Ming is currently the host and executive producer of the public television cooking show, SIMPLY MING, currently in its sixth season. His SIMPLY MING video podcasts, the first of their kind, feature tutorials on everything from filleting fish to food allergy basics (available on ming.com and iTunes). Ming began cooking for television audiences on the Food Network, where he was the 1998 Emmy Award-Winning host of East Meets West with Ming Tsai. Ming's Quest, his popular cooking adventure series, also aired on Food Network. In the summer of 2008, Ming traveled to the Beijing Olympics with NBC’s Today show to provide viewers with insight into food customs and traditions that define his Chinese heritage. In addition to television, Ming is the author of three cookbooks: Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai, Simply Ming, and Ming's Master Recipes.

Chef Van Aken has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation as the "Best Chef in the Southeast." He has received a wealth of accolades including the Robert Mondavi Culinary Award of Excellence, and the Food Arts Silver Spoon Lifetime Achievement Award. His acclaimed signature restaurant, NORMAN'S, in Coral Gables, has been honored as one of "America's Top Tables" for four consecutive years by Gourmet Magazine, and has earned the title of "Best Restaurant in South Florida" from the New York Times and "Best Restaurant in Miami" from Food & Wine Magazine. Van Aken has also been featured on numerous television programs, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Emeril Live, the Food Network's My Country My Kitchen, and Eating Out Loud with Ruth Reichl.

In addition to being an award-winning chef, Van Aken is highly regarded as a culinary educator and cookbook author. He shares his passion for cooking by teaching classes at NORMAN'S as well as culinary schools across the country. He is the author of four cookbooks: Feast of Sunlight 1988, The Exotic Fruit Book 1995, Norman's New World Cuisine 1997, and New World Kitchen 2003.

Nick Stellino grew up in Palermo, on the island of Sicily, and came to the United States in 1975. In 1991, he decided to leave his lucrative career as a Wall Street stockbroker in order to follow his dream of becoming a chef. He started in his culinary career as a dishwasher. Over time, he apprenticed with the best chefs in America. "I was in heaven working my way up the restaurant line," says Nick. "But I wanted to share my enthusiasm for Italian cooking with more people. I decided a cooking show was the answer." Employing the energy, dedication and entrepreneurial vision that had taken him from Palermo to Wall Street, Nick began calling television production companies. His efforts culminated in the highly successful series Nick Stellino Cooking with Friends, Cucina Amore I, II and III, Nick Stellino's Family Kitchen I, II, III, IV and V, and the PBS specials, Nick Stellino's Dinner Party and Nick Stellino: Food, Love & Family.

Among his many accolades, Mario was named "Man of the Year" in the chef category by GQ Magazine in 1999. In 2002 he won the James Beard Foundation's "Best Chef: New York City" award, and in 2005 the James Beard Foundation awarded Mario "Outstanding Chef of the Year". Mario is also one of the recipients of the 2001 D'Artagnan Cervena Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America, a prestigious lifetime achievement award.

Working as a consultant for the Gila River Community, Wilder opened KAI Restaurant at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa in October, 2002. The menu at KAI is based on traditional crops grown on the Gila River. At KAI, Wilder has created a very modern menu using ingredients that have been grown by the Pima and Maricopa Indians for hundreds of years. The restaurant is set in a beautiful dining room overlooking the Estrella Mountains south of Phoenix off Maricopa Road. The Arizona Republic gave KAI 5 Stars and named it Phoenix's Best Southwest Restaurant.

Based on childhood memories of the feelings and flavors of Hawaii, Roy invented what he refers to as “Hawaiian Fusion© Cuisine” — a tempting combination of exotic flavors and spices mixed with the freshest of local ingredients, always with an emphasis on seafood.
In 1984, he opened his own restaurant in Los Angeles called 385 North.
However, the desire to further expand his culinary horizons while getting closer to his roots led Yamaguchi to move to Hawaii in 1988 and open Roy’s.
Yamaguchi is now regarded as a pioneer who mastered a distinctive style, which brought his cooking to the forefront of contemporary gastronomy. As testimony to his success, there are now 36 Roy’s, including 27 in the Continental US, 7 in Hawaii, 1 in Japan and 1 in Guam.

He was born in Segovia on 2-10-63. He started with Karlos at 15 years old. At present he is a chef. In 1986 he won the “Championship of New Cooks” In 1990 he won the third championship of new cooker of Euskadi.

In 1992 he got the first reward for originality and creativeness.

Susan Spicer is a one-woman industry in New Orleans. She has been named one of Food and Wine's 10 Best New Chefs and received the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Southeast Region, 1993. Bayona has been featured in Bon Appetit (1994) and Food and Wine featured Susan in their 2000 Thanksgiving issue. She has been a guest chef for the Cunard Line four times and for Crystal Cruise Line in 1996. She has received the DiRoNa designation from Distinguished Restaurants of North America, the Robert Mondavi Culinary Award of Excellence, and Bayona was voted Number One in Gourmet Reader's Choice Poll of America's Top Tables, New Orleans.

Chef Paul has cooked for heads of state as well as members of the U.S. Congress. Charity work is dear to Chef Paul’s heart and he lends his support to many major fundraisers, which benefit charities such as Meals on Wheels, Easter Seals, the March of Dimes, Big Brothers/Big Sisters,and the National Alzheimer’s Association. Prudhomme was the first Chef to participate in the Robert Mondavi “Great Chef of America” series and was one of 12 chefs chosen from around the world to participate in the celebration of Jerusalem 3000th year anniversary where each chef created a Kosher dish to be served at the King David’s Feast in March 1996.

Waldy Malouf graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1975 having won First Prize in that year's Carras Culinary Competition. His extensive professional experience includes affiliations with The Four Seasons, La Côte Basque, the St. Regis Hotel, La Cremaillere (Banksville, NY), the Hudson River Club, and The Rainbow Room.

Beginning at La Cremaillere, Waldy developed a signature cuisine that presented the culinary riches of New York State's Hudson River Valley, a subject he explored to great acclaim in his first book, THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY COOKBOOK: A Leading American Chef Savors the Region's Bounty (Addison-Wesley, 1995). The book, nominated for a Julia Child Cookbook Award by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, won high praise from The New York Times, which reviewed it on two separate occasions, naming it one of the year's "Ten Best" in "The Sunday Book Review." Bon Appetit, Gourmet and The Daily News also lauded the work, which was released in paperback by Harvard Common Press and optioned by Book-of-the-Month-Club. Waldy is currently working on his second book, MAGNIFICENT MEATS, to be published in 2000.

Diane Forley's innovative cooking and entrepreneurial spirit has established her as a leading woman chef of New American Cuisine. As chef/owner of Verbena Restaurant and Courtyard Garden in New York City, Diane developed seasonal menus grounded in locally grown produce from the nearby Union Square Greenmarket. Later, she developed Verbena Foods, a take-out annex of her restaurant, to offset the lack of healthy food to-go options in the neighborhood. Her boutique wine bar, Bar Demi, anticipated the proliferation of wine bars dotting the sidewalks today. More recently, Diane compiled her favorite fruit and vegetable-inspired meals from Verbena for her cookbook, Anatomy of a Dish.

Diane is currently working as a chef consultant, offering her expertise as a culinary spokesperson and food innovator. Her clients include restaurant professionals, magazine editors, nutritionists and aspiring cooks.

After graduating from the CIA in 1981, Morrone refined his classical training over the next three years at River Café in New York. In 1984, acclaimed chef Bradley Ogden saw a spark of brilliance in Morrone and recruited him to be the Executive Sous Chef at Campton Place in San Francisco. Under Ogden, Morrone blended his classical style with Ogden’s regional American cooking – with stunning results.

At the age of 26, Morrone was recruited to be the Executive Chef at the high-profile Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. As culinary host to the stars and the “movers and shakers” of the entertainment industry, Morrone stretched his culinary horizons and began refining his personal style of cooking.

After five year, Morrone returned to San Francisco as Executive Chef to open Aqua where the seafood-focused menu earned him raves and established him as one of the country’s brightest culinary talents. Under his tenure, Aqua earned a “four star” rating from the San Francisco Chronicle and Morrone was named “Chef of the Year” in San Francisco by the Chefs of America Organization in 1992. He also received the Robert Mondovi Culinary award of Excellence and was featured in the PBS series “Great Chefs in Great Cities.”

Following the success of Aqua, Morrone moved onto work on several other high profile Bay Area projects, including Ogden’s One Market restaurant in San Francisco. But after opening several new restaurants, Morrone decided to take a short respite from the kitchen by spending a year in France to acquaint himself with the best of the country’s contemporary cooking.

Returning revived with fresh ides; Morrone was ready to step back into the limelight. In February 1999, he opened the Fifth Floor in San Francisco to immediate accolades, again launching a new, high profile restaurant into the realms of the “Best in the City.” He used his knowledge acquired in France along with his considerable talent to create his won versions of classic dishes once found exclusively on fine dining menus. His new “classics” are becoming a part of San Francisco’s culinary lexicon. In fact in 2002, Morrone was named Chef of the Year by San Francisco Magazine.

In winter of 2003 George, joined nationally renowned chef Mark Miller in Sydney Australia To launch Fire Fly restaurant, Sydney’s most prestigious waterfront restaurant.

KATY KECK began cooking at the age of 5 on an Easy Bake oven and soon moved on to such great successes as a blue ribbon in the Butter Cake division at a local Indiana 4H Fair. But only after surviving a University of Chicago MBA and a career in marketing and finance on Wall Street did cooking became a serious career option.

In 1986, Keck won an apprenticeship at Le Grand Monarque in Chartres, France as the grand prize in the Flavors of France contest for her Marie Brizard chocolate torte recipe. This stage was followed by a year of internships in three other Michelin-starred restaurants. On returning to the United States, Keck created Savoir Faire Foods, a free-lance consulting business with primary projects in recipe development, new product development and marketing, food and demo styling, and culinary special events. Ms. Keck has styled segments for The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Today Show, Late Show with David Letterman, Linda McCartney, Antonio Banderas, and former Yankee second baseman Steve Sax, spokesman for the US Rice Council.