The Judges
Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman write, cook, and eat in Berkeley, California. Michael's books include Telegraph Avenue and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Ayelet is the author of the novel Love & Treasure and of The New York Times bestseller, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace.
Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo
Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo are the co-founders of the site Of a Kind, which sells the pieces and tells the stories of emerging fashion and home designers. Friends for almost 15 years, they are all about discovery—sign up for their newsletter for proof—and are always on the lookout for healthy-ish recipes that will keep them from ordering in at the end of a long day.
John Birdsall
John Birdsall writes about food and places and lives in Oakland, California, with his husband. He is a winner of the James Beard Award for food and culture writing, and curates crumbling stacks of the faded cookbooks he's acquired.
Sara Kate Gillingham
Sara Kate Gillingham is a James Beard Award-winning food writer and cookbook author. She is the founder of TheKitchn.com and also has written food stories and recipes for publications like Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Saveur, House Beautiful, O, The Oprah Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. She is also a ceramicist and a mother.
Phyllis Grant
Phyllis Grant spent her twenties in New York City dancing at Juilliard and cooking at Bouley and Nobu, and her thirties having children, teaching yoga, and guiding women through childbirth. These days, she can be found in Berkeley, writing, developing recipes, and photographing, or online at Food52, Sunset Magazine, Oprah, Saveur, Food & Wine, and Real Simple. Her writing has been featured in several anthologies including Best Food Writing 2015. She is getting oh so close to releasing her first cookbook out into the world.
Brooks Headley
Brooks Headley is the owner of Superiority Burger, a 6-seat vegetarian restaurant in the East Village with dubious hours of operation. His first cookbook and last year's Piglet winner, Fancy Desserts, was published in 2014, and in 2013, he received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef for work with his team at Del Posto in Manhattan. He writes a quarterly column in Bon Appétit and is currently working on The Superiority Burger Cookbook, which has a fall 2017 release date.
Julie Klam
After interning for Late Night with David Letterman, Julie Klam went on to write for such publications as O, The Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar, and The New York Times, and for the VH1 television show Pop-Up Video, where she earned an Emmy nomination. The author of four (almost five) books, Julie lives in New York City.
Jessica Koslow
In 2011, Jessica opened Sqirl, which is the only non-dinner spot on LA Weekly's and LA Magazine's "Top 20 restaurants in Los Angeles." The recipient of this year's Eater National Award for Best Neighborhood restaurant, Sqirl is also championed on Jonathan Gold's "101 Essential LA Restaurants" list since its inception. Jessica was named Eater's LA Chef of the Year, is the recipe writer for Vogue.com, and has two books coming out with Abrams. The first, Everything I Want to Eat, is slated for fall of 2016.
Yotam Ottolenghi
Yotam Ottolenghi is a food writer and chef-patron of the NOPI and Ottolenghi restaurants and delis in London. He writes a weekly column in The Guardian’s weekend magazine and has written five bestselling cookbooks. His most recent book: Nopi: The Cookbook, co-authored with Ramael Scully, was published in September 2015. Yotam has made two "Mediterranean Feasts" series for More 4, along with a BB4 documentary, "Jerusalem on a Plate."
Chris Schonberger
Chris Schonberger is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of First We Feast, a James Beard Award–winning website devoted to exploring the intersection of food and pop culture. Formerly, he served as Associate Editor of Time Out New York's Food & Drink section, and he has written for Bon Appétit, Lucky Peach, and more. If he ever appeared on BBC Two's Mastermind (a dream of any dual citizen), his specialist subjects would be nachos and food references in rap music.
Ari Shapiro
In 2015, Ari Shapiro joined Kelly McEvers, Audie Cornish, and Robert Siegel as a weekday co-host of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine. Ari has reported from above the Arctic Circle and aboard Air Force One. He's covered wars in Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel, and he has filed stories from five continents. (Sorry, Australia.)
Sadie Stein
Sadie Stein is a writer and editor, and a contributing editor for The Paris Review. A longtime armchair cookbook reader and enthusiastic cook, she is also the member of a cookbook club along with Ruth Curry, Emily Gould, and Lukas Volger. She lives in New York with her husband.
Michael Twitty
Michael W. Twitty is a noted culinary and cultural historian who interprets the experiences of enslaved African Americans through food and its preparation. He created Afroculinaria.com, the first blog devoted to African American historic foodways and their legacy, and was honored by First We Feast as one of twenty greatest food bloggers of all time. He's appeared on Bizarre Foods America, NPR, TED Talks, and Harper Collins will release his first major book in 2016: The Cooking Gene, which traces his ancestry through food from Africa to America and slavery to freedom.
Andrew Zimmern
A three-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer, and teacher, Andrew Zimmern is regarded as one of the most versatile and knowledgeable personalities in the food world. He’s the creator, executive producer, and host of the Bizarre Foods franchise on Travel Channel, and has explored cultures in more than 150 countries. In his rare downtime, he relaxes at home in Minneapolis with his wife, son, and two uneaten pets.