Johanna Hellrigl

Johanna Hellrigl is a chef, restaurateur, and culinary changemaker redefining what restaurants can be in service of. She is the chef-owner of Ama, an award-winning, mission-driven Northern Italian restaurant located just blocks from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., rooted in the Italian poem that reminds us when love is the root, only good can grow. In 2026, Hellrigl was named a Semifinalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic by the James Beard Foundation. Since opening in June 2024, Ama has received the D.C. Sustainability Award from the Department of Energy & Environment, been named one of Gambero Rosso’s Top Italian Restaurants for authenticity, and nominated for Best New Restaurant by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. Hellrigl has also been featured in The New York Timesand on theToday Show.

Raised between Midtown Manhattan and Northern Italy, Johanna grew up immersed in her family’s iconic New York restaurant Palio and Hotel Villa Mozart in Merano, founded by her late father, celebrated chef Andreas Hellrigl. She later earned a degree from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs and spent years working globally on democracy building and women’s empowerment before returning to her culinary roots. She is also certified in Integrative Nutrition through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, bridging policy, advocacy, and nourishment through food.

In 2025, Hellrigl delivered the TEDx talk “The Plastic You Eat,” helping catalyze a national conversation about invisible plastic exposure inside restaurant kitchens, from packaging to storage to everyday tools that touch food long before it reaches the plate.

Beyond her restaurant, Hellrigl consults with mission-aligned restaurants, brands, sports teams, and hospitality groups to transform food and beverage operations toward cleaner sourcing, regenerative supply chains, and non-toxic kitchens. She also serves as Culinary Director and leads all food and beverage programming for the Eudēmonia annually.

Johanna often says she loves to cook, but she is here for more than cooking. She is driven by the power of breaking bread, building trust, finding common ground, and moving the needle on real systemic change. She believes the decisions made in kitchens ripple far beyond restaurants, and that when chefs move together, transformation becomes possible.