These Chefs, Hosts and Culinary Historians Serve Up Thought-Provoking Programs Through the Lens of Food

Our speakers have all of the right ingredients for an engaging event. Learn about the culture and history behind your favorite meals while enjoying lively discussion and optional cooking demos.

Award-Winning Cook, Bestselling Author, and Multihyphenate Creative Alton Brown has been called the “food world’s philosopher king.” Brown shares insights from his travels about what the unique food culture of a place says about the state of our world

Emmy Award-Nominated Host and Producer of 'Top Chef'; Host of Taste the Nation, which explores the rich and diverse food culture of various immigrant groups

Host of Food Network's Delicious Miss Brown, and Creator of the New Gullah Supper Club; Celebrated Chef who honors the Gullah/Geechee culinary traditions of her family with The Way Home: A Celebration of Sea Islands Food and Family with over 100 Recipes, already a #1 bestseller due out this fall

Creator and Host of the Bizarre Foods Franchise; James Beard Award-Winning Chef and Anthropologist who has devoted his life to exploring and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance and understanding through food

 

DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN | Professor of History & African American Studies; Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, which examines the intersection of the post-1968 civil rights struggle and the rise of the fast food industry

LISA LING | Emmy Award-Winning Journalist; Executive Producer; Host of CNN's This is Life and HBO's Take Out, where she travels cross-country exploring staple American foods while shining a necessary spotlight on the contributions of Asian Americans

CAROLINE RANDALL WILLIAMS | Award-Winning Poet; Scholar of Medicine, Health, and Society; Author of the Award-winning Cookbook Soul Food Love; Host of Disney+'s Hungry for Answers, a new docuseries and cooking show focused on Black food history in America

 

James Beard Award-Winning Chef and Restaurateur; Host of No Passport Required; NYT Bestselling Author; Co-producer of the annual week-long festival Harlem EatUp!, which celebrates the food, art, and culture of Harlem

Award-Winning Chef and Restaurateur; Founder of Momofuku; Creative force behind Ugly Delicious, an eight-part Netflix original documentary series about foods we love and the stories that shape them

 

DR JESSICA B. HARRIS | Leading Authority on Food of the African Diaspora; Culinary Historian; NYT Bestselling Author; James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient; Dr. Harris is currently leading the Culinary Institute of America’s team to establish an African Diaspora concentration, and worked with the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture to conceptualize its cafeteria

PEPPER TEIGEN | Chef and Recipe Developer; Author; Host of Getting Spicy with Pepper Teigen, where she showcases how her cultural background of growing up in a small town in Thailand has influenced her passion for food

JOAN NATHAN | Bestselling Cookbook Author; Three-time James Beard Award-Winner; Contributor for NYT and Tablet Magazine; Leading Authority on Jewish Cuisine known for her eye-opening insights into religion, culture and world history through the unique lens of food