Chris Barnes

Chris started working in kitchens when he was just 16 years old. Initially he began washing pots, but it wasn’t long before he was cooking seasonally inspired cuisine in restaurants in California, Oregon, Washington, and most recently at August Restaurant in the West Village.

Chris is a graduate from the French Culinary Institute's Classic Culinary Arts.

In 2001, Chris decided to learn more about the mastery of caffeine products and started producing artisanal coffee drinks for industry leading coffee companies in Chicago and at Joe the Art of Coffee in New York.

His love for tasting and selling artisanal products led him to working behind a charcuterie counter at a wine store, cheese mongering and beer buying for Whole Foods Market. He is currently the Spanish wine buyer at Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa.

Erik Desjarlais

Erik Desjarlais is a self taught chef and former proprietor of Evangeline. Erik has cooked in restaurants all over the world. He mastered his technique in the kitchen of his first restaurant in Portland, Bandol. Erik's influences include Fernand Point, the Michelin Three Star Chef/Proprietor of La Pyramide in the south of France who is widely recognized as the father of modern French cuisine. Erik was also influenced by the American painter, food writer and cook Richard Olney who is best known for his books on French country cooking.

Joe Ricchio

Guest writer Joe Ricchio is a columnist for Maine Magazine, in addition to spending his life working in restaurants, the wine business, and any other venture that fuels his lust for excess. Tales of such debauchery are chronicled on his blog, Portland Food Coma. He is the co-founder of Portland Deathmatch, a series of themed dinner events that have earned him appearances on both Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, in addition to mentions in Bon Appetit Magazine and the New York Times.

Rosemary S. Gray

Rosemary’s currently the manager and wine buyer for Austria, Germany and Champagne at Chambers Street Wines.

Rosemary arrived at Chambers Street Wines from Boise, Idaho. She worked at the Boise Co-op Wine Shop as the wine club director, wrote for and edited the monthly newsletter and was chief advocate for naturally made wines. In the winter of 2007, she spent two weeks touring the Costieres de Nimes, the Rhone Valley, and Burgundy and it was a trip that awakened her desire to have a greater understanding of the source of wine.

It is that pursuit that drove her to New York in order to expand her knowledge and love for natural wines in a broader market closer to Europe. Rosemary began her professional wine career at the Wine Cask Store in Santa Barbara; where, even in the heart of the central coast California wine craze, she caught the bug for artisanal Champagne, Austrian and German wines.

Troy House (Photography)

Troy House is a photographer living in New York. Troy started as a photo journalist but hated telling the truth. However, he doesn’t mince words when talking about food. He has traveled all over the world, discovering amazing food spots: everything from road side joints to white table cloth fine dining establishments.

While eating well, he also takes a couple of photographs for clients like Food and Wine, Harper’s Bazaar, Martha Stewart Living, In Style, Ritz Carlton, and Travel and Leisure.  You can see Troy’s work at www.TroyHouse.com.

Lizzie Sayner

In her desk job, Lizzie heads up Brand Strategy at Rockwell Group, a leading design firm in New York best known for creating dining and hotel destinations around the world such as Nobu, Adour by Alain Ducasse, Starwood’s W Hotels, Disney, and Danny Meyer’s upcoming Maialino Restaurant in the Gramercy Park Hotel.  Lizzie will literally jump off a cliff just for a culinary adventure. To stay at the Six Senses Hideaway Hotel in Oman, she arrived via paraglider to the resort in Zighy Bay. She’s known to run 15+ mile to ensure she’s hungry for tasting menus, and will off-road to seek out a reclusive cheesemaker in the middle of the Pyrenees.

Lizzie currently calls New York City her home, after living and eating around the world in places like Moscow, a mountain village in Italy, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.

Brian Bartels

Brian Bartels was raised in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, the Butter Capital of the World, and now lives in New York City. He writes for Fiction Writers Review and various publications, and his work has appeared in The Missouri Review. When not writing for stage, television and film, Brian gets to work with his good friends in some wonderful New York restaurants and bars. Come say hi to him at Fedora, his new restaurant in Greenwich Village. He's opening that while writing his first novel, titled July Reindeer. He is no longer friends with sleep.

Etheliya Hananova

Etheliya Hananova is a member of the team of sommelier-servers at Montreal’s Le Club Chasse et Pêche.

Born into a family of restaurant owners and food lovers, Etheliya seems to have been destined for a career in food and wine. Starting out making omelets at her family’s restaurant at the age of 8, she worked her way through some of the top dining destinations in Montreal. A move to New York gave Etheliya the opportunity to oversee the unique natural wine list at iCi restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Inspired while attending wine tastings in Manhattan and meeting winemakers from all over the world, she decided to take her passion to a more serious level and returned to Montreal to become a certified, trained sommelier.

Wanting to share her excitement about wine in a friendly, accessible way, Etheliya created a company organizing guided wine tastings for private and corporate events (www.lapicolette.com). She is also one of the team of sommelier-servers at Montreal’s Le Club Chasse et Pêche.

Patrick Kolts (Photography)

Patrick is basically 6 feet tall and has plenty of small town charm even though he seems to be drawn to a more urban lifestyle. He takes every opportunity to travel and has been on photo shoots across the US, Canada, Europe, China, Middle East, Africa and did i say Canada?

Patrick's work includes fashion, portraits and documentary. After spending 3 months in Kenya, he is focusing more time towards non-profit documentary work. You can see Patrick’s work at PatrickKolts.com.

Matt Jennings

Executive Chef, Master Cheesemonger, Owner - Farmstead - Providence, RI

Matt, Executive Chef, Co-owner and Master Cheesemonger of Farmstead, has been handling, selling and falling in love with all things cheese since 1995- while at culinary school in Vermont. Since then, he has worked as a Chef, as well as across the country for numerous artisan cheese stores, wholesalers, and producers. Matt has also spent time in Europe studying with Master Cheesemongers and Cheesemakers in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.