The American chef, activist and author is one of the most important women in gastronomy in the 20th and 21st centuries. She is the owner of the Chez Panisse restaurant (California), famous for growing its ingredients locally and for being a pioneer in Californian cuisine. Waters has written several books, such as ‘Chez Panisse Cooking’, ‘The Art Of Simple Food’ or ’40 Years of Chez Panisse’. In addition, she created the ‘Edible Schoolyard’ program at the Martin Luther King School in Berkeley and the Chez Panisse Foundation. She began practicing sustainability and kilometer 0 in the 1970s. Her activism focuses on defending public policies for the reform of school lunch and universal access to healthy organic food. She influenced Michelle Obama, who ran an organic vegetable garden at the White House after Waters asked for it.

Dr. Nathan Myhrvold is a prominent scientist, technologist, inventor, author, and food photographer.

In a 14-year tenure at Microsoft, Myhrvold led advanced technology and business development groups, founded Microsoft Research, managed an R&D budget of $2 billion, and served as the company’s chief strategist and chief technology officer. Myhrvold previously had cofounded Dynamical Systems Research, a software company, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, where his research with Professor Stephen Hawking centered on quantum theories of gravitation. More recently, Myhrvold has published peer-reviewed research in planetary science on asteroids and missions to identify near-Earth objects, in paleontology on dinosaur metabolism and growth rates, and in climate science on global transitions to low-emission energy systems.

In 2000, after retiring from Microsoft, Myhrvold founded Intellectual Ventures (IV), which he leads as CEO and one of its most prolific inventors, with more than 850 U.S. patents awarded.

Food and cooking have been passions of Myhrvold since childhood. While at Microsoft, he worked nights at a Seattle restaurant with chef Thierry Rautureau and then obtained a culinary degree at Ecole De La Varenne in Burgundy. In 2007, he founded The Cooking Lab, a culinary research laboratory, photo studio, and publishing company. In 2011, he published a five-volume, 2,500-page cookbook, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.

A chef and writer, Barber is the heart and soul behind the Blue Hill restaurants in Manhattan and at Stone Barns. The Stone Barns location, located in the outskirts of New York, is part of an agricultural initiative where chefs connect diners with the land by using exceptional locally-sourced ingredients. Barber advocates for environmental causes insisting that cooking be sustainable and responsible. As a lecturer on food and agriculture, he works as an advisor to Harvard Medical School and participated in former US president Barack Obama’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Barber’s philosophy is based on awareness of what we eat, how our food is produced, and its impact on nature.

Dominique Crenn transforms memories into food in her, modernist and imaginative at restaurant, Atelier Crenn, which was the first restaurant with a female head chef to be awarded three Michelin stars in the USA.She lectures widely, including at Harvard, and attends many conferences all over the world. She received the «2015 Leadership Award Augie» the Culinary Institute of America. Currently Crenn vision is to create a kitchen that stands for modernity, high quality craftsmanship and seasonal food. Her culinary style and enigmatic personality, is leaving its mark on the culinary scene of San Francisco she has built a legitimate and solid reputation both nationally and internationally for her artisanal, seasonal, and modern cuisine.

Californian cook, educator and activist, Alice Waters, has been named to the Time 100 list as one of the most influential people in the world. Since the opening of her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkley, Waters has become the leading promoter, ambassador and activist for organic food and eating local produce on the U.S. West Coast. She currently serves as international vice president of Slow Food, the organization that promotes sustainable agriculture.

Partner and CEO of IDEO, a design company with over 700 employees worldwide, Deakin leads the team focused on design for the global food system. With over 20 years’ experience, Deakin helps clients identify growth opportunities and address system bottlenecks, whether by creating strategic development platforms or empowering them to address a wide variety of challenges within their own businesses. Lynda has worked with large companies such as ConAgra, Whitewave Foods and The Hershey Company, as well as small start-ups and other organizations. Deakin believes that design is a tool that can help build a more sustainable food system worldwide.

The consolidated and award-winning career of this food writer and beloved restaurant critic took and risk of her life when she entered the glamorous world of magazine publishing. Over the four decades, Ruth Reichl has been one of the determinant voices of American food culture. She has worked in all aspects of the industry: as a chef in a collectively owned restaurant in Berkeley, as editor of the Los Angeles Times food section, as one of the most influential food critics in the country in The New York Times, and as editor-in-chief of Gourmet.

Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering and Applied Materials at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Sörensen directs Harvard’s Science and Cooking program, providing teaching, outreach management, and direction for major research programs exploring the intersection of science and food. She teaches the well-known general education course Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science, and has also led the development of its online version, Science & CookingX, which has subscribers worldwide. She has authored and edited several books, including an interactive online textbook, and two volumes on online chemical education (American Chemical Society / Oxford University Press). She holds a B.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and a Ph.D. in chemical biology from Harvard University.

Kyle and Katina Connaughton are the couple behind SingleThread, a restaurant, farm and hotel concept with a traditional culinary offering, prepared with seasonal ingredients and unique access to Sonoma County wines. Both are co-owners of this restaurant in Healdsburg (California) recognized in 2018 with three Michelin stars, where Kyle is responsible for the kitchen and Katina for the organic farm that provides most of the ingredients. Kyle began his culinary career in Los Angeles as an apprentice at one of the city’s oldest Japanese restaurants and continued his training in pastries and savoury products at other important locations. He later moved to Japan where he spent several years cooking with chef Michel Bras and other traditional Japanese restaurants. In 2006 he joined Heston Blumenthal as head chef of Research and Development at the Fat Duck Experimental Kitchen. Connaughton is co-developer of The Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Bachelor of Arts program in Culinary Science and co-author of the book “Donate – Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking”.

Katina, on her side, runs the five-acre organic SingleThread farm, which also includes greenhouses, fruit orchards, beehives, and livestock. Katina made her first foray into farming in a rural farming community on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. She continued her education in the garden of a Victorian farm in England before moving to Sonoma to complete her Sustainable Agriculture and Horticulture course. Katina was a greenhouse manager for the Santa Rosa Junior College Agriculture Program and worked at Davis Family Winery. Together with her husband Kyle, she founded the culinary development company Pilot R&D in 2014.