Chefs to Watch 2020: Nelson German, AlaMar and Sobre Mesa, Oakland, Calif.

Nelson German became a chef as a lark. When he was 21, he and three friends made plans to open a nightclub/restaurant, and German, the best cook of the bunch, decided to go to culinary school so he could run the food side of things. The impromptu decision changed everything. “Being Black and Dominican in Washington Heights, I grew up cooking, but it was a hobby,” he recalls. “When I went to school, that’s when...