Judges

Judges for the Art of Eating Prize

The 2023 Panel

Hugh Acheson is a chef, author, and restaurateur who lives in Athens, Georgia. He is the owner of the Georgia restaurants 5&10 in Athens and Empire State South in Atlanta. His cookbook A New Turn in the South won the 2012 James Beard Award for Best Cookbook in the field of American Cooking. He has also written Broadfork, The Chef and the Slow Cooker, Sous Vide, Pick a Pickle, and How to Cook. Food & Wine magazine named him Best New Chef way back in 2002, and the James Beard Foundation awarded him Best Chef Southeast in 2012. Hugh competed in Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, season 3, and starred as a judge on Top Chef, seasons 9 through 13. His thoughts about Canada, college football, crappy television, current events, politics, and old Far Side comics can be found on Twitter and on Instagram @hughacheson.

 

Jordan Mackay has won André Simon and James Beard awards for his writing on wine, spirits, and food. His work has appeared in Food & Wine, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Decanter, The Art of Eating, Wine & Spirits, and many others. He is the author or co-author of nine books, including the NYT bestseller Franklin Barbecue and the James Beard Award-winning Secrets of the Sommeliers. His books Franklin Smoke and Maison Premiere will be released in spring 2023.

 

Photo: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Ligaya Mishan writes for The New York Times and T Magazine. She has won a James Beard Award and been a finalist for a National Magazine Award, and her pieces have been selected for the Best American anthologies in Magazine, Food, and Travel Writing. She has written about books for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The Times Book Review. The daughter of a Filipino mother and a British father, she grew up in Honolulu, Hawai’i. She is the co-author, with the chef Angela Dimayuga, of Filipinx: Heritage Recipes from the Diaspora.

 

Emily Nunn writes The Department of Salad, a highly energetic and popular newsletter that approaches its subject in the broadest terms. She has been an arts editor at The New Yorker, where she created the column “Tables for Two,” and she has been an award-winning features reporter for The Chicago Tribune. Her writing about the arts and about food has been widely published. She is also the author of a memoir, The Comfort Food Diaries. She lives in Atlanta.

 

Maricel Presilla trained in Spanish and Latin American history and cultural anthropology, is an award-winning author, culinary historian, chef, and restaurateur. Her books include Peppers of the Americas and her magnum opus, Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America. A descendant of cacao farmers in her native Cuba, she wrote The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes. She has worked to revitalize cacao farms and source heirloom cacao and is a founder of the International Chocolate Awards. She is also interested in gender issues and has written about Maya women in cacao.

 

Bill St. John has for decades written and taught, at the university level and at schools of his own devising, about wine, food, cooking, travel, the history of cuisines, and other subjects. He has contributed to publications such as The Rocky Mountain News, sidewalk.com, The Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, and Wine & Spirits magazine (the last garnered him a James Beard nomination). His writing also has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, New York Daily News, and has been syndicated in 99 US newspapers. He once interviewed the nuns who cook for the Pope; lived for seven days as a monk at the Abbey of Orval in order to write about its beer; cooked on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express; roasted bison for Dame Edna Everage (out of costume); traveled 36 hours round-trip to Burgundy to interview Georges Dubœuf on Beaujolais; and his shoulder propped up Julia Child’s head for a quarter-hour nap during an interminably boring meeting. Twice.

 

Photo: Adrian Octavius Walker

Bryant Terry is an award-winning artist and community builder defined by the fluidity with which his practices move between cooking, writing, curating, publishing, conceptualism, social practice, music, and design. Bryant channels the spirit of his blood, intellectual, activist, and artist ancestors to inspire us to work toward a more healthy, just, and sustainable world. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books, an imprint of Ten Speed Press and Penguin Random House, and he is co-principal and innovation director of Zenmi, a creative studio he founded. He graduated from the Chef’s Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City, and he is a former Ph.D. student who holds an M.A. in history, with an emphasis on the African Diaspora, from NYU, where he studied under Robin D.G. Kelly. Bryant lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two daughters.

 

The 2022 Panel

 

Sara Jenkins was born in Maine and grew up in Italy, Spain, and Lebanon. She worked as a chef in Boston, Tuscany, and New York City, where she opened two restaurants, Porchetta and Porsena (now closed). In 2016 she moved to Maine to open Nīna June in the coastal village of Rockport. Nīna June is a Mediterranean restaurant committed to using all the Maine ingredients it can find. Jenkins is co-author of two cookbooks: Olives and Oranges and The Four Seasons of Pasta.

 

Photo: Jolea Brown

Edward Lee is the chef-owner of 610 Magnolia, MilkWood, and Whiskey Dry in Louisville, Kentucky, and culinary director of Succotash in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the cookbook Smoke & Pickles and the memoir Buttermilk Graffiti, which received the 2019 James Beard Book Award for writing. He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his role as host of the Emmy-winning PBS series Mind of Chef, and he wrote and hosted the feature documentary Fermented. In 2018, he launched the LEE (Let’s Empower Employment) Initiative to bring more diversity and equality to the restaurant industry.

 

Maricel Presilla trained in Spanish and Latin American history and cultural anthropology, is an award-winning author, culinary historian, chef, and restaurateur. Her books include Peppers of the Americas and her magnum opus, Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America. A descendant of cacao farmers in her native Cuba, she wrote The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes. She has worked to revitalize cacao farms and source heirloom cacao and is a founder of the International Chocolate Awards. She is also interested in gender issues and has written about Maya women in cacao.

 

Todd Richards, culinary director of Jackmont Hospitality, mastered his culinary skills under renowned chefs, including Darryl E. Evans. He was the opening chef for One Flew South in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and a semifinalist (twice) for the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast. Richards is additionally founder of the Soulful Company Restaurant Group (Lake & Oak Neighborhood BBQ, Kuro, Soul Food & Culture), and he is the author of the praised cookbook SOUL: A Chef’s Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes and creator of the podcast SOUL, about the roots of Southern food. His next cookbook, Gold Rice & Table Blessings, will be published in 2023.

 

Helen Rosner has been executive editor of Eater, executive digital editor of Saveur, online restaurant editor for New York magazine, and a cookbook editor. She is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker, and she lives in Brooklyn, New York.


Kayla Stewart is a columnist at The Bittman Project, and her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and Texas Monthly. Stewart served as a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia and was awarded the UC Berkeley-11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Fellowship. She is co-author of the forthcoming Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island.

 

Frank Stitt, a native of rural Alabama, is the chef of Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, Café Bottega, and Chez Fonfon in Birmingham, Alabama. Earlier in life, he worked in various San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and met Alice Waters, who introduced him to Richard Olney, whose assistant he became in Provence. Stitt has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance, and in 2011 he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. In 2018, Highlands Bar & Grill received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. He is the author of Frank Stitt’s Southern Table and Bottega Favorita.

The 2021 Panel

Sara Jenkins was born in Maine and grew up in Italy, Spain, and Lebanon. She worked as a chef at two restaurants in Tuscany and four in New York City before opening her own East Village storefront, Porchetta, specializing in that succulent Tuscan and Roman pork roast. She then opened her sit-down restaurant, Porsena, recently closed, drawing on her Italian childhood. In 2016, she opened Nīna June in the coastal village of Rockport, Maine, where she applies a Mediterranean sensibility to Maine food. Jenkins is co-author of two cookbooks: Olives and Oranges and The Four Seasons of Pasta.

Photo: Jolea Brown

Edward Lee is the chef-owner of 610 Magnolia, MilkWood, and Whiskey Dry in Louisville, Kentucky, and culinary director of Succotash in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the cookbook Smoke & Pickles and the memoir Buttermilk Graffiti, which received the 2019 James Beard Book Award for writing. He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his role as host of the Emmy-winning PBS series Mind of Chef, and he wrote and hosted the feature documentary Fermented. In 2018, he launched the LEE (Let’s Empower Employment) Initiative to bring more diversity and equality to the restaurant industry.

Maricel Presilla trained in Spanish and Latin American history and cultural anthropology, is an award-winning author, culinary historian, chef, and restaurateur. Her books include Peppers of the Americas and her magnum opus, Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America. A descendant of cacao farmers in her native Cuba, she wrote The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes. She has worked to revitalize cacao farms and source heirloom cacao and is a founder of the International Chocolate Awards. She is also interested in gender issues and has written about Maya women in cacao.

Helen Rosner has been executive editor of Eater, executive digital editor of Saveur, online restaurant editor for New York magazine, and a cookbook editor. She is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker, and she lives in Brooklyn, New York.

 

Frank Stitt, a native of rural Alabama, is the chef of Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, Café Bottega, and Chez Fonfon in Birmingham, Alabama. Earlier in life, he worked in various San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and met Alice Waters, who introduced him to Richard Olney, whose assistant he became in Provence. Stitt has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance, and in 2011 he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. In 2018, Highlands Bar & Grill received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. He is the author of Frank Stitt’s Southern Table and Bottega Favorita.

Photo: Alice Gao, courtesy of Kinfolk magazine

David Tanis has worked as a chef for over three decades, including at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and Café Escalera in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he operated a private supper club in his 17th century walk-up in Paris. He’s the author of four cookbooks, including the latest, David Tanis Market Cooking, and A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, chosen as one of the 50 best cookbooks ever by The Guardian and The Observer (UK). He currently writes a monthly column for The New York Times was recently honored by the French Government as a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole.

Nicole Taylor is the author of The Up South Cookbook and The Last O.G. Cookbook, and she was the executive food editor at Thrillist. In 2020, she was nominated for two James Beard Awards, Personal Essay Short Form and Innovative Storytelling. She serves on the advisory committee for MOFAD’s exhibit, “African/American.” She is also a producer, the founder of NAT Media, an original content company focused on producing and amplifying Black food creatives.

The 2020 Panel

Julia Bainbridge has been an editor at Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Atlanta magazine, and Yahoo, where her work was nominated for a James Beard award, and her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Saveur, and Playboy, among other publications. She is the host and producer of “The Lonely Hour,” a podcast about loneliness — but it’s not a bummer. She also has a book coming out in spring 2020; it will be about non-alcoholic drinks, and it won’t be a bummer either.

John Birdsall is an Oakland-based food and culture writer, currently working on a biography of James Beard, to be published in 2020. He is the recipient of two James Beard Awards, both on food and the LGBTQ experience: “America, Your Food Is So Gay” for Lucky Peach, and “Straight-Up Passing” for Jarry. He is co-author, with James Syhabout, of Hawker Fare.

Sara Jenkins was born in Maine and grew up in Italy, Spain, and Lebanon. She worked as a chef at two restaurants in Tuscany and four in New York City before opening her own East Village storefront, Porchetta, specializing in that succulent Tuscan and Roman pork roast. She then opened her sit-down restaurant, Porsena, also in the East Village, where she draws on her Italian childhood. In 2016, in addition, she opened Nīna June in the coastal village of Rockport, Maine, where she applies a Mediterranean sensibility to Maine food. Jenkins is co-author of two cookbooks: Olives and Oranges and The Four Seasons of Pasta.

Photo: Jolea Brown

Edward Lee is the chef-owner of 610 Magnolia, MilkWood, and Whiskey Dry in Louisville, Kentucky, and culinary director of Succotash in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the cookbook Smoke & Pickles and the memoir Buttermilk Graffiti, which received the 2019 James Beard Book Award for writing. He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his role as host of the Emmy-winning PBS series Mind of Chef, and he wrote and hosted the feature documentary Fermented. In 2018, he launched the LEE (Let’s Empower Employment) Initiative to bring more diversity and equality to the restaurant industry.

Harold McGee writes about the science of food and cooking. He studied science at Caltech and literature at Yale, where he also taught. In 1984, he published the first edition of his prize-winning reference book On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. In 2008, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the world’s most influential people. McGee is also the author of The Curious Cook and Keys to Good Cooking, he had a long-running monthly column in The New York Times, and he has published original research in Nature and Physics Today.

Helen Rosner has been executive editor of Eater, executive digital editor of Saveur, online restaurant editor for New York magazine, and a cookbook editor. She is currently the New Yorker‘s roving food correspondent, and she lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Frank Stitt, a native of rural Alabama, is the chef of Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, Café Bottega, and Chez Fonfon in Birmingham, Alabama. Earlier in life, he worked in various San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and met Alice Waters, who introduced him to Richard Olney, whose assistant he became in Provence. Stitt has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance, and in 2011 he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. In 2018, Highlands Bar & Grill received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. He is the author of Frank Stitt’s Southern Table and Bottega Favorita.


The 2019 Panel

Lisa Abend is a correspondent for Time magazine, and, from Copenhagen, she also writes frequently about food and travel for AFAR, Saveur, The New York Times, Vice, and other publications. She is the author of The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen of Ferran Adrià’s elBulli.

Julia Bainbridge has been an editor at Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Atlanta magazine, and Yahoo, where her work was nominated for a James Beard award, and her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Saveur, and Playboy, among other publications. She is the host and producer of “The Lonely Hour,” a podcast about loneliness — but it’s not a bummer. She also has a book coming out in spring 2020; it will be about non-alcoholic drinks, and it won’t be a bummer either.

Tse Wei Lim was raised in Singapore and was a co-chef and co-owner of Journeyman, a restaurant in Somerville, Massachusetts. He has been published in The Boston Globe and The Art of Eating, and he writes the e-newsletter Let Them Eat Cake. He is currently working on a book about his experiences as a restaurateur.

Jordan Mackay’s work has appeared inThe New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Decanter, and many other publications. He is co-author, with Rajat Parr, of Secrets of the Sommeliers, which won a James Beard award in 2011. He wrote Two in the Kitchen with his wife, Christie Dufault. His Franklin Barbecue, co-written with Aaron Franklin, spent more than 12 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list in 2015. The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste, written with Rajat Parr, will be published this fall, and next April, Mackay and Aaron Franklin will publish Franklin Steak.

Harold McGee writes about the science of food and cooking. He studied science at Caltech and literature at Yale, where he also taught. In 1984, he published the first edition of his prize-winning reference book On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. In 2008, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the world’s most influential people. McGee is also the author of The Curious Cook and Keys to Good Cooking, he had a long-running monthly column in The New York Times, and he has published original research in Nature and Physics Today.

Helen Rosner has been executive editor of Eater, executive digital editor of Saveur, online restaurant editor for New York magazine, and a cookbook editor. She is currently the New Yorker‘s roving food correspondent, and she lives in Brooklyn, New York.


Frank Stitt, a native of rural Alabama, is the chef of Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, Café Bottega, and Chez Fonfon in Birmingham, Alabama. Earlier in life, he worked in various San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and met Alice Waters, who introduced him to Richard Olney, whose assistant he became in Provence. Stitt has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance, and in 2011 he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. In 2018, Highlands Bar & Grill received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. He is the author of Frank Stitt’s Southern Table and Bottega Favorita.


The 2018 Panel

Lisa Abend is a correspondent for Time magazine, and, from Copenhagen, she also writes frequently about food and travel for AFAR, Saveur, The New York Times, Vice, and other publications. She is the author of The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen of Ferran Adrià’s elBulli.

Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times and the author of How to Love Wine and Wine With Food. A collection of his columns is included in The New York Times Book of Wine. Before he started writing full-time about wine, he wrote primarily about restaurants and food; he created the Times’  “$25 and Under” restaurant reviews. He is author of four editions of $25 and Under and co-author of five editions of The New York Times Guide to Restaurants. In 2013, he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.

J. Kenji López-Alt is the Chief Culinary Advisor for Serious Eats and a partner at Wursthall and Backhaus in downtown San Mateo, California. His first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, was a New York Times Bestseller, winner of the James Beard Award for General Cooking, and named Book of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. The book explores the science of home cooking through popular American dishes. López-Alt is currently writing his second book, while being a full-time stay-at-home dad.

Peter Meehan writes about food. He was the editor and founder of Lucky Peach and is the co-author of a bunch of cookbooks. He’s currently at work on a book about outdoor cooking, which is why there’s so much barbecue on his Instagram.

Pim Techamuanvivit, born and raised in Bangkok, started her food blog, Chez Pim, in 2003. Among the first and most successful in the genre, it was known for its indiscriminate celebration of food, from street food in Asia to uppermost haute cuisine, and from simple home cooking to occasionally falling headlong into some of the toughest recipes, such as the canelés of Bordeaux. Longing for Thai food of richer quality and variety in the US, Pim is now on a mission to liberate her beloved Thai cuisine from the tyranny of peanut sauce. In 2015, her first restaurant, Kin Khao, was named one of GQ magazine’s “25 Most Outstanding Restaurants” and Bon Appetit’s 50 “Best New Restaurants,” and it received a Michelin star. There is still no peanut sauce on the menu.

Adam Sachs is the editor-in-chief of Saveur. A three-time James Beard Journalism Award winner, Sachs is a wandering food, lifestyle, and travel writer whose stories have appeared in Saveur, Travel + Leisure, Bon Appétit, GQ, Condé Nast Traveler, The New York Times T Style Magazine, Garden & Gun, the anthology Best Food Writing, and other publications. A Kentucky native, he lives in Brooklyn with his family, too many cookbooks, and a wood-burning grill in the kitchen where he regularly subjects friends and family to spirited, obsessive culinary projects.

Frank Stitt, a native of rural Alabama, is the chef of Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, Café Bottega, and Chez Fonfon in Birmingham, Alabama. He worked in various San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and met Alice Waters, who introduced him to Richard Olney, whose assistant he became in Provence. Highlands Bar & Grill has been nominated for the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant each year since 2009. Stitt has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance, and in 2011 he was inducted into the Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. He is the author of Frank Stitt’s Southern Table and Bottega Favorita.

The 2017 Panel

Lisa Abend is a correspondent for Time magazine. From Copenhagen, she also writes frequently about food and travel for AFAR, Saveur, The New York Times, Vice, and other newspapers and magazines. She is the author of The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen of Ferran Adrià’s elBulli.

Tamar Adler is a New York Times Magazine columnist and a contributing writer for Vogue. She is the author of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace with two more books forthcoming. She has worked as a cook at Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune in New York City and at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and she was the founding chef of Farm 255.

Michael Anthony is executive chef of both Gramercy Tavern and Untitled at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He began his culinary career under Shizuyo Shima in Tokyo, Japan, and spent five years training in renowned kitchens in France. In New York City, he worked at Restaurant Daniel and March, before he became co-chef of Blue Hill and executive chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. At Gramercy Tavern, in 2012 he won the James Beard Award for “Best Chef in New York City,” and in 2015 the James Beard Award for “Outstanding Chef in America.” He is the author of The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook and V is for Vegetables.

Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times and the author of How to Love Wine: A Memoir and Manifesto and Wine With Food: Pairing Notes and Recipes from The New York Times with recipes by Florence Fabricant. A collection of his columns is included in The New York Times Book of Wine. Before he started writing full-time about wine, he wrote primarily about restaurants and food. He created the Times’ “$25 and Under” restaurant reviews. He is a co-author of five editions of The New York Times Guide to Restaurants and published four editions of $25 and Under. In 2013, he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.

Jordan Mackay is a James-Beard-award winning writer on wine, spirits and food. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Texas Monthly, Decanter, The Art of Eating, Wine and Spirits, Food & Wine, Gourmet, and many other publications. His first book, Passion for Pinot, was published in 2009. His second, Secrets of the Sommeliers, co-authored with Rajat Parr, won a James Beard award in 2011. Two in the Kitchen, written with his wife Christie Dufault, was published in 2012. His latest book, Franklin Barbecue, co-written with Aaron Franklin, spent more than 12 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Jordan lives in San Francisco and travels extensively, speaking about wine, spirits, and food.

Tejal Rao is a reporter for The New York Times and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine. She was previously a restaurant critic for Bloomberg News and The Village Voice, and she won the James Beard Foundation Award for restaurant criticism in 2013 and 2016.

Winnie Yang is the managing editor of The Art of Eating and also of the website Culinary Backstreets. She writes about food and travel, and her work has appeared in AoE, Condé Nast Traveler, Saveur, Jamie Magazine, Time Out New York, Tasting Table, and many other publications.

The 2016 Panel


Lisa Abend
is a correspondent for Time magazine. From Copenhagen, she also writes frequently about food and travel for AFAR, Saveur, The New York Times, Vice, and other newspapers and magazines. She is the author of The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen of Ferran Adrià’s elBulli.

Tamar Adler is a New York Times Magazine columnist and a contributing writer for Vogue. She is the author of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace with two more books forthcoming. She has worked as a cook at Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune in New York City and at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and she was the founding chef of Farm 255.

Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times and the author of How to Love Wine: A Memoir and Manifesto and Wine With Food: Pairing Notes and Recipes from The New York Times with recipes by Florence Fabricant. A collection of his columns is included in The New York Times Book of Wine. Before he started writing full-time about wine, he wrote primarily about restaurants and food. He created the Times’ “$25 and Under” restaurant reviews. He is a co-author of five editions of The New York Times Guide to Restaurants and published four editions of $25 and Under. In 2013, he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.

Harold McGee writes about the science of food and cooking. He studied science at Caltech and literature at Yale, where he also taught. In 1984, he published the first edition of his prize-winning reference book On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. In 2008, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the world’s most influential people. McGee is also the author of The Curious Cook and Keys to Good Cooking, he had a long-running monthly column in The New York Times, and he has published original research in Nature and Physics Today.

Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery, is one of the world’s foremost authorities on beer and has considerable knowledge of wine. Many of his beers have won national and international awards. He is the author of The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, winner of an IACP book award and a finalist for a James Beard Foundation award. And he is editor-in-chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer, the most comprehensive book ever published on the subject, compiling the knowledge of 166 experts in 24 countries and covering 1,120 subjects. Oliver has hosted more than 900 beer tastings, dinners, and cooking demonstrations in 15 countries. He was a founding board member of Slow Food USA and served on the Board of Counselors of Slow Food International. In 2014 he received the James Beard Foundation Award for “Outstanding Beer, Wine or Spirits Professional.”

Daniel Patterson is a chef, restaurateur, and writer. In 2000, his restaurant Elisabeth Daniel in San Francisco was nominated for “Best New Restaurant” by the James Beard Foundation. His five current restaurants include the two-Michelin-star Coi. Patterson’s awards include Food & Wine’s “Best New Chef” in 1997 and San Francisco magazine’s “Chef of the Year” in 2007. In spring of 2014, Coi was recognized among the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (number 49) and Patterson was awarded “Best Chef: West” by the James Beard Foundation. He speaks at culinary conferences across the globe and is a member of the culinary collectives Cook It Raw and Gelinaz! He has written for The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Financial Times, San Francisco magazine, and Lucky Peach, and he is the author of Coi: Stories and Recipes, published in 2013. Patterson is also a co-founder of The Cooking Project, a non-profit dedicated to teaching fundamental cooking skills to kids and young adults.

Tejal Rao is a reporter for The New York Times and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine. She was previously a restaurant critic for Bloomberg News and The Village Voice, and she won the James Beard Foundation Award for restaurant criticism in 2013 and 2016.

The 2015 Panel


Nancy Harmon Jenkins
is an authority on Mediterranean cuisines. She is the author of seven cookbooks, including the best selling The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook and The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, about the consequences of that diet for good health. She has been a staff writer at The New York Times, and her articles have also appeared in The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The International Herald-Tribune, Saveur, Food &Wine, Bon Appétit, The Art of Eating, and other publications. Jenkins has served as Publications Director of the American Institute of Wine & Food, and she was a founding director of Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust. She created a series of videos about the foods and wines of southern Spain, Sicily, and Puglia for the Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavor program. She appears frequently as a commentator or participant on radio and television and as a speaker at international conferences.

Harold McGee writes about the science of food and cooking. He studied science at Caltech and literature at Yale, where he also taught. In 1984, he published the first edition of his prize-winning reference book On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. In 2008, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the world’s most influential people. McGee is also the author of The Curious Cook and Keys to Good Cooking, he had a long-running monthly column in the New York Times, and he has published original research in Nature and Physics Today.

Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery, is one of the world’s foremost authorities on beer and has considerable knowledge of wine. Many of his beers have won national and international awards. He is the author of The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, winner of an IACP book award and a finalist for a James Beard Foundation award. And he is editor-in-chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer, the most comprehensive book ever published on the subject, compiling the knowledge of 166 experts in 24 countries and covering 1,120 subjects. Oliver has hosted more than 900 beer tastings, dinners, and cooking demonstrations in 15 countries. He was a founding board member of Slow Food USA and served on the Board of Counselors of Slow Food International. In 2014 he received the James Beard Foundation Award for “Outstanding Beer, Wine or Spirits Professional.”

Daniel Patterson is a chef, restaurateur, and writer. In 2000, his restaurant Elisabeth Daniel in San Francisco was nominated for “Best New Restaurant” by the James Beard Foundation. His five current restaurants include the two-Michelin-star Coi. Patterson’s awards include Food & Wine’s “Best New Chef” in 1997 and San Francisco magazine’s “Chef of the Year” in 2007. In spring of 2014, Coi was recognized among the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (number 49) and Patterson was awarded “Best Chef: West” by the James Beard Foundation. He speaks at culinary conferences across the globe and is a member of the culinary collectives Cook It Raw and Gelinaz! He has written for The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Financial Times, San Francisco magazine, and Lucky Peach, and he is the author of Coi: Stories and Recipes, published in 2013. Patterson is also a co-founder of The Cooking Project, a non-profit dedicated to teaching fundamental cooking skills to kids and young adults.

Tejal Rao is a reporter for The New York Times and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine. She was previously a restaurant critic for Bloomberg News and The Village Voice, and she won the James Beard Foundation Award for restaurant criticism in 2013 and 2016.

Lucas Wittmann was recently named Executive Editor and Associate Publisher of Regan Arts, a newly launched division of Phaidon. He was previously books editor and senior features editor at The Daily Beast and Newsweek where he won a National Magazine Award for “Book Beast,” one of the most widely read literary sites. He also helped to launch a new literary award, serving as a judge for The Newsweek & The Daily Beast-Open Hands Prize for Commentary in South Asia. He is a co-founder of the new literary cabaret series House of SpeakEasy, a non-profit dedicated to working with writers to develop new audiences and bring them to schools.

Winnie Yang is the managing editor of The Art of Eating and also of the website Culinary Backstreets. She writes about food and travel, and her work has appeared in AoE, Condé Nast Traveler, Saveur, Jamie Magazine, Time Out New York, Tasting Table, and many other publications.