|
|
|
|
 |
Mario
Batali
believes that olive oil is as precious as gold, that shorts
are acceptable attire for every season, and that food, like
most things, is best when left to its own simple beauty. Batali
opened Pò, a casual trattoria, in 1993 and Babbo Ristorante
e Enoteca in 1998, which was awarded three stars by The New
York Times. Batali has since opened Lupa and Esca and is
a partner in New York’s new Italian Wine Merchants. Batali
hosts his own Food Network programs, "Molto Mario"
and "Mario Batali’s Italy." He has authored Simple
Italian Food, and his next book, Mario Batali Holiday
Food, is due for an October 2000 release. Batali lives in
New York City with his wife, Susi Cahn, of the Coach Dairy Goat
Farm, and their two sons Benno and Leo. |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Derek
Bromley is the Co-founder & Co-CEO of BevAccess.com, the first
online beverage industry exchange for wine, beer and spirits. A graduate
of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, Bromley
has held beverage management positions at New York's Montrachet, Nobu
and TriBeCa Grill. He opened the City Wine & Cigar Company in
New York as Beverage Director and Sommelier, earning an "Award
of Excellence" from Wine Spectator for his wine selection.
Bromley and Co-CEO Greg Ahnert founded BevAccess.com to improve efficiency,
service and savings on order fulfillment and account management, pioneering
technology that benefits an industry-wide audience. |
 |
|
|
|
|
Loret
Carbone, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Left At Albuquerque,
has more than 25 years experience working with people as a psychologist,
human resources specialist, and speaker. She was the first woman partner
at Lettuce Entertain You and is a nationally acclaimed consultant
and speaker to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Loret was
the 1994 national president of the Roundtable for Women in Foodservice
and has served on industry boards including Women Foodservice Forum,
Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Purdue University and San Francisco
State’s hospitality program boards. She has appeared on the "Oprah
Winfrey Show," Hospitality Television, and on several national
radio programs as an expert on restaurant human resources. Loret writes
and contributes to articles for Restaurant Hospitality, Nation’s
Restaurant News and Restaurant Business. |
|
|
|
 |
Peter
Elliot is the editor of "The Bloomberg Executive Dining Guide," designed
to whet the appetites of the world's most influential and demanding
dining community. Elliot hosts six daily spots airing five days a
week on Bloomberg Radio covering food, wine and restaurants, in addition
to his weekly review. His radio program explores food-related issues
ranging from food safety and dining etiquette to the best airline
food to cookbooks worth buying. Elliot's programming is also available
at www.bloomberg.com. "The Bloomberg Executive Dining Guide with Peter
Elliot" was the winner of the 1999 James Beard Award for Best Radio
Show on Food. Elliot is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews
in Scotland. |
|
|
|
Todd
English
is best known for the acclaimed Olives restaurant in Charlestown,
Massachusetts. Olives has now opened three other locations, most recently
at the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen. English also has four Figs restaurants
in the greater Boston area and three other restaurants at fine hotels
around the country. He first caught the culinary world's eye when
he won the Food & Wine Best New Chef in 1990 and again in 1991,
when the James Beard Foundation named him their National Rising Star
Chef. In 1994, he won Best Chef in the Northeast from the James Beard
Foundation. He has hosted his own Public Television series, "Cooking
with Todd English," and is the author of The Olives Table and
The Figs Table. He is currently at work on The Dessert Table
to be released in fall 2000. Todd resides in Brookline, Massachusetts
with his wife, Olivia, and their three children, Oliver, Isabelle,
and Simon. |
|
Evan
Goldstein
|
Evan
Goldstein, M.S., is the Vice-President of Public Relations and New
Media for the Seagram Chateau & Estate Wines Company, and the
Director of the Sterling Vineyards School of Service and Hospitality.
In 1987, he won recognition as the youngest person ever to pass the
prestigious Master Sommelier examination. Goldstein, well-known throughout
the wine and hospitality industries for his outstanding abilities
as a teacher, moderator, and trend analyst, is a regular editorial
contributor to Santé, and regular guest on the top-rated
"Ron Owens Show" on KGO Radio in San Francisco. He has written
the wine sections for three Joyce Goldstein cookbooks, including The
Mediterranean Kitchen, Back to Square One, and Kitchen Conversations,
as well as Casual Occasions and Festive Occasions in
the Williams-Sonoma Cookbook series. He is currently under contract
to write a food and wine book, due out in the summer of 2000. |
|
|
For
the past 14 years, Stephen
Hanson
has brought stylish, popular, and value-oriented restaurants to New
Yorkers and diners from all over the world. In 1987, Hanson created
Coconut Grill, the first in his group of Manhattan restaurants. He
has since opened Park Avalon, Blue Water Grill, Ocean Grill and Ruby
Foo’s Dim Sum and Sushi Palace. Blue Water Grill was voted New
York’s 19th most popular restaurant in the 1999 Zagat Survey,
and Ruby Foo’s has been awarded two stars by The New York
Times. Hanson has plans to bring the Ruby Foo's concept to other
cities in the near future. |
|
|
|
|
The
founder of PowerPurchasing, Marty Horn is a third generation restaurant
operator of Pals Cabin and Mayfair Farms Restaurants in West Orange,
New Jersey. He has served as Chief Operating Officer of his restaurants
since 1988. The Horn Family has owned and operated restaurants in
New Jersey since 1932 and collectively share over 250 years of experience
in the Foodservice Industry. Marty is also currently the Vice President
of the New Jersey Restaurant Association and an active member of the
National Restaurant Association. He is a graduate of Lehigh University
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. |
|
 |
Andrea
Immer
is the Master Sommelier and Beverage Director for Starwood Hotels
& Resorts Worldwide, the world’s largest and most prestigious
hotel company. Andrea is one of nine women to hold the title of Master
Sommelier from the Court of Master Sommeliers. In 1997, she was chosen
Best Sommelier in America by the Sommelier Society of America, and
she represented the U.S. in the Concours Mondiale world sommeliers’
competition in Vienna in June 1998. Andrea is currently at work on
her first book, due out this fall. |
|
 |
| Michael
Klauber |
| Michael
Klauber is co-proprietor of Michael's on East, Michael's on
East Ballroom and Catering, Michael's Seafood Grill, The Down
Under Jazz Club and the Sarasota Food & Wine Academy in
Sarasota, Florida. For the last nine years, Michael's on East
has received the Golden Spoon Award as one of Florida's Top
20 restaurants (Florida Trend magazine), and has been
recognized as Sarasota's only AAA Four-Diamond restaurant.
Michael’s has been named "the most popular restaurant
on Florida's Gulf Coast" by Zagats and has won
both the DiRoNa Award and Wine Spectator's "Award
of Excellence." An avid wine collector and professional
wine judge, Michael is founder and past president of the Florida
Winefest and Auction, the third largest charity food and wine
event in the U.S. In 1999, he founded a new food and wine
event, the Sarasota Culinary Symposium, which will feature
a variety of culinary and winemaking talent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul
Lightfoot is the founder and CEO of Foodline.com, Inc., a leading
provider of direct diner information and online reservations management
technology to restaurants. While leading Foodline.com, Lightfoot has
secured strategic investments and partnerships from American Express,
Zagat Survey, and Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch. He has been featured
or quoted in The Industry Standard, The Red Herring,
The New York Times, CNN’s "Business Unusual,"
Nation’s Restaurant News, and many other national and
trade-related media outlets. Lightfoot was formerly an attorney at
Cadwalader, Wickersham, & Taft in New York City and worked before
and during graduate school as a bartender in New York City. |
|
| |
Dennis
Max
|
|
| Dennis
Max is the President of Unique Restaurant Concepts Inc., a company
that operates a successful group of restaurants throughout Florida.
Dennis earned a master's degree in finance and was a Wall Street
broker before entering the restaurant business. He opened his
first restaurants, Carlos and Pepe’s and Raffles restaurant,
in the 1970s with partner Burt Rappaport before opening Café
Max with his wife Patti in 1984. The couple currently operates
seven restaurants throughout Florida, many garnering critical
acclaim. |
|
|
|
|
|
Carolyn
O’Neil is anchor and senior correspondent for "CNN Travel
Now," CNN’s half-hour weekend program on international food
and travel which airs Saturday at 6:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. (EST).
Formerly executive producer and host of CNN’s award-winning "On
the Menu," O’Neil, a registered dietician, joined CNN in
1982 to develop the network’s food and nutrition programming.
She is the first television correspondent to be honored with the James
Beard Who’s Who on Food and Wine in America. O’Neil’s
"On the Menu" was also nominated for two cable ACE awards
and was winner of two James Beard awards for Best TV Food Journalism. |
|
|
|
|
Larry
Stone, sommelier of Rubicon in San Francisco, is the first American
to have won the title of International Best Sommelier in French Wines
and Spirits and is the only American to have earned the title of French
Master Sommelier from the Union de la Sommelerie Française.
Stone has the distinction of Master Sommelier granted by the English
Court of Master Sommeliers. He received the James Beard Distinguished
Service Award and has been nominated for the James Beard Foundation's
2000 Who’s Who for Outstanding Wine Service. Stone is a partner
in Myriad, a nationwide restaurant consulting group founded by Drew
Nieporent, and has written for The Chicago Sun Tribune, Santé
and Wine and Spirits magazine. |
|
|
Mark
Tarbell is
a real nature boy who enjoys long walks in the woods, sand sailing
and reading Tolkien. He has two successful Phoenix restaurants –
Tarbell’s and Barmouche – which run better without him,
so he goes off to teach wine and food whenever his staff can arrange
it. |
|
|
|
|
Madeline
Triffon is Director of Wine and Beverages for the Unique Restaurant
Corporation. She is responsible for the development of all wine lists
and the selection of beverages served in the company's 14 Michigan
restaurants. Madeline coordinates wine dinners and tastings, and serves
as corporate wine educator. The former Wine Director for Jimmy Schmidt's
restaurants in Michigan. Her lists for the Rattlesnake Club, Trés
Vite and Buster's Bay have won Wine Spectator’s "Award
of Excellence." Madeline is one of only 37 Americans - the first
of nine American women and the second woman in the world - to have
earned the title of Master Sommelier. |
|
|
|
Joshua
Wesson
|
|
| In
living largely by his wits, Joshua Wesson has developed many
subtle and agile qualities that may yet make him the envy of
his high school class. A former pinkie-out sommelier, he now
wanders the world in search of top-notch vinous values for Best
Cellars, a nationwide retail concept he co-founded where all
the wines are impossibly delicious, organized by taste, and
priced $10 and under. |
|
|
