Thomas Aloysius Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. 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.
The James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based national non-profit culinary arts organization named in honor of James Beard, a prolific food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, who was also known as the "Dean of American Cookery." The programs run the gamut from elegant guest-chef dinners to scholarships for aspiring culinary students, educational conferences, and industry awards. In the spirit of James Beard's legacy, the Foundation not only creates programs that help educate people about American cuisine, but also support and promote the chefs and other industry professionals who are behind it.
Rick Bayless is an American chef and restaurateur who specializes in traditional Mexican cuisine with modern interpretations. He is widely known for his PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time.
Grant Achatz is an American chef and restaurateur often recognized for his contributions to molecular gastronomy or progressive cuisine. His Chicago restaurant Alinea has won numerous accolades and Achatz himself has won numerous awards from prominent culinary institutions and publications, including the Food and Wine's "best new chefs" award in 1998, "Rising Star Chef of the Year Award" for 1999, "Best Chef in the United States" for 1998 and a 2003 "Who's Who Inductee" from the James Beard Foundation.
Andrew Scott Zimmern is an American culinary expert, chef, restaurateur, television personality, radio personality, director, producer, entrepreneur, food critic, journalist, teacher, and author. Considered one of the most influential celebrity chefs in the world, Zimmern is known for being the co-creator, host, and consulting producer of the Travel Channel television series Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern,Bizarre Foods America, Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations, Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World, Dining with Death, The Zimmern List, and Andrew Zimmern's Driven by Food, as well as the Food Network series The Big Food Truck Tip. For his work on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, he was presented the James Beard Foundation Award four times: in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2017. Zimmern also hosts a cooking webseries on YouTube titled Andrew Zimmern Cooks. Zimmern's new show, What's Eating America, premiered on MSNBC on February 16, 2020.
Tom Douglas is an American executive chef, restaurateur, author, and radio talk show host. He is known for winning the 1994 James Beard Award for Best Northwest Chef. In 2012 he also won the James Beard Award as Best Restaurateur. He is the author of Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen, which was named the Best American Cookbook by the James Beard Foundation and KitchenAid, in 2001. In 2005, he appeared on an episode of the Food Network's Iron Chef America, in which he defeated Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
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, scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awards are presented at a dinner in New York City; the chef and restaurant awards were also presented in New York until 2015, when the Foundation's annual gala moved to Chicago. Chicago will continue to host the Awards until 2027.
Irena Chalmers-Taylor was an author and food commentator/essayist, teacher and culinary mentor. Named "the culinary oracle of 100 cookbooks" by noted American restaurant critic and journalist, Gael Greene, Chalmers was recognized as the pioneer of the single subject cookbook. Her life story revealed an unlikely journey to becoming a James Beard Foundation "Who's Who" of Food and Beverage in America 1988 Award Recipient.
Ted Genoways is an American journalist and author. He is a contributing writer at Mother Jones and The New Republic, and an editor-at-large at Pacific Standard. His books include This Blessed Earth and The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food.
Gilbert Stanley Marks was an American food writer and historian noted for his reference and cookbooks on the subject of Jewish food. He was the founding editor of Kosher Gourmet magazine. He moved to Israel and became a citizen in 2012 and died of lung cancer on December 5, 2014, at the hospice at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
Michel Nischan is a chef and leader in the Food is Medicine movement, as well as a four-time James Beard Foundation Award winner. He is Co-Founder and Chairman of Wholesome Wave, Founder and President of Wholesome Wave, Co-Founder of the James Beard Foundation Chefs Boot Camp for Policy is & Change along with Chefs Action Network, as well as Founder and Partner with actor Paul Newman of the former Dressing Room Restaurant. He and his Wholesome Wave team were successful at influencing legislative language in the 2014 and 2018 Federal Farm Bills, supporting affordable access to healthy, locally grown fruits and vegetables for low-income community members.
Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Sydney, Toronto, Washington, DC, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, a bakery established by pastry chef Christina Tosi, a bar (Nikai), and a quarterly magazine. The restaurants are notable for their innovative take on cuisine while supporting local, sustainable and responsible farmers and food purveyors.
Phyllis C. Richman is an American writer and former food critic for the Washington Post for 23 years, a role that led Newsweek magazine to name her "the most feared woman in Washington". Washingtonian magazine listed her as one of the 100 most powerful women in Washington.
The American Institute of Wine & Food is a non-profit organization dedicated to gastronomy and food culture. The Institute was founded in 1981 by a group of food industry professionals and enthusiasts, including Julia Child and Robert Mondavi. Today, the organization includes educational programs, a bimonthly publication titled Savor This, and local chapters across the United States.
Darra Goldstein is an American author and food scholar who is the Willcox B. and Harriet M. Adsit Professor of Russian, Emerita at Williams College.
Joyce Goldstein is an American chef, who is a two time James Beard Foundation Award winner. She ran the influential San Francisco-based restaurant Square One between 1984 and 1996.
Sami Tamimi is a Palestinian chef and author living in London. He is the co-owner of six delis and restaurants in London. Tamimi is also the co-author of several bestselling cookbooks, including Ottolenghi (2008), Jerusalem (2012) and Falastin (2020).
Ox is an Argentine steakhouse in Portland, Oregon's Eliot neighborhood, in the United States.
Coquine is a restaurant located in the Mount Tabor neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. The restaurant serves French-inspired food made from ingredients purchased from local farms as well as Stumptown Coffee.
