Kwame Onwuachi
Kwame Onwuachi is a James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur, and author. He was named a Food & Wine’s Best New Chef, Esquire Magazine’s 2019 Chef of the Year, a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes, and he was recently announced on Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025.
Raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana, he creates ground-breaking Afro-Caribbean cuisine inspired by his ancestors and upbringing with intentionality and purpose behind every dish. Onwuachi’s restaurant, Tatiana was named the “#1 Restaurant in New York” by the New York Times two years in a row.
His DC restaurant, Dōgon earned a spot as #2 on Washingtonian’s list of Best Restaurants in D.C., was named on World’s 50 Best North America, and is on Condé Nast Traveler’s Best New Restaurants in the World: 2025 Hot List.
His most recent venture, Patty Palace by Chef Kwame, is in Citi Field and Timeout Market Union Square, with more locations on the horizon. This year Onwuachi expanded his restaurant portfolio to Miami with Las’Lap and is headed to the West Coast with a partnership with SAHARA Las Vegas in early 2026.
Tyler Florence
Twenty-eight-year Food Network veteran Tyler Florence has captivated millions of viewers on numerous hit shows, including Emmy nominated “Tyler’s Ultimate,” and “The Great Food Truck Race,” heading into its 18th season. His 17 cookbooks, American Grill (Abrams) was released in May 2024.
Tyler’s full-stack production company, Monarch Collective, Inc., produces projects for television and film, plus digital content and advertising videos for a variety of well-known clients including The Venetian Resort, Red Bull, The Four Seasons and The Food Network/Discovery to name a few.
A proud graduate of Johnson & Wales University ’94, ‘04 Hon, and a two- time James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef West Coast, Tyler launched his award-winning flagship restaurant, Wayfare Tavern, over a decade ago. Under his restaurant group, The Greater Organization, Tyler operates several other highly acclaimed spots. Miller & Lux, recently named Best Steakhouse, Bay Area by San Francisco Magazine, is located in the Chase Arena, home of the Golden State Warriors. In addition, Tyler Florence was also named “2024 San Francisco Chef Of The Year” by San Francisco Magazine. In December 2023 he opened the second outpost of Miller & Lux in Hawaii, at the Four Seasons Hualalai resort.
Andrew Zimmern
Andrew Zimmern is an Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer and passionate global citizen. As the creator, executive producer and host of the Bizarre Foods franchise, Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food, What’s Eating America, Emmy-nominated Family Dinner, Wild Game Kitchen, Field to Fire and the Emmy-winning The Zimmern List, he has devoted his life to exploring and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance and understanding through food. He has written four books, including the Ippy Gold Medal award-winning AZ and the Lost City of Ophir. Andrew is the founder and chairman of Intuitive Content, named one of the top 100 production companies in the world by Realscreen, and Passport Hospitality, a restaurant and food service development company. He is passionate about his philanthropic endeavors and sits on the boards of Services for the UnderServed, EXPLR Media, Soigne Hospitality, Giving Kitchen, Beans is How and The Great Northern. He is on the advisory boards of Procure Impact and the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, and serves on City Harvest’s Food Council. Andrew is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme and The Nature Conservancy, and is the International Rescue Committee’s Voice for Nutrition. He is a founding member of the Coalition for Sustainable Aquaculture and the Independent Restaurant Coalition.
Carrie Morey
Carrie Morey founded her handmade biscuit business in 2005 with the goal of making the tender, buttery, made-by-hand biscuits of her mother accessible across the country. Now two decades later, Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit is widely recognized as an iconic Southern brand with national retail and e-commerce exposure, grab-and-go eateries, a catering division in Charleston, 24 SFA sofi™ awards, and a cult-like following. Carrie is the author of cookbooks: Callie’s Biscuits and Southern Traditions and Hot Little Suppers and stars in the culinary docu-series, How She Rolls, about biscuits, business, and balance in her life as an entrepreneur. She resides in Charleston, SC with her husband and three daughters.
Chris Shepherd
Midwest-raised, James Beard Award-winning Chef Chris Shepherd has helped change the landscape of the Houston culinary scene since opening Underbelly in 2012. He built the restaurant to support the Houston food community and its suppliers by buying local and drawing inspiration from the people and cultures that live in the city. Thanks to Chris’ vision and passion, Underbelly was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, was named one of the best new restaurants in the country by Bon Appetit and Esquire and was named one of 38 essential restaurants in America by Eater. Chris was named one of the 10 Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine in 2013 and was then awarded the 2014 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest.
Chris was a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef in 2019 and was named Robb Report‘s Chef of the Year the same year. Chris’ first cookbook, Cook Like a Local: Flavors that Will Change the Way You Cook—and See the World, was published by Clarkson Potter in September 2019 and was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Foundation Book Award. In 2023, Chris launched a TV show Eat Like a Local on Houston’s KPRC-TV, where he tells the stories of Houston’s rich and diverse food and beverage scene. He also hosts an onstage conversation series, Table to Stage, with the biggest names in food and beverage.
Chris began his fine dining career at Brennan’s of Houston, where he spent seven years in the kitchen and then ran the wine program for two. He left Brennan’s in 2006 to open Catalan Food & Wine, which was named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America that same year.
Chris’ foundation Southern Smoke has distributed more than $11 million directly to people in the food and beverage industry in crisis via the Emergency Relief Fund and provides free mental health counseling to F+B workers.