Amanda Hesser is an American food writer, editor, cookbook author and entrepreneur. Most notably, she was the food editor of The New York Times Magazine, the editor of T Living, a quarterly publication of The New York Times, author of The Essential New York Times Cookbook which was a New York Times bestseller, and co-founder and CEO of Food52.
James Andrews Beard was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, Oregon, and lectured widely. He emphasized American cooking, prepared with fresh, wholesome, American ingredients, to a country just becoming aware of its own culinary heritage. Beard taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. He published more than twenty books, and his memory is honored by his foundation's annual James Beard Awards.
Thomas Aloysius Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant is a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World.
Heston Marc Blumenthal is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with unusual recipes, such as bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge. His recipes for triple-cooked chips and soft-centred Scotch eggs have been widely imitated. He has advocated a scientific approach to cooking, for which he has been awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Reading, Bristol and London and made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Kim Marie Severson is a reporter for The New York Times. She won a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018 as part of The New York Times coverage of sexual harassment and abuse and is a four-time James Beard award–winner for food writing. Severson has published multiple cookbooks and a cooking themed memoir.
Curtis Travis Stone is an Australian celebrity chef, author, and television personality. Stone has been the fresh food and recipes ambassador for Coles Supermarkets in Australia since 2010.
Mary Ann Esposito is an American chef, cookbook writer(having published over a dozen cookbooks), and the television host of Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito, which started in 1989 and is the longest-running television cooking program in America.
Gennaro Contaldo OSI is an Italian chef known for his association with his British protégé, Jamie Oliver, and his partnership with fellow Italian chef Antonio Carluccio and their BBC Two television series Two Greedy Italians.
Barbara Tropp was an American orientalist, chef, restaurateur, and food writer. During her career, she operated China Moon restaurant in San Francisco and wrote cookbooks that popularized Chinese cuisine in America. China Moon's accompanying cookbook is credited with being one of the first fusion cuisine cookbooks. She was the 1989 recipient of the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America James Beard Award. Tropp was called "the Julia Child of Chinese cooking."
Michael Carl Ruhlman is an American author, home cook and entrepreneur.
Tom Valenti is the Executive Chef at Jockey Hollow Bar and Kitchen in Morristown NJ. Chef Valenti was formerly the owner and Executive Chef of Oxbow Tavern on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He is the former Executive Chef of Le Cirque Restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City. Previously, he was Executive Chef and co-owner of Ouest Restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which shuttered in 2015. The recipient of many awards for his comfortable cooking style, Valenti is best known for his salmon gravlax and slow-cooked meats, particularly braised lamb shanks. Chef Valenti is the author of 3 cookbooks, "Welcome to my Kitchen", "Soups, Stews and One Pot Meals" as well as "You Don't Have to be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook", dedicated to recipes for diabetic diets. Valenti was the driving force behind the creation of the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, established to benefit the surviving family members of foodservice-related victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Richard Blais is an American chef, television personality, restaurateur, and author. He appeared on the reality show cooking show Top Chef, and is known for his take on classic American cuisine. Blais was the runner-up for the fourth season of Top Chef and returned several seasons later to win Top Chef: All-Stars.
Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee is a Korean American writer, artist, photographer and chef. Lee is most known for her cookbooks and food writing. She was nominated for a James Beard award in 2006 and has won numerous other awards for her cookbooks. Lee has written for magazines, newspapers, and online publications. She also works as an artist in installation, photography, painting and drawing. Her work is displayed in many galleries and she created two public art pieces in California.
Deborah Madison is an American chef, food writer and cooking teacher. She has been called an expert on vegetarian cooking and her gourmet repertoire showcases fresh garden produce. Her work also highlights Slow Food, local foods and farmers' markets.
James Kenji López-Alt is an American chef and food writer. His first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, became a critical and commercial success, charting on the New York Times Bestseller list and winning the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for the best General Cooking cookbook. The cookbook expanded on López-Alt's "The Food Lab" column on the Serious Eats blog. López-Alt is known for using the scientific method in his cooking to improve popular American recipes and to explain the science of cooking.
Michael Solomonov is an Israeli chef known for his restaurants in Center City, Philadelphia. His first restaurant Zahav, founded in 2008, has received national recognition including the James Beard Foundation "Outstanding Restaurant" in 2019. Solomonov was also awarded Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2011, Cookbook of the Year in 2016, and Outstanding Chef in 2017 from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021, The New York Times named his restaurant Laser Wolf as one of "the 50 places in America we're most excited about right now."
The French Laundry Cookbook is a 1999 cookbook written by American chefs Thomas Keller, Michael Ruhlman, and Susie Heller; illustrated by Deborah Jones. The book features recipes from Keller's restaurant The French Laundry. It won the 2000 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Cookbook of the Year award, as well as the IACP's best designed cookbook and best first cookbook awards. The French Laundry Cookbook is in its sixteenth printing and has been printed over 400,000 times.
Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide is a 2008 cookbook written by American chefs Thomas Keller and Michael Ruhlman. The cookbook contains a variety of sous-vide recipes, a technique Thomas Keller began experimenting with in the 1990s. The recipes in Under Pressure are those prepared in Thomas Keller's The French Laundry and Per Se restaurants. The book also contains sous-vide cooking techniques and tips, including discussions of cooking time, food temperature, and food safety.
Josef Centeno is an American chef, restaurateur and cookbook author who specializes in Tex-Mex cuisine. He was nominated for a James Beard award for Best Chef in February 2020.
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.
