Chef and TV host of The Chew
Carla Hall is a co-host of ABC’s Emmy Award–winning series The Chew, seated alongside restaurateurs and Iron Chef America stars Mario Batali and Michael Symon. Carla is best known as a competitor on Bravo’s Top Chef and Top Chef: All Stars, where she won over audiences with her fun catchphrase, “Hootie hoo,” and her philosophy to always cook with love. Carla’s approach to cooking blends her classic French training and her Southern upbringing. She is committed to health and balance in everyday living. Carla is on the Twitter Food Council and is also active with a number of charities and nonprofit organizations that reflect her passion for causes close to her heart. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Matthew Lyons, and stepson, Noah.
Managing Partner & Chef-de-Cuisine, Cómodo
Carolina Santos-Neves is the Chef-de-Cuisine and managing partner of Cómodo in SoHo and Colonia Verde in Fort Greene. Born in Switzerland to a Brazilian father and an American mother in a trilingual household, Carolina’s fascination with food was inevitable when her nomadic childhood was spent growing up and eating her way through Brazil and Mexico. After graduating from Brown University, completing her chef’s training at the Natural Gourmet Institute and spending 5 years as an editor for Epicurious, Carolina ditched the desk job and jumped back into the kitchen to do what she does best – learning, exploring and educating diners about the bold flavors of Latin America.
Chefs & Restaurateurs
Eli Sussman
Eli Sussman is the co-chef/co-owner of Samesa and Ed and Bev’s restaurants and is a partner in Jetman Catering. He was previously the co–executive chef at Ruschmeyer’s in Montauk and the executive chef of Mile End Delis in Manhattan and Brooklyn. A 2014 semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef Award, Eli was named to Zagat NYC’s 30 Under 30 in 2012. He has co-authored four cookbooks with his brother Max and has contributed to *Saveur* and *Food & Wine.* Eli serves on the NYC board of the hunger charity Share Our Strength and was invited to the White House as part of a group of Share Our Strength chefs doing work to help end childhood hunger in the United States through the No Kid Hungry campaign.
Max Sussman
Max Sussman is the co-chef/co-owner of Samesa and Ed and Bev’s restaurants. He was executive chef at the neighborhood favorite restaurant the Cleveland, in Manhattan. Max was also chef de cuisine at Roberta’s when the famed Brooklyn restaurant received two stars from the New York Times, and worked at Manhattan’s Michelin-starred Breslin Bar and Dining Room. In 2012, Max was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Rising Star Chef of the Year and was named to both Zagat NYC’s and Forbes’s 30 Under 30 lists. Along with his brother Eli he has co-authored four cookbooks. He resides near Detroit with his family.
thesussmanbrothers.com
@TheSussmans
Chef
Einat Admony is chef and owner of the Balaboosta, Bar Bolonat, and Taïm restaurants in New York City and author of Balaboosta: Bold Mediterranean Recipes to Feed the People You Love.
Her life has been an adventure. After growing up in Tel Aviv, she secured illicit rations for her kitchen as a cook in the Israeli Army, walked away from college after two months, traipsed around Germany as a gypsy, then packed up her life to move to New York City and work at “a million venerable kitchens around the city,” according to The New Yorker.
Then things got interesting. Inspired by the street food of her native Tel Aviv, Einat opened the falafel joint Taïm (tah·eem) in Manhattan’s West Village in 2005. In 2010, she launched Balaboosta in Nolita where the manner of cooking is not so much Middle Eastern as Mediterranean. Her most recent venture is Bar Bolonat, a West Village eatery named one of the best new restaurants of 2014 by New York Times critic Pete Wells.
Her way with ingredients has been lauded repeatedly by The New Yorker, The New York Times, and New York Magazine, among many others, and her way with people was noted by The New York Times’ critic Sam Sifton: “Admony…runs Balaboosta exactly as if she’d invited a room full of strangers for dinner, then told her family to be nice to them.”
Einat is married to Stefan Nafziger. Together they own and operate Balaboosta, Bar Bolonat, and Taïm. They live in Brooklyn with their two young children, Liam and Mika. When Einat is not at the restaurant she can be found at home, cooking for the crowd of family and friends continually gathered around her dining table.
Owner & Executive Chef, Cómodo
Felipe Donnelly is the Executive Chef and owner of Cómodo in SoHo and Colonia Verde in Fort Greene. The Colombian chef was born in Madrid and spent his childhood living in Bogota, Sao Paulo, and Mexico City – an experience deeply imbued in his culinary style. Having lived across many Latin American countries, the act of experiencing and sharing food was the first step in calling a new place home. By producing bold, homegrown Latin flavors in both his restaurants, Donnelly is able to explore his culinary creativity through the lens of the heart of the Latin kitchen. With inimitable hospitality, dining at one of Donnelly’s restaurants is where a new restaurant quickly becomes home and new friends become family.
Chef
Chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author Marco Canora has been doing his part to promote delicious, simple, and healthy food, which he believes is everyone’s birthright. Since 1996, his Italian-inflected cooking has been hailed as some of the finest on this side of the Atlantic. Hearth Restaurant, located in Manhattan’s East Village, is the current home of the widest range of Marco’s seasonally inspired dishes. He also owns the wine bars Terroir Tribeca and Terroir High Line. Marco’s first independent venture was La Cucina Ristorante, at the Tuscany Inn on Martha’s Vineyard, and his restaurant Insieme, at the Michelangelo Hotel in New York, was awarded a Michelin star. Marco's book Salt to Taste: The Keys to Confident, Delicious Cooking received acclaim from the culinary world.
Author, Chef, and TV Personality
Finesse and grit: that is what defines author, chef, and TV personality Georgia Pellegrini and makes her a motivational speaker unlike any other. In 2004 she left the fierce world of Wall Street behind and stepped into the wild—reconnecting with nature to discover a simpler, more authentic, and self-sufficient life. Pellegrini is a modern-day pioneer with "Superwoman Skills" who empowers audiences to step outside of their comfort zones and discover inner bravery and resourcefulness. Her critically acclaimed books include Food Heroes, Girl Hunter, and most recently, Modern Pioneering, a cookbook for homestead cuisine and living off the land. Called “an empowerment guru” by The New York Times, Pellegrini is a phenomenally gifted speaker, and her stirring lectures reach audiences from all backgrounds. Growing up on her family’s farm in upstate New York, Pellegrini developed a passion for simple farm-totable food and a deep connection to the outdoors. Having worked in the finance world after college, she decided to leave her cubicle and reconnect with her roots. After graduating from the French Culinary Institute, she began working in Michelin restaurants in New York and France, including Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Gramercy Tavern, and La Chassagnette. Soon she started leading her renowned Adventure Getaways: excursions around the country aimed at promoting “manual literacy” and helping participants step outside of their comfort zone and experience life more viscerally. Motivational and approachable, Pellegrini teaches leadership, confidence building, and personal branding. She is a firm believer in empowering women to be self-sufficient and encourages her audiences to identify personal strengths and pursue their life passions. Her words go “beyond-the-podium” and inspire audiences to put pioneering principles to use anywhere, from the suburbs to the heart of the city, from the hunting perch to the board room. Georgia Pellegrini has been featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Iron Chef America, Today, HBO’s Real Sports, ABC’s The Chew, NPR, among hundreds of other radio, TV, and newspaper outlets. She also writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal.
georgiapellegrini.com
@GeorgiaPellegrini
facebook.com/georgiapellegrini
pinterest.com/gpellegrini
youtube.com
Restaurateur
Co-Owner of The Fat Radish
Phil Winser is the co-founder of Silkstone, one of New York’s leading creative events agencies and catering companies. He’s used innovative event design, marketing campaigns, and digital strategy to create large-scale dinners from the Nevada desert to New York City. With partner Ben Towill, Phil designed and opened The Fat Radish, one of the city’s leading seasonal restaurants, and he’s followed that with Ruschmeyers, the Leadbelly oyster bar, and the East Pole. Phil believes that healthy, locally sourced ingredients should be the core of the meal, and he’s passionate about food as a way of bringing people together.
Executive Chef, Summit
Haru Kishi studied under some of the world's greatest chefs, such as Joël Robuchon, chef propriétaire of Le Château, as well as television star chef Gordon Ramsay at the Conrad Tokyo hotel and au Trianon, a Waldorf Astoria hotel in Versailles, France. Haru traveled to West Hollywood in 2008 with Ramsay to work at the London Hotel, climbing his way up to executive sous-chef. When joining the Chaya family in Beverly Hills in 2010 as executive chef, he brought with him a seasonal Euro-Asia palette as a result of his worldly travels and experiences over the past 15 years. Today, Haru drives the culinary experience at Summit, finding inspiration from nature and informing the farm-to-table culture found at Summit Powder Mountain.
Founder & CEO, No Small Plans, LLC
Co-founder, and former President & CEO, ’wichcraft, Riverpark, Riverpark Farm
Jeffrey Zurosfky is the co-founder and CEO of ’Wichcraft sandwich shop in New York City, which aims to serve fine dining in a casual and welcoming environment. He is also a partner in Riverpark, as well as the innovative Riverpark Farm, New York’s most urban farm, located adjacent to the restaurant. Jeffrey is the co-host of Bravo's new restaurant competition show Best New Restaurant and was a key adviser and contributor to Tim Ferriss's book The 4-Hour Chef. His passion for culinary and entrepreneurial endeavors has led him to cultivate and expand ’Wichcraft across the nation. He serves on a handful of boards and has advised more than a dozen well-known culinary companies.
Founders of MatchaBar
MatchaBar co-founders and brothers Max and Graham Fortgang come from eclectic backgrounds to bring true innovation to the matcha tea space. Max comes from a background in art history, and acts as head chef in the MatchaBar kitchen, having earned his stripes working in the food-and-beverage industry through college. He was one of the first chefs to experiment with non-dairy milks, fresh juices, and spices of all kinds in his matcha tea blends. Graham brings his entrepreneurial skills to the table, focusing MatchaBar's marketing and branding, and is the driver behind the wheel of the brand's recognition.
Restaurateur, Entrepreneur
Kristian Vallas is a southern California native living in Venice Beach, California with his two sons and wife, Breegan. In 2015, he opened LEONA in Venice Beach with Chef Nyesha Arrington which quickly rose to the LA Times' 101 Best Restaurants list in year one. Prior, Kristian had founded a commercial and residential real estate development firm and has 20 years experience in technology, entertainment, media and marketing.
Chef
Norberto Piattoni is an Argentine chef whose work has taken him from Argentina to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. He has worked closely alongside renowned Argentine chef Francis Mallmann, opened a series of pop-up diners in Venice Beach with Max Chow, and spent a summer cooking at a pop-up in Rockaway Beach, showcasing Argentine street food. Now based in Brooklyn, Norberto was the consulting chef for the Commissary at the Metrograph theater and Pietro, both in Manhattan. He’s also partnered with Brooklyn restaurateur Henry Rich as the incoming executive chef at Fitzcarraldo, in Williamsburg, and Cassette, in Greenpoint; they are also working to create Norberto’s open-fire kitchen in the heart of Fort Greene, due in late 2016.
Executive Chef and Partner, Leona
Chef Nyesha Arrington was named a Rising Star by Brad Johnson of Angeleno in 2010. In 2011, she appeared simultaneously on two reality cooking shows as a contestant: Bravo’s Top Chef: Texas and the Food Network’s Chef Hunter, where she won the competition. In 2012, Nyesha was recognized by Zagat.com as one of the 30 Under 30: L.A.’s Hottest Up-and-Comers, as well as Where LA’s top talent under 30. She was also profiled in the LA Weekly’s People issue as one of the 69 most interesting people to watch in 2012. She has appeared on KTLA and on KCRW’s Good Food. She is an enthusiastic supporter of the Santa Monica Farmers Market and numerous community organizations, including Taste of the Nation for Share Our Strength; California Spirit for the American Cancer Society; Plate by Plate for Project by Project; and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Cooking for Solutions. Most recently, Chef Arrington has crafted the creative cooking vision behind Leona, a neighborhood restaurant in the heart of Venice, California. While in their first year Nyesha has received the title of Chef of the Year from Eater Los Angeles.
chefnyesha.com
@nyeshajoyce
Food Entrepreneur
Sam Kass is a food entrepreneur and former White House chef and senior policy adviser for nutrition. He is the founder of Trove and a partner in Acre Venture Partners. Sam joined the White House kitchen staff in 2009, becoming food initiative coordinator the next year. He took on several additional roles, including executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, and became the first person in the history of the White House to have a position in the executive office of the president and the residence. As one of the first lady’s longest-serving advisers, he served as senior policy adviser for healthy food initiatives and helped Mrs. Obama create the first major vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden. In 2011, Fast Company included Sam in its list of the 100 Most Creative People, and in 2012 he helped create the American Chef Corps, which is dedicated to promoting diplomacy through culinary initiatives. He is also an MIT Media lab fellow, entrepreneur, and adviser.
General Manager, Agern Restaurant
Katie Bell was born in New Zealand, grew up in Iowa, and spent summers in Germany and the South Pacific. After coordinating special events for the Hawaii International Film Festival, she moved to Los Angeles to work in advertising for Apple. While those years honed her sense of design and branding and love of skinny jeans, she missed the culinary world. She returned to restaurants to run Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City. After moving to New York City, she worked at Thomas Keller’s Per Se and became the service director for Blue Hill restaurant. In 2015, Katie oversaw Dan Barber’s pop-up restaurant Wasted, then helped open Union Square Hospitality Group’s Untitled Restaurant in the Whitney Museum of American Art, before she fell in love with a construction site in Grand Central Terminal. Katie is the general manager of Agern restaurant in Grand Central, where she works to create a fine dining experience for guests with warmth, humor, and refinement and aims to offer a place for the restaurant’s team to grow, invest in their community, and be a part of a larger ecosystem of sustainable sourcing, partnerships, and employment.
Founder, Four Sigmatic Foods
Tero Isokauppila is a 13th-generation family farmer hailing from Finland. Now based in Santa Monica, California, Tero lectures and teaches the alchemy of chocolate making and the benefits of various superfoods. In 2012, Tero founded Four Sigmatic, best known for its mushroom coffee products.
foursigmatic.com
Chef
Straight out of culinary school, Jesse Barber completed an externship at the French Laundry and Bouchon Bistro in Napa, California, where he refined his French techniques and experienced the intensity and discipline required to run a restaurant. Jesse was the chef de cuisine at Marché in Eugene, Oregon and worked with the acclaimed Bruce Carey Restaurant Group in Portland. He moved to Los Angeles and became the chef de cuisine at the Tasting Kitchen, named one of GQ’s Best New Restaurants in 2010. He curated the culinary program for Summit Eden, hosted a series of pop-up dinners around Los Angeles, and was the chef of Barnyard. With Jesse’s classical French training, experience in Italian kitchens, and love of Japanese cuisine, he has found a unique, clear voice. He opened Dudley Market in 2015 to give the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles an elevated version of the neighborhood bistro. It received rave reviews from critics and customers for its approach to everyday luxury and its contemporary approach to fine dining.
Founder of Beaming
Lisa Odenweller is the visionary behind Beaming, a fast-growing lifestyle brand on a mission to inspire vibrant wellness in people of all ages. Chosen as one of Mindbodygreen’s 100 Women to Watch in Wellness, Lisa is dedicated to sharing the power of plant-based food in a way that changes lives and supports healthy families and communities. Her combined passion for food and wellness drove the creation of Beaming Organic Superfood Cafes, unique settings for experiencing the abundant benefits of clean eating. Beaming has six locations in Los Angeles and San Diego, plus an online store and diverse educational resources to broaden its reach. Previously, Lisa was a director at numerous Silicon Valley software companies, including Oracle and Broadvision, and founded LMO Designs, a successful window-coverings and interior design company, and Peppered Pearl, a philanthropic online jewelry store representing artisans around the world. Lisa has been featured on Fox 11 in Los Angeles and ABC News as well as in Vogue, Self, and the Los Angeles Times.
livebeaming.com
@livebeaming
@livebeaming
Food Innovator, Hotelier, and Entrepreneur
Daniella Hunter is a holistic food innovator, hotelier, and entrepreneur. Her conscious-living brands, the Real Coconut Cafe and Sanará Tulum hotel, have received many accolades. Severe childhood asthma and a lifetime of poor health inspired Daniella’s journey toward healing; she delved into many different diet and cleanse programs to seek the answers for a vital life for herself and to share with others. Dissatisfied with what she found, she formulated her philosophy of digestive health and sustainability, personally and for the planet, which led to the birth of the Real Coconut in Mexico. The café is expanding into the United States with new outlets and a retail product line that will be available in Whole Foods in 2017. The development of a new Sanará Belize beach hotel and residences development is under way. Daniella is director of the Belize Sustainable Development Corporation, coordinating wild harvesting and boutique farming of crops used by the Real Coconut and its partners. She dedicates her free time to wildlife rehabilitation and, as a co-founder and governor of the Tulum International School, to providing a passion- and inquiry-based curriculum to children in Tulum.
Master Sommelier and Co-Founder, Verve Wine
Dustin Wilson is a master sommelier based in New York City. He has worked at some of the top restaurants in the United States, including Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, Colorado, the Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado, and RN74 in San Francisco. Dustin served as wine director of the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park. He had a leading role in the critically acclaimed wine documentary Somm and was featured in the sequel, Somm: Into the Bottle. He has also appeared on the Esquire TV show Uncorked. Dustin is the co-founder of Vallin, a winery in Santa Barbara, California, that focuses on making Syrah and other Rhône grape varieties. He is also the co-founder of Verve Wine, an e-commerce wine retailer startup based in New York City.
Chef, Consultant, and Entrepreneur
Recognized as one of Zagat’s 30 Under 30 in 2013, Tim West is a slow-food chef turned social entrepreneur. He is a Culinary Institute of America graduate and grandson of Arch West, the inventor of Doritos. Tim cut his teeth in the kitchens at the St. Regis New York and the Facebook headquarters in California before entering the world of entrepreneurship. Tim co-created the Food Hackathon + Forum as a business-plan competition and alternative-educational experience to encourage entrepreneurs to work on more meaningful problems and to expose corporate teams to a more collaborative and inspiring working methodology. He founded True West Ventures, a consulting and experiential-educational design agency specializing in facilitating conversations on the future of food, food systems, food hacking, food entrepreneurship, and food culture. Tim has designed learning journeys, spoken on panels, and advised and worked with various large companies and small startups, including Airbnb, the Deloitte Center for the Edge, Singularity University, and Barnraiser.
about.me/timnotchris
@timmywest
@timnotchris
Restaurateur
Nicholas Morgenstern has worked for the past nine years as a pastry chef in some of this country’s most prestigious kitchens. He has spent time in the kitchen of Daniel Boulud’s New York Times four-star-rated restaurant Daniel. Nicholas’s most recent work was as the pastry chef under Paul Liebrandt at Gilt, and before that he was at Gramercy Tavern, where he developed an unparalleled reputation as a master of his craft. In July 2008, he opened the General Greene, a full-service restaurant in Brooklyn, where he brought to bear the experience he’d gained from working in acclaimed kitchens. In 2010, he opened Goat Town, in Manhattan’s East Village, serving seasonal American fare with a focus on simple quality; he turned this into GG’s pizzeria in 2014. In 2013, he opened El Rey Coffee Bar & Luncheonette, a café in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In 2014, Nicholas opened his first ice cream parlor, Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream.
morgensternsnyc.com
CEO, Oxygen Beach Investments
Charlie Stuart Gay is an international businessman and CEO of Oxygen Beach Investments, Sanará Tulum, and related land and sustainability companies in Belize. He is also cofounder of the Real Coconut with his wife, Daniella Hunter. Charlie has a background in entertainment, having managed Cher’s touring and commercial activities. Over his 18 years in entertainment, Charlie produced multiple stadium and arena events and partnered with the former head of Paramount and MGM on film fund financing, marketing, and distribution. He produced a live 3-D concert in South Africa in 2010 and co-founded digital organizations that pioneered live broadcasts on Facebook and other social media platforms. After being invited to be executive director of a land-mine detection 501(c)3, with Nelson Mandela and his wife as patrons, he went on to found a for-profit social enterprise entity, Humanity Unites Brilliance, supporting multiple initiatives in Africa and South America.
Group chef, Ramusake
Andy Cook has had an extensive career, working alongside chefs such as Gordon Ramsay at his three-star in London and Gualtiero Marchesi at his two-star outside Milan. He was executive chef of the award-winning London West Hollywood Hotel, has won Michelin stars in cities such as Tokyo and Los Angeles, and most recently oversaw the relaunch of one of London’s most iconic restaurants, the Savoy Grill. Andy is currently overseeing several operations, including Ramusake in Dubai and the Craigellachie Hotel, in the heart of Scottish whisky country, and is chef-director of Smokstak in London. He is heavily involved in the street food scene in the UK and is the founding member of London Food Collective, a forum for like-minded chefs to share ideas and experiences and help further improve people’s knowledge of food.
Founder of Bespoke Private Service
Chris West is the founder of Bespoke Private Service, which manages the lifestyles and households of busy families and individuals. He is also the president of the Domestic Estate Managers Association, San Francisco/Silicon Valley chapter, a professional networking association dedicated to connecting private service professionals and vendors. Previously, Chris was the estate manager for two estates, in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Vail, Colorado. His first love was in the culinary realm, going back to the age of 14, when he was voted in as the de facto chef on a multi-day Outward Bound mountaineering trip. After that, it was clear that culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America was his next destination, where he and his identical brother, Tim West, trained together. He has been a private chef, established a permaculture homestead, and taught underprivileged youth how to cook healthy meals, and his restaurant experience has been in both the back and the front of the house.
Founding Partner and Chef, Pubbelly
José Mendín is the founding partner and chef at the Pubbelly Restaurant Group. Previously, he was part of the opening team of Nobu Miami and later Nobu London, in Hyde Park. He was also chef de cuisine of Sushisamba Miami Beach. Today, Mendin is a hometown hero in both Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Making both his cities proud, he—alongside his business partners, Andreas Schreiner and Sergio Navarro—has taken numerous culinary concepts to critical acclaim (Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi, Barceloneta, Macchialina, PB Steak, and L’echon Brasserie). He has been a recognized semifinalist of the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: South for five consecutive years (2011–15) and has received national acknowledgements from Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Departures, and the Cooking Channel, among many others.
Founding Partner and Chef, Pubbelly
José Mendín is the founding partner and chef at the Pubbelly Restaurant Group. Previously, he was part of the opening team of Nobu Miami and later Nobu London, in Hyde Park. He was also chef de cuisine of Sushisamba Miami Beach. Today, Mendin is a hometown hero in both Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Making both his cities proud, he—alongside his business partners, Andreas Schreiner and Sergio Navarro—has taken numerous culinary concepts to critical acclaim (Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi, Barceloneta, Macchialina, PB Steak, and L’echon Brasserie). He has been a recognized semifinalist of the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: South for five consecutive years (2011–15) and has received national acknowledgements from Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Departures, and the Cooking Channel, among many others.
Director and Chief Brand Officer, Evolver and The Alchemist's Kitchen
Stephanie Wang is director and chief brand officer of Evolver Holdings and the Alchemist’s Kitchen, overseeing marketing, brand strategy, and product development. The Alchemist’s Kitchen is a whole-plant tonic bar and botanical dispensary that is part of Evolver, a leading conscious-lifestyle company dedicated to personal transformation and wellness—serving the next-generation, post–new age transformational market, and reaching more than four million engaged users a month. Stephanie is a content strategist and multimedia producer and has produced branded content for Dell, Pfizer, ABC Television, and the Discovery Channel. She has produced content for films screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival that have gained theatrical and television distribution.
thealchemistskitchen.com
evolver.net
