Dominique Crenn, United States

Crenn is one of the few women that have battled to end up on this list. She knew from a young age that the restaurant industry was extremely difficult to break into as a woman, so she earned a master's degree in business and finance instead of going to culinary school. After making enough cash to sustain herself, she took an apprenticeship in San Francisco that snowballed her career forward. She ended up becoming the first female head chef in Indonesia at a point, and she later opened her own meat-free two Michelin star restaurant.