Anna “Anya” El-Wattar Biography – Anna “Anya” El-Wattar Wiki
Anna “Anya” El-Wattar is an Executive Chef at Birch and Rye restaurant currently residing in San Francisco, California. She is a contestant on Top Chef Season 22 premiering on Thursday, March 13, 2025. The show is known as Top Chef: Destination Canada.
The Russian chef has a deep passion for modern Russian cuisine and an innovative approach to flavors, she is ready to showcase her culinary artistry on Top Chef: Destination Canada.
The modern Russian restaurant serves San Francisco’s only vegan Russian tasting menu.
Chef Anya El-Wattar’s culinary education started with her mother teaching her about foraging, preserving and showing love through cooking. She emigrated to America at 18, and earned an undergraduate degree at Columbia University. The chef then proceeded to the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico to study the healing properties of food.
She proceeded to undertake her formal culinary education at New York’s Natural Gourmet Institute. The Russian chef launched Project Butterfly in San Francisco, a catering venture dedicated to providing meals for charity fundraisers in 2016.
Before opening Birch & Rye, El-Wattar sharpened her skills at landmark vegetarian restaurant Greens, and she says hers is the first Russian restaurant in America to make it into the Michelin guide. The chef wants her business to be impactful in addition to being pioneering. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, El-Wattar has helped raise more than $100,000 for Ukrainian relief through the World Central Kitchen.
Anya later opened Birch & Rye, an ode to Russian gastronomy with a contemporary Californian twist. By the end of 2022, she had been named Eater San Francisco’s Chef of the Year with Birch & Rye earning a coveted spot in the Michelin Guide and a James Beard Awards semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant.
Anna “Anya” El-Wattar Age
Her hometown is Moscow. She was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. The chef left Russia at the age of 18.
Anna “Anya” El-Wattar Husband
It is not known whether Anya is married or not.
Anna “Anya” El-Wattar Family
In an interview, the Russian-born chef has stated that her mother introduced her to culinary.
Anna “Anya” El-Wattar Top Chef
The Russian-born chef is a contestant on Season 22 of Top Chef – Top Chef: Destination Canada.
The winner of Top Chef season 22 will receive $250,000 furnished by the Saratoga Brand, a feature in Food and Wine magazine, and an appearance at the annual “Food and Wine Classic” in Aspen.
Other contestants in the show are Kat Turner, Paula Endara, Tristen Epps, Corwin Hemming, Katianna Hong, Lana Lagomarsini, Henry Lu, Vincenzo “Vinny” Loseto, Zubair Mohajir, César Murillo, Massimo Piedimonte, Bailey Sullivan,Shuai Wang and Mimi Weissenborn.
Ethnicity
The Birch and Rye restaurant owner is of caucasian ethnicity.
Her Instagram handle is @anyaelwattar.
