MICHELLE BERNSTEIN
Mischy's and Sra. Martinez Restaurants, Miami, FL

Since the pivotal Mango Gang era in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, almost no other Miami chef has made as big a splash on the national culinary scene as Chef Michelle Bernstein.  A Miami native of Jewish and Latin descent, this passionate culinaire has dazzled diners and critics alike with her sublime cuisine and a personality as bright and vibrant as the Florida sun. “My food is luxurious but approachable,” says Bernstein, a James Beard Award winner (Best Chef South 2008) and author of Cuisine a Latina (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2008). “You don’t need heavy handed technique and over the top presentations to make a dish work.  It’s about amazing ingredients, layered flavors and simplicity.  I cook the food I love and I think that love translates to the diners.” Read More >>>

FLOYD CARDOZ
Tabla, New York City

Floyd Cardoz is the Executive Chef/Partner of Tabla, where he celebrates the sensual flavors and spices of his native land in his pioneering New Indian cuisine. In 1998, Floyd opened Tabla with restaurateur Danny Meyer and Union Square Hospitality Group. Floyd seasons Western cuisine with Indian spices and soul in the restaurant’s first floor dining room, and also cooks home-style Indian fare in the restaurant’s street level Bread Bar. Floyd’s preparation for Tabla has been extensive. Raised in both Bombay and Goa, Floyd attended culinary school in Bombay, where he apprenticed in the kitchen of the Taj Mahal Intercontinental Hotel. To broaden his familiarity with classic culinary technique, Floyd moved to Switzerland and spent his days at Les Roches, a Hotel Management Culinary School in Bluche, and his evenings cooking in Italian, French and Indian establishments. Read More >>>

DENA MARINO
D19, Aspen, CO

Chef Dena Marino grew up in a small Italian-American neighborhood in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She spent much of her childhood sitting on her Nonna's kitchen counter, where she learned that a pure and simple Italian cuisine begins with carefully selected ingredients and a patient hand.

With the knowledge she gained cooking alongside her grandmother, Dena left for Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. She graduated to a job at Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Three years later, on a visit to San Francisco, Dena traveled to the Napa Valley's Tra Vigne to sample the creations of Chef Michael Chiarello. In him she found a culinary soul mate; she finagled a job and soon became the restaurant's sous chef. After three and a half years with Chiarello, Dena was offered the position of Chef at the Ajax Tavern in Aspen. Read More >>>

KEVIN RATHBUN
Rathbun's, Atlanta, GA

Nine Years ago, Chef Kevin Rathbun was hand-picked by Buckhead Life Restaurant Group in Atlanta, Georgia, to come to Atlanta.  He arrived to open NAVA, and introduced Atlanta to southwestern cuisine.  It immediately became a hot spot to celebrities, young, affluent and fashionable people across Atlanta. In 1995, NAVA was recognized in Esquire Magazine as a “top new restaurant”.  Since its inception, NAVA has received local and national recognition.  NAVA has received more than 20 awards for excellence, both nationally and locally.  NAVA continues to pack guests in nightly with its green chile grits, its lobster taco and its signature snapper entrée.

Then in 1999, Kevin introduced Atlanta to Asian fusion as the opening chef for Bluepointe.  Bluepointe immediately became known throughout Atlanta as “the place to be” for the business, finance and upscale crowd. Read More >>>

ROCCO WHALEN
Fahrenheit, Cleveland, OH

Cleveland may or may not be the culinary mecca of the Midwest, but there are a handful of great restaurants in the this city that could respectably compete with the likes of NYC, Chicago and San Francisco.
Chef Rocco Whalen's Fahrenheit, now in it's 8th year of wowing guests, impressing visitors and amazing the media, is one of the those great restaurants any city would die for.

Cleveland native Whalen has been at this cooking business ever since, at age 19, he graduated from Pennsylvania Culinary and headed west where he worked for five years in the kitchens of restaurants owned by Wolfgang Puck, often toiling side-by-side with Puck at Spago, Obachin, Granita and Chinois. Read More >>>