Bio
Bobby Flay
Bobby Flay has proven himself to be a force in the culinary world. He is the owner of
popular and critically acclaimed New York restaurants Mesa Grill and Bar Americain.
In
the past few years, this native New Yorker has ventured outside of his hometown to open
Mesa Grill Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, Bobby Flay Steak at the Borgata Hotel Casino
& Spa in Atlantic City, Mesa Grill Bahamas at the Cove Atlantis and Bobby's Burger
Palace in Smithtown New York, Monmouth New Jersey and Paramus New Jersey. He
appears daily on a series of Food Network shows, including “Throwdown with Bobby
Flay,” “Iron Chef America,” “Grill It!” and “Boy Meets Grill.”
He is the author of nine
cookbooks. His most recent, Burgers, Fries and Shakes, was released in April 2009.
Jose Garces
Jose Garces has emerged as one of the nation’s top young chefs since opening his
first restaurant, Amada, in 2005.
He has opened six additional restaurants, in both
Philadelphia and Chicago (Tinto, Distrito, Chifa, Village Whiskey); authored a stunning
cookbook, "Latin Evolution"; won the James Beard Foundation’s prestigious Best Chef
Mid-Atlantic award 2009; appeared on Food Network’s Iron Chef America; and won
the most recent season of The Next Iron Chef, making him one of just six chefs in the
country to hold the prestigious title of Iron Chef America.
In February, he opened Garces
Trading Company, a gourmet market and café and plans to open a farm to table restaurant
at the Cira Center. Chef Garces is also the executive chef at Chicago’s much-praised
Catalan restaurant Mercat a la Planxa.
Masaharu Morimoto
Chef Masaharu Morimoto is as comfortable cooking against the clock for a live
television audience as he is preparing his signature omakase menu at his namesake
restaurants. Through the seamless integration of Western and Japanese ingredients, he
has effectively created his own, unique cuisine.
In 2001, he opened Morimoto restaurant
in Philadelphia. In 2004, Wasabi by Morimoto opened to great acclaim at the Taj Mahal
in Mumbai, followed in 2005 by the Michelin-star rated Morimoto-XEX in Tokyo. In
2006, Chef Morimoto brought his eponymous restaurant to New York City. Earning the
James Beard Foundation award for Outstanding Restaurant Design in 2008, Morimoto
New York has garnered numerous awards, including being named by Condé Nast
Traveler as a 2006 Hot List restaurant; one of New York’s Top 50 restaurants by Travel
+ Leisure; Top Newcomer by Zagat Survey; and one of New York Magazine’s Best
New Restaurants.
His first cookbook, Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking,
was nominated for a 2008 James Beard Foundation Book Award and won two IACP
awards. In summer 2010, Chef Morimoto opened another high-end Japanese restaurant in
Waikiki, Hawaii and his first West Coast restaurant in Napa, California.
Kim Severson
Kim Severson is a staff writer for the Dining section of The New York Times. She
previously wrote about cooking and the culture of food for the San Francisco Chronicle,
after a seven-year stint as an editor and reporter at the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska.
Before writing about food full-time, she covered crime, education, social services and
government for daily newspapers on the West Coast. Ms. Severson has won the Casey
Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her work on childhood obesity in 2002 and four
James Beard awards for food writing. She has written three books, The Trans Fat
Solution: Cooking and Shopping to Eliminate the Deadliest Fat from Your Diet, The
New Alaska Cookbook and most recently her memoir, Spoon Fed: Now Eight Cooks
Saved My Life.
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