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 was a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World; the voting process has since been changed to disallow previous winners from being considered.
Andreas Viestad is a Norwegian food columnist and TV chef and restaurateur. He has hosted seven seasons of New Scandinavian Cooking broadcast in the U.S., China, Germany, Italy, Finland, and on BBC Food, as well as over fifty other countries since 2003, and has been food writer for various newspapers in Norway in addition to a columnist in The Washington Post, titled "The Gastronomer". Viestad has been called "Norway's most exciting food writer", and "Norway's culinary ambassador". He is a restaurateur behind the Oslo restaurants St Lars, Salome and Spaghetteria, and creative partner for Ambassaden, a multi-restaurant project in the former US embassy in Oslo, a landmark building designed by Eero Saarinen. He is the founder of Geitmyra Culinary Center for Children in Oslo, Ringsaker, Kristiansand and Tønsberg.
Vinmonopolet, symbolized by Ⓥ and colloquially shortened to Polet, is a government-owned alcoholic beverage retailer and the only company allowed to sell beverages containing an alcohol content higher than 4.75% in Norway.
Christen Sveaas is a Norwegian businessman, investor, art collector and donor. He is the founder and sole owner of Kistefos AS, vice chairman of the board of the Kistefos Museum and chairman of the board of Anders Sveaas Allmennyttige Fond.
Bagatelle was a gourmet restaurant in the borough Frogner in Oslo, Norway.
Eyvind Hellstrøm is a Norwegian chef and formerly the part owner of Bagatelle, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in the city of Oslo. He was the president of the 2008 Bocuse d'Or Europe, is frequently a judge at the Bocuse d'Or world finals, and was himself a competition candidate in 1989, placing fifth.
Arne Ronold is a Norwegian Master of Wine, a journalist and editor of the Norwegian wine publication Vinforum, and considered an expert on Italian and Burgundy wine.
Statholdergaarden is a gourmet restaurant in the Kvadraturen sector of central Oslo, Norway.
Geir Skeie is a Norwegian chef and restaurateur, winner of the 2008 Bocuse d'Or Europe, and the 2009 Bocuse d'Or world final.
Charles Tjessem is a Norwegian chef, and winner of the 2003 Bocuse d'Or. The victory was achieved over the French chef Frank Putelat by the smallest margin of points to date in the competition.
Rasmus Kofoed is a Danish chef and restaurateur who won the gold medal at the 2011 Bocuse d'Or, after previously taking the bronze medal in 2005 and the silver medal in 2007 in the same competition. He is the head chef and co-owner of Geranium, a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Copenhagen.
Mathias Dahlgren is a Swedish chef, who won the culinary championship Bocuse d'Or in 1997.
Siri Beate Hatlen is a Norwegian businessperson. A "Sivilingeniør" by education with several years in the petroleum industry, since 1996 she has been an independent consultant. After succeeding in turning operations in various companies in the late 1990s, she has become best known as a health executive. She was the chair of the Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority during its entire existence from 2001 to 2006, later chief executive officer of Oslo University Hospital from 2009 to 2011.
Ivar Hippe is a Norwegian author, political consultant, former journalist and presenter. He received national media attention in 1982 when he was expelled from Argentina by the government. On his return to Norway he began working for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). In 1999 he became editor-in-chief of the Norwegian financial journal Økonomisk Rapport.
The Bocuse d'Or USA is a biennial chef championship, where the winner is selected to represent the U.S. in the international Bocuse d'Or competition. Following 20 years of American representation in the competition, in 2008 Paul Bocuse asked Daniel Boulud to establish a structure for the selection of Team USA, who along with Thomas Keller and Jérôme Bocuse form the Board of Directors of the Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation. The first Bocuse d'Or USA competition was held in September 2008.
Gunnar Hvarnes is a Norwegian chef, and the country's delegate to participate in the 2010 Bocuse d'Or Europe and the 2011 Bocuse d'Or international finals, where he won the bronze medal.
Tom Victor Gausdal is a Norwegian chef, and silver medalist of the 2005 Bocuse d'Or. The margin separating Gausdal from gold medal winner Serge Vieira was one point. Gausdal had a period of apprenticeship at Statholdergaarden under Bent Stiansen and was from 1997 to 2008 a member of the Norwegian national chef team. Intent since childhood on a culinary profession, Gausdal considered for a while on becoming a pastry chef.
Geranium is a Danish gourmet restaurant in Parken in the center of Copenhagen. The head chef is Danish chef Rasmus Kofoed, who won the Bocuse d'Or in 2011. It was one of the first Danish three-starred restaurants according to the Michelin Guide. In 2022, it was named best restaurant in the world by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Stefan Magnus Brittmark Heggelund is a Norwegian communication consultant and politician for the Conservative Party. He served as a member of parliament for Oslo from 2013 to 2021.
The Bocuse d'Or is a biennial world chef championship. Named for the chef Paul Bocuse, the event takes place during two days near the end of January in Lyon, France, at the SIRHA International Hotel, Catering and Food Trade Exhibition, and is one of the world's most prestigious cooking competitions.
