Chefs to Watch 2014: Miles Thompson, Los Angeles

It was the food prepared by a caterer where he grew up in upstate New York that convinced a then 13-year-old Miles Thompson that he wanted to be a cook. “I had gone to a party catered by Charlotte Berwind and thought the food was really well-seasoned,” he recalls.

“There was acidity and sugar and balance. I tried to find out how I...