a regular on the morning-talk-show circuit, and is the author of the cookbook Cat Cora's Kitchen and the upcoming Cooking from the Hip. She is due to open Spiro, a restaurant named for her father, in Napa Valley, California, next YEAR.

SUE CARSWELL