Padma Lakshmi is an Emmy–nominated food expert, television producer, host, and The New York Times bestselling author. She is the creator of the critically acclaimed Hulu series Taste the Nation, which is the recipient of a James Beard Foundation Award top prize in Visual Media – Long Form. The show will be releasing its second season in the spring of 2023. Lakshmi serves as the host and executive producer of Bravo’s two-time Emmy–winning series Top Chef, which has been nominated for 42 Emmys, including her three-time nomination for Outstanding Host for A Reality-Competition Program. Lakshmi is a cofounder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EFA) and an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Artist Ambassador for immigrantsʼ rights and womenʼs rights. Lakshmi was also appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She established herself as a food expert early in her career, hosting two successful cooking shows: Padma’s Passport and Planet Food, and writing the bestselling Easy Exotic, which won the “Best First Book” award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Lakshmi followed this with the publication of her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet, and her memoir The New York Times bestselling Love, Loss, and What We Ate. She later published The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs. In August of 2021, she published her first children’s book Tomatoes for Neela. Additionally, Lakshmi is a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has received the 2018 Karma Award from Variety, as well as the 2016 NECO Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Ruth Reichl began writing about food in 1972 when she published Mmmmm: A Feastiary. She moved to Berkeley, California in 1973, and became co-owner and cook at The Swallow Restaurant. In 1978, she became a restaurant critic for New West and California magazines and went on to be the restaurant critic and food editor of The Los Angeles Times. From 1993 to 1999, she served as a restaurant critic for The New York Times. In 1999, she moved to Gourmet magazine, where she was editor-in-chief for 10 years. She has authored five memoirs, Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, Garlic and Sapphires, For You Mom,Finally, and Save Me the Plums, which was published in 2019. Her novel, Delicious!, was published in 2014, and her cookbook, My Kitchen Year, 136 Recipes that Saved My Life in 2015. She edited Best American Food Writing 2018 and The Modern Library Food Series, which currently includes 10 books. She was the executive producer and host of the public television series, Adventures with Ruth and a judge on Top Chef Masters. She is the recipient of six James Beard Awards. At the moment, she has finished The Paris Novel to be published next year by Random House. Her most recent project is a documentary, Food and Country, with Laura Gabbert (City of Gold), which premiered at Sundance in January.

Marcus Samuelsson is the renowned chef behind many restaurants worldwide including Red Rooster Harlem and Red Rooster Overtown (Miami), MARCUS Montreal, Marcus B&P in Newark, Streetbird at Yankee Stadium, Marcus at Baha Mar Fish + Chop House in the Bahamas, the recently opened Hav & Mar in Chelsea (NYC), and his newest restaurant, Marcus B&G, which opened in Atlanta in March 2023. Samuelsson was the youngest person to ever receive a three-star review from The New York Times and has won eight James Beard Foundation Awards. He is a longstanding judge on the hit Food Network show Chopped, head judge of the new Top Chef Family Style and Iron Chef on Netflix’s rebooted Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. Samuelsson is the author of multiple books, including The New York Times bestselling memoir Yes, Chef and The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food.

Dawn Davis is the editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit and Epicurious. Davis, formerly vice president and publisher of 37 Ink, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, is an award–winning publisher and storytelling advocate who, for over two decades, has championed and elevated underrepresented voices. Her interest in food and restaurants led her to write If You Can Stand the Heat: Tales from Chefs and Restaurateurs, profiling prolific chefs of the time. Davis was named the 2019 Editor of the Year by Poets & Writers and has published several award–winning and The New York Times bestselling books.

Chris Morocco is the food director at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, where he oversees the food team along with all recipe content. He regularly appears in the brand's videos, including his show Reverse Engineering. Prior to joining Bon Appétit, Chris held editorial positions at Real Simple and Vogue and completed his culinary education at the French Culinary Institute. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.