Anne E. McBride received a PhD in food studies from New York University, where she teaches regularly. Her research focuses on the changing role of the chef in the 21st century. She writes on topics related to professional and experimental cooking for both academic and consumer audiences, including contributions to Food Arts, Gastronomica, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Savoring Gotham, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and Food Cultures of the World.

She is a regular presenter and moderator at scholarly and trade conferences. She is also the program director for the Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival at The Culinary Institute of America, and the director of the Experimental Cuisine Collective at NYU, an interdisciplinary group of more than 2500 scientists, chefs, media, scholars, and food enthusiasts.

Anne takes part on the board of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and on the James Beard Foundation Awards Committee, and was a two-term board member of the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance and past board member of The Culinary Trust.

David Izquierdo is executive chef and owner of the restaurant Los Rastrojos and has recently opened his second establishment, El 51 de Sol, both in Aranda de Duero (Burgos). He defines himself as a thinker-cook and his cuisine is the result of a studied balance between traditional flavor profiles and the sophistication of today´s techniques. He is a convinced defender of seasonality and likes to play with these limitations to make cooking a fun and fascinating activity. He has received numerous local awards, and has maintained the first position for the past eight years on the Tapa de Oro (Golden Tapa) competition that is organized by the Restaurant Association in his home town, Aranda de Duero.

Elizabeth Williams is the President of the National Food and Beverage Foundation and Director of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, a nonprofit living history organization dedicated to the discovery, understanding, and celebration of the food, drink and the related culture of the South. This unique museum, hosted in a former marketplace, tells an interesting story of the changes that our society has experienced in the past few decades, providing yet another example of reformulated commercial and social exchanges of today.

Williams is a recognized expert in fold culture and has taught multiple courses related to food and culture in various institutions. Her focus on the South and her expertise on the role of the market, including the influences of the Spanish format in the initial configurations of these spaces in the South, will give us a privileged view and allow us to frame the more contemporary evolutions of these spaces in a larger historical framework.

Fabio Parasecoli is Professor and Director of Food Studies Initiatives at the New School in New York City. His research explores the intersections among food, popular culture, and politics, particularly in food design. He studied East Asian cultures and political science in Rome, Naples and Beijing. After covering Middle and Far Eastern political issues, he wrote for many years as the U.S. correspondent for Gambero Rosso, Italy’s authoritative food and wine magazine. He is now a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.

Recent books include Bite me! Food in Popular Culture (2008), the six-volume Cultural History of Food (2012, co-edited with Peter Scholliers), Al Dente: A History of Food in Italy (2014, translated into Italian in 2015 and into Korean in 2017), Feasting Our Eyes: Food, Film, and Cultural Citizenship in the US (2016, authored with Laura Lindenfeld)
Fabio’s last publication Knowing Where It Comes From: Labeling Traditional Foods to Compete in a Global Market (2017). offers a broad comparative analysis of legal and marketing instruments that have been established to identify, support, and at times protect local and traditional foods. In particular, the book highlights  the value of the connection between food and its specific origin to move food products from commodities to niche, value-added markets.

Janet Chrzan is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania and received her Ph.D. in Physical/Nutritional Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research explores the connections between social activities and health outcomes, including diet during pregnancy, consumer adoption of local and organic food diets, and alcohol intake.

She is also interested in the dietary consequences of culinary tourism and has led food, wine and culture tours to the Loire Valley and Tuscany. She is the author of Alcohol: Social Drinking in Cultural Context(Routledge, 2013), co-editor of the three volume set Research Methods for the Anthropological Study of Food and Nutrition (Berghahn, 2016), and co-editor of Organic Food, Farming and Culture (to be published by Bloomsbury in 2018). She is the founder of the Oakmont Farmers Market and Haverford Township Farmers Market Association (an educational 501c3), a founding member of the Keystone Center for Regional Food and Food Tourism, past-president of the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, and has served on the boards of many health, agriculture and nutrition-related academic and community organizations. She lives in Media, Pennsylvania, where she tends a large vegetable garden and tries to figure out what to do with too much zucchini.

Javi Estévez is a young professional chef with over 14 of professional experience in. His professional trajectory took him though the kitchens of highly internationally acclaimed restaurants like Pepe Viera en Sanxenxo (one star Michelin), Tragabuches (one Michelin star), El Bohío (one Michelin star) and Villena (one Michelin star) until he initiated his personal project in 2015: La Tasquería by Javi Estévez. This locale is a sign of his commitment to Madrid and to fine offal, a Madrid tradition that he has worked hard to reclaim and reinvent.

His work at La Tasquería won him the “Chef of the Year” award in 2016 in Madrid Fusión as well as important recognitions such as Best New Restaurant in the 13th edition of XIII of Metrópoli’s Gastronomic Awards and Best Traditional Style Restaurant Salsa de Chiles of ABC contest. He has taken part in Spain´s “Chef of the Year” contest twice, where he got Aperitivo Codorniú Award for the first time and the third position in the Alimentaria 2012 final.

Javi Estévez has also been a consultant in Pura Tasca (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), and in La Finca by Jiménez Barbero, starting the restaurant La Estancia and developing an innovative line of meat products.

Jonathan Harris is the President and head of product development for La Tienda, the leading online U.S. retailer gourmet food and cookware from Spain. Founded and managed by the Harris family, the business works with artisan and small family businesses across Spain.  La Tienda celebrates in 2017 its 21 year.

Jonathan lived in El Puerto de Santa Maria in southern Spain as a child and walked the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain as a young man. Jonathan travels to Spain multiple times a year to meet with vendors and discover new products.  

Based in Williamsburg, Virginia, La Tienda sends over 100,000 packages per year to customers and restaurants in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. La Tienda has a retail store and tapas bar in Williamsburg to share the flavors of Spain with the local community.

José Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator, author, educator, television personality, humanitarian, and chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup. He was named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People” and was awarded “Outstanding Chef” by the James Beard Foundation.

Andrés is a pioneer of Spanish tapas in the United States and is also known for his groundbreaking avant-garde cuisine and his award-winning group of 26 restaurants plus a food truck located throughout the country and in Mexico City. He is the only chef globally that has both a two-star Michelin restaurant and four Bib Gourmands. His award winning restaurants include two Michelin-starred minibar by José Andrés, Jaleo, Zaytinya, J by José Andrés at W Mexico City, Bazaar Meat at SLS Las Vegas, the Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills and South Beach, and Beefsteak, his vegetable-driven fast casual concept.

Andrés is a committed advocate of food and hunger issues and is famous for championing the role of chefs in the national debate on food policy. In 2012, Andrés formed World Central Kitchen, a non-profit that provides smart solutions to hunger and poverty by using the power of food to empower communities and strengthen economies. Andrés’ work has earned awards and distinctions including the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from International Association of Culinary Professionals and the 2015 National Humanities Medal, one of twelve distinguished recipients of the award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Andrés was also named EY Master Entrepreneur of the Year in Greater Washington for his leadership and impact on the global business community and was also awarded the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Chair’s Medallion Award.

Originally from Cáceres, José lives in London and has worked at some of the city’s most prestigious Spanish restaurants including Eyre Brothers, Brindisa and Gaudi. In 2011, José opened his first solo venture, José Tapas Bar, on Bermondsey Street, and has since gone on to open two further restaurants in the Capital: Pizarro, just a few yards from José Tapas, and José Pizarro at Broadgate Circle.
He is a popular face on TV (including BBC 1’s Saturday Kitchen and Sunday Brunch or Weekend Kitchen with Waitrose, among others) and a regular on the food festival scene (including The Big Feastival, Taste of London, Meatopia, Aldeburgh & Padstow). In May 2014 José was voted one of ‘100 españoles’– a hugely prestigious award which showcases the top 100 Spaniards around the world, based on how they have brought their talents to the masses and how they have shown their Spanish pride and love of the country through their work.

Pizarro is the author of four books, Seasonal Spanish Food (Kyle Books, 2009), Spanish Flavours (Kyle Books, 2012) and Basque (Hardie Grant Books, 2016) and Catalonia (Hardie Grant Books, 2017).

Ricardo Temiño has kept his heart in Burgos while traveling and gaining further culinary experiences in places like Tokyo, Lyon or Brussels. He has participated in numerous cooking competitions and was semi finalist in the Best Chef 2014 Competition in Spain. He obtained a second place in the Certamen NACIONAL de Cocina (2013) and also a second place at the regional Bocuse d’Or 2012 selection. In 2016 he was named Best Young Chef at the International Chefs Congress Madrid Fusión 2016. A convinced Burgos guy, he is proud of his region, its people and its cuisine, which he understands as a way of life.

Richard Brandenburg is a chef as well as the first Director of Culinary Strategy of has Edens & Avant, the relevant East Coast real estate development company, since August 2013.

Brandenburg grew up in Virginia and he entered the culinary world by washing dishes. However, his culinary career soon took him to different places such as New Orleans, New York, Colorado and the Isle of Man. Brandenburg moved to this island to work at a friend’s parents’ restaurant, and after this experience he went London, where he got another kitchen job.

Back to America, he went on to work at top restaurants like Le Bernadin in New York and San Francisco’s One Market and Fifth Floor. He also work for Spanish chef José Andrés at Think Food Group, where he eventually became kitchen director and helped open The Bazaar in Los Angeles before becoming chef of America Eats Tavern.

Tim Carman is a food writer for Washington Post. Also, he is committed to building the best home coffee bar in the Northeast and has been known to make his own yogurt, charcuterie and Texas-style brisket in his spare time.

Carman has been nominated for two James Beard Foundation Awards, winning one in 2011 for Food-Related Columns and Commentary. His work has appeared in four editions of the “Best Food Writing” collections as well as the sixth edition of “Cornbread Nation” written for various publications, including Food Network magazine, Men’s Journal and Food Republic.

In addition, he launched a weekly cheap eats column for The Post called The $20 Diner in 2013, which won second place for best restaurant criticism in the 2015 Association of Food Journalists Awards contest.