Anthony Paone of T-Rex BBQ

Most chefs risk an ulcer from running just one kitchen. Anthony Paone runs two within Haig and Cindy Krikorian's Berkeley restaurants: the mod barbecue cafe T-Rex and the sprawling seafood brasserie Sea Salt. Forging fresh, inventive food in radically different genres represents a feat of splits that'd make the most limber cheerleader envious. But the 34-year-old chef keeps both kitchens on a sustained quest for kickass. In the year and a half since the sister restaurants opened, they have become more confident, controlled, and consistent.

Together, they reveal an overarching style, Paone's talent for reconfiguring a wide variety of dishes as collections of bright, essential elements, consider the brilliant eel banh mi we lunched on recently at Sea Salt, or a deconstructed Hangtown Fry on the brunch menu at T-Rex. Go figure: The chef with an old-fashioned work ethic is an ardent postmodernist.