Michael Smith, chef/owner of Michael Smith restaurant and consulting executive chef at SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza, has won the 2014 MenuMasters Award for Chef Innovator from Nation’s Restaurant News.

MenuMasters Award winners are honored for masterminding menu items that are deemed to be of “significant impact on the industry,” and Nation’s Restaurant News describes Smith as “a standard bearer for culinary excellence for the past 20 years.”

In 1994, after receiving extensive training in France, Smith came to Kansas City to be executive chef and corporate chef of the American Restaurant. In 1999, he became the first Kansas City chef to win the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Midwest.

In 2002, Smith co-founded Forty Sardines in Leawood, which was nominated for a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. He is also the owner of Tapas and Extra Virgin restaurants.