Lidia Bastianich is one of the best-loved chefs on television, a best-selling cookbook author, and restaurateur. Lidia has married her two passions in life – her family and food, to create multiple culinary endeavors alongside her two children, Joseph and Tanya. Her cookbooks include Lidia’s Italy in America, Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy and Lidia’s Italy – all companion books to television series.

Madhur Jaffrey is regarded by many as the world authority on Indian food. She is an award-winning actress and bestselling cookbook author. She has appeared in over 20 films, including Merchant Ivory’s Heat and Dust, and written over 15 cookbooks as well as a memoir entitled Climbing the Mango Trees. Her most recent book is At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Judith Jones was Senior Editor and Vice President at Alfred A. Knopf until 2011. She joined the company in 1957 as an editor working primarily on translations of French writers. In addition to her literary authors, she has edited first rate cookbook authors including Julia Child, Lidia Bastianich, James Beard, Marion Cunningham, and many others. She is the author of three books and in 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

Betty Fussell is the author of eleven books. Over the last half century, her work has appeared in a variety of national magazines, newspapers and journals, from Gastronomica to The New Yorker. Her memoir, My Kitchen Wars, was performed in Hollywood and New York as a one-woman show. Her most recent book is Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef, and she is now working on How to Cook A Coyote: A Manual of Survival in NYC.

Deb Perelman is a self-taught home cook and photographer; and the creator of SmittenKitchen.com, an award-winning blog with a focus on stepped-up home cooking through unfussy ingredients. In previous roles of what Deb describes as her “so-called career,” she’s been a record store shift supervisor, a scrawler of “happy birthday” on bakery cakes, an art therapist, and a technology reporter. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is her first book. Deb lives in New York City with her husband and baby son.

Marja Samsom chef/owner of the Kitchen Club restaurant & Chibi’s bar for 20 years in downtown Manhattan. Eric Asimov of the New York Times wrote that it “radiates the warm glow of a cheerful soiree.”  Originally from Europe, now known as the Dumpling Diva, Marja makes appearances as a professional chef on TV and on radio, organizes fun culinary events & private dinners. She teaches at The Dumpling Academy—the latest class "Cooking w/o a Kitchen."