The Judges
April Bloomfield
April Bloomfield has spent most of her life in the kitchen. A native of Birmingham, England, she honed her craft through cook positions in various kitchens throughout London and Northern Ireland, including Kensington Place and Bibendum. It was under the guidance of Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray at The River Café where she learned to appreciate the beauty and simplicity of food.
In February 2004, April and restauranteur Ken Friedman opened New York City’s first gastropub, The Spotted Pig. Under April's direction, The Spotted Pig has earned one Michelin star for eight consecutive years, and since 2010, April & Ken’s The Breslin Bar & Dining Room has also earned a star in the esteemed guidebook. A Food & Wine “Best New Chef,” April continues to receive widespread attention for her food.
April’s first cookbook, A Girl and Her Pig, was published in April 2012.
Brian Boitano
Olympic figure skating gold medalist Brian Boitano is the star of Food Network and Cooking Channel’s What Would Brian Boitano Make, and he's just written a cookbook of the same name. His list of accomplishments includes winning a primetime Emmy award and producing more than 30 TV specials.
He began exploring different foods and teaching himself to cook when he toured the globe during his skating career. Now he takes every opportunity to sample new foods and create innovative dishes in the kitchen.
David Chang with Peter Meehan
David Chang is the chef and founder of Momofuku, which includes restaurants in New York City, Sydney, and Toronto as well as a best-selling cookbook and print journal called Lucky Peach.
Since opening Noodle Bar in 2004, David has been awarded Time 100 and Fortune’s “40 Under 40” and profiled in The New Yorker and Vogue. He was named a GQ “Man of the Year,” and called one of “the most influential people of the 21st century” by Esquire. He’s taken home four James Beard Awards, and Momofuku Ko has two Michelin stars, which it has retained for six years.
David's first cookbook, Momofuku, a New York Times best seller, came out in the fall of 2009. His quarterly print journal with Peter Meehan and Chris Ying called Lucky Peach launched in the summer of 2011. In the fall of 2012, David was the first chef to be featured on the PBS television show The Mind of a Chef.
Amanda Cohen
Amanda Cohen is the chef and owner of Dirt Candy, her award-winning vegetable restaurant in New York City’s East Village. The first vegetarian restaurant in seventeen years to receive two stars from the New York Times, it has been recognized by the Michelin Guide three years in a row, and won awards from Gourmet Magazine, the Village Voice, and many others. She was the first vegetarian chef to compete on Iron Chef America and her comic book cookbook Dirt Candy: A Cookbook is the first graphic novel cookbook to be published in North America.
Nicholas Day
Nicholas Day has been a wine salesman, a wedding cake baker, a fairground maintenance man, and a stay-at-home father. His book on the history and science of infancy, Baby Meets World, was published last year. He writes about the care of children for Slate and the feeding of them for Food52. He lives in Buffalo with his family.
Kerry Diamond
Kerry Diamond co-owns three Brooklyn eateries: Seersucker, Smith Canteen, and Nightingale 9. She is also the editorial director of Cherry Bombe, a biannual magazine about women and food. The Cherry Bombe team will host its first conference, Jubilee, in March 2014. Diamond resides in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and business partner, Chef Rob Newton. She has a wicked sweet tooth.
Tad Friend
Tad Friend, a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, writes the magazine’s “Letter from California.” Knowledgeable about nothing in particular, but curious about anyone who’s passionate or obsessive, he’s had his work republished in The Best Technology Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, The Best American Sports Writing, and The Best American Crime Reporting. He is also the author of the memoir Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Amanda Hesser, and their twins.
Andrea Gentl
Andrea Gentl and Martin Hyers are a New York-based photography team (Gentl & Hyers) that met while studying photography at Parson's School of Design. They have been working together since 1993; photographing still life, food, beauty, fashion, and travel for a wide array of editorial and advertising clients.
Andrea is often shooting foragers, locavores, and other things of interest and inspiration for her blog Hungryghostfoodandtravel.com. They live in downtown Manhattan with their two children Sam and Lula.
Aran Goyoaga
Aran Goyoaga is a two-time James Beard Award finalist food stylist and photographer based in Seattle and creator of award-winning blog Cannelle Et Vanille.
Aran grew up in the Basque Country in Northern Spain in a family of professional pastry chefs and cooks. Her love of food began in her maternal grandparents’ pastry shop and in the fields of her paternal grandparents’ farm.
Aran is also the author of Small Plates and Sweet Treats: My Family’s Journey to Gluten-Free Cooking, which was named one of the top 6 cookbooks of 2012 on Good Morning America.
Aran’s work has been featured in the New York Times, GOOP, Bon Appétit, Saveur, Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, Design*Sponge, Sweet Paul Magazine, and more.
Evan Hansen
Evan Hansen lives in San Francisco's Mission District, right around the corner from a great burrito joint, a decent French bistro, and pretty awesome sushi. He eats very well, usually at home with his wife, Hilary; their two children; Bruno the dog; and two cats. Having achieved jaw-dropping success after jaw-dropping success in tech journalism (Google it) he recently joined Medium, a start-up that's changing the way people write and read online.
Kat Kinsman
Kat Kinsman is the managing editor of CNN.com’s EPPY Award-winning food blog Eatocracy. She oversees CNN’s Matrimony beat and writes for CNN Living on numerous topics, especially mental health and being a ladyperson.
Before joining CNN in 2010, Kinsman served as the senior editor for AOL Food and Slashfood, worked as a copywriter at Tribal DDB, and spent 10 years as an art director and designer at publications such as Maxim, FHM, CitySearch, and others. She is a Kansas City Barbeque Society-certified BBQ judge, vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee and an avid member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. In 2013, she was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award, spoke at a wide variety of conferences, and joined the New York Times’ Kim Severson onstage at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium in a heated debate over Pie vs. Cake. (They tied.)
Liz Larkin
Liz Larkin is the owner and operator of Mrs. Larkin’s, a micro-bakery in Pound Ridge, New York, producing artisanal scones, cookies, and baked goods. Mrs. Larkin’s products can be found at the Pound Ridge Farmers & Bakers Market from April through November, as well as select local retail food shops throughout the year. Her scones were named Best Scones in Westchester by Westchester Magazine in December 2013.
Josh Malina
After graduating from Yale University with a B.A. in theatre, Joshua Malina made his professional acting debut in the Broadway production of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men. He went on to star as Jeremy Goodwin in the critically-acclaimed television series Sports Night, and later played Will Bailey in Sorkin’s multi-Emmy-winning The West Wing.
Elsewhere in film, Malina appeared in the comedy A View from the Top, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Mike Meyers, In the Line of Fire, opposite Clint Eastwood, and Bulworth, with Warren Beatty and Halle Berry. A co-creator and executive producer of the hit show Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo, Malina is also the writer-creator of the Crackle webseries Backwash. For three seasons he played the role of Peter Alpert on the USA series In Plain Sight, and he can be seen in the upcoming films Kings of Badassdom and The Young Kieslowski. He is currently starring as David Rosen in ABC's hit show, Scandal.
A longtime fan of food, Malina has eaten at least three meals a day for nearly 48 years.
Maxwell Ryan
Maxwell Ryan is an interior designer, an author, and the founder of Apartment Therapy Media, originally an interior design service and now a network of blogs devoted to helping people make their homes beautiful, organized, and healthy.
In 2004, Maxwell and his brother launched ApartmentTherapy.com. The network now includes two sites -- ApartmentTherapy.com, devoted to home design, and TheKitchn.com, devoted to home cooking -- reaching over 16 million unique readers per month.
Sam Sifton
Sam Sifton is a senior editor at The New York Times, where he runs coverage of food and writes a cooking column for the Sunday Times Magazine. Formerly the restaurant critic, he also served as both national editor and culture editor. A native Brooklynite, he lives in Red Hook with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well.
Christina Tosi
Christina Tosi is the chef, owner, and founder of Momofuku Milk Bar, called “one of the most exciting bakeries in the country” by Bon Appétit. As founder of the dessert program at Momofuku, Christina helped Momofuku Ko earn two Michelin stars and Momofuku Ssäm jump onto Restaurant Magazine’s top 100 restaurants in the world list. She is the 2012 recipient of the James Beard Rising Star Chef award. Christina lives in Brooklyn, NY with her three dogs and eats an unconscionable amount of raw cookie dough every day.
Emily Vikre
Emily Vikre started cooking because there were things she wanted to eat that her mother wouldn't make for her. She cooked her first family meal in 4th grade and hasn't looked back! She holds a Master's in Nutrition Communication and is finishing up a PhD in Food Policy, but her studies showed her that mostly she really just likes food. She writes and photographs the blog Five and Spice and the column "Breakfast of Champions" for Food52. Recently she and her husband opened a craft distillery in Duluth, Minnesota where Emily is the "Arbiter of Taste," crafting gin botanical blends and determining when whiskies have come of age. She is also the extremely sleep-deprived mother of the world's cutest, but least sleepy, 4 month old baby boy.