2015's Eater Young Guns Nominees by the Numbers

Now that the public nomination period for Eater Young Guns has closed, it's time to take a look at the candidates. Who are the next leaders in the industry? Where are they right now? Who are their mentors? Their biggest fans?

To answer these questions, we turn to your submissions. Eater readers nominated 734 potential Young Guns across the U.S. and Canada (with one candidate currently working in Puerto Rico).

And now, the breakdowns by region:

California: 119
Canada: 20
Mid-Atlantic: 66
Midwest: 108
Mountain/Vegas: 36
Northeast: 44
New York/New Jersey: 120
Pacific Northwest: 45
South/Southeast: 103
Texas: 73

Out of the group, the youngest nominee is Alexis Tellez, a 19-year-old line cook working at the Carversville Inn in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The oldest of the bunch is 59-year-old Paul Giannone, owner of Paulie Gee's in Brooklyn. (Young Guns have to be under 30 or have worked in the industry for less than five years. To address this, his nominator noted: "His restaurant is 5 years old, if you are going to do it this is your last chance.")

While the majority of the candidates are chefs (both pastry and savory), bartenders, sommeliers, or front of house managers, a few held the distinction of being the only nominee with their title on the list. To that end, we saw public support for a single head distiller, one affineur, a lone beer architect, and a solo fermentation school director.

But the search is not over. The Eater team and the Young Gun committee — stay tuned for an announcement about the committee members — will now pore over the facts to determine the semi-finalists, who will be announced in April.