Shine woman of the year (food): April Bloomfield

April Bloomfield is Shine's food woman of the year, but why? Because she's the no-b.s., super-talented lady responsible for making the gastropub (English pub food) movement accessible, and remarkably edible in the U.S. She also makes us feel very cool. How does she do it? Well, for one, she opened The Spotted Pig, one of the most remarkably unique restaurants of the century, and secondly, we now get to casually mention that we had some grilled beef tongue with duck fat potatoes the other night, and it was good. Pretty cool, right? We agree.

April got her start by cooking in some of the hottest kitchens -- River Cafe, and Chez Panisse, to name a few -- and then went on to create a space so cool that it became a living room to the most popular west village kids like Luke Wilson, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhall and Julianne Moore, who all come to get their calves liver on.

She's now spreading the goods with John Dory, her new English-inspired seafood joint in NYC's Meatpacking District. The namesake happens to be the only fish that I don't like, but hey, there she goes again, doing her thing; taking inaccessible foods and effortlessly transforming them into a dish worthy of street cred (and a consistent Michelin star). 

We choose April Bloomfield as a Shine woman of the year because she's a badass and even if you live far from her fabulousness, her gastropub movement is moving your way soon, if it hasn't already.