Best of Boston

Being a great chef isn’t just about respecting good ingredients or cooking with passion. It’s also about being a good manager and building relationships with the guests you serve. Michael Schlow is all of the above, and more. With three restaurants in his expanding stable (Radius, Via Matta, and Great Bay), Schlow may not be the man who personally prepares you dinner, but he juggles each of his top-notch kitchens with aplomb. Schlow understands the culinary parameters of his ventures better than anyone—he knows, for example, that at Radius, less is more; that at Via Matta, cooking pasta is an art; and that at Great Bay, it’s all about the bounty of our local waters.