Donna Lennard is the owner, founder, and visionary of Il Buco, Il Buco Alimentari, and Il Buco Vita in New York City and Bottega Il Buco in Ibiza, Spain. For nearly twenty-five years, she has discovered and championed such game-changing chefs as Ignacio Mattos, Sara Jenkins, Jody Williams, and Justin Smillie, who rose to fame in her restaurants' kitchens.
Joshua David Stein is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. A contributing editor to Food & Wine and the former restaurant critic for the New York Observer and the Village Voice, he is also the co-author of Notes from a Young Black Chef with Kwame Onwuachi, the forthcoming Nom Wah Tea Parlor Cookbook, and the U.S. editor of Where Chefs Eat.
Alice Waters is a chef, author, food activist, and the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California (est. 1971). She has been a champion of local sustainable agriculture for over four decades. In 1995 she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, which advocates for a free regenerative school lunch for all children and a sustainable food curriculum in every public school. In 2015 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, proving that eating is a political act, and that the table is a powerful means to social justice and positive change. Alice is the author of sixteen books including her critically acclaimed memoir, Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook, the New York Times bestsellers The Art of Simple Food I & II, and The Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea.
Francis Mallmann is South America's most celebrated and beloved chef. Fire played a large role in Francis' childhood growing up in Patagonia, and those memories help define him and his cooking techniques today. Author of Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way (2009) and Mallmann on Fire (2014), Mallman has nine restaurants around the world and was featured in the Netflix Documentary "Chef's Table."
Joshua David Steinis an author and editor living in Brooklyn. He is the coauthor of Notes from a Young Black Chef, Il Buco Essentials, Food and Beer, and Epicurean Journeys, and the author of To Me He Was Just Dad. He served as the U.S. editor for the bestselling Where Chefs Eat. Stein is the editor at large at Fatherly, a contributing editor at Food & Wine, and the former restaurant critic for the New York Observer and the Village Voice. His work has appeared in New York, the New York Times, Esquire, GQ,the Guardian, and many other outlets.