Presenter Biographies

ERIC ADJEPONG is chef at Chef Adjepong LLC. (Washington, DC) @chefericadjepong

BRAD BARNES ‘87, CMC is director of consulting and industry programs at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY. Brad is responsible for the oversight of all operational consulting, ProChef® certification, and custom professional training. His clients include Google, U.S. Department of Defense, and Stanford University. Brad is the author of two books and the creator of food concepts such as Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn and The Pythian Market in New Orleans. Previously, he served as senior director of culinary education and senior director of continuing education at the CIA. Before joining the education administration, he was the president of GigaChef, LLC and chef/owner of B&B Solutions. Brad is a Certified Master Chef, one of 66 in the United States, a Certified Culinary Administrator, and an inductee of the American Academy of Chefs, the American Culinary Federation’s honor society. (Hyde Park, NY)

SCOTT ALVES BARTON, PHD is a faculty fellow in race and resilience in Notre Dame's Institute of Advanced Studies. Scott's home is in Harlem, where he teaches as an assistant adjunct professor at New York University and area universities. He holds a PhD in food studies from NYU. He had a 25-year career as an executive chef, restaurant and product development consultant, and culinary educator. Scott is on the board of the Association for the Study of Food and Society, is secretary of the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, is a steering committee member for the James Beard Awards, and co-chair of the African Diaspora Religions Unit for the American Academy of Religion. Scott has been a public foodways scholar at Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee. His research and publications focus on the intersection of secular and sacred cuisine as a marker of identity politics, cultural heritage, political resistance, and self-determination in Northeastern Brazil, and the 19th-20th century U.S.A. (New York, NY) @senhorokra

CAROLINA BAZÁN is chef-owner of Ambrosia and Bistro Ambrosia in Santiago. (Santiago, Chile) @chinoise

MICHAEL BELTRAN is chef-owner at Ariete. (Miami, FL)

LILLA BERNAL is assistant professor at The Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio, where she dedicates much of her time to researching ingredients and traditions of the Texas- Mexico borderlands. (San Antonio, TX)

*** SUBJECT TO CHANGE *** 2021 Worlds of Flavor Presenter Biographies | Updated October 24, 2019 | Page 1 of 5 © 2021The Culinary Institute of America. All rights reserved. RYAN BROSSEAU is executive chef at Dear Margaret. Ryan brings a passion for preservation and pickling, whole-animal butchery, and bread baking to Dear Margaret. His menu pays homage to his French-Canadian mémé (grandmother) Margaret, with a nod to the farmers and purveyors from whom he sources high-quality local ingredients. A self-professed “old-fashioned cooking dude” who believes food culture is crucial to understanding who we are, he is dedicated to the details that elevate familiar flavors to accessibly innovative, inherently satisfying, and nourishing. Originally from Canada—he grew up in Merlin, Ontario, an hour east of Detroit—Ryan moved to Chicago in 2010 to pursue cooking and devoted time to working in the kitchens of Perennial Virant, Found, and Table, Donkey and Stick. He served as opening executive chef for Le Sud, earning city-wide accolades and recognition. Ryan opened Dear Margaret with owner Lacey Irby in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood in January 2021. (Chicago, IL)

ERIK BRUNER-YANG is a two-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee, the chef-owner of Maketto and ABC Pony in Washington, DC, and the founder of Power of 10 Initiative. In 2015, he opened Maketto, a communal marketplace and lifestyle brand combining retail, restaurant, and café located at 1351 H Street NE. Maketto was selected as one of Eater’s 21 Best New Restaurants in America and is DC’s New Restaurant of the Year by RAMW. Erik and his restaurants continue to receive rave reviews both locally and nationally from Bon Appétit, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Eater, and many more. (Washington, DC)

GREG DRESCHER is vice president of strategic initiatives and industry leadership at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). He oversees the college’s leadership initiatives for the foodservice industry, including academic and other strategic partnerships, conferences, invitational leadership retreats, digital media, and other global initiatives. He is the creator of the college’s Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival (now in its 23rd year), as well as a portfolio of health and sustainability leadership initiatives including Menus of Change and Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives, jointly presented by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, co-led by the CIA and Stanford University in association with more than 50-plus leading colleges and universities; and the annual Global Plant-Forward Culinary Summit and Plant-Forward Kitchen digital media platform. Co-developer of the CIA’s new partnership with the University of Barcelona— the Torribera Mediterranean Center, with its focus on the healthy, traditional Mediterranean Diet and regional food studies—and a strategic advisor to the European-based EAT Foundation, Greg works internationally to advance innovation at the intersection of health, sustainability, culture, and culinary insight. In 2005, Greg was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America, and in 2007 and 2009 he shared a second and third James Beard Award for his team’s work in developing the CIA’s Savoring the Best of World Flavors digital media series, filmed on location around the world. He served on the National Academy of Medicine’s Committee on Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States (final report 2010). In 2011, he was inducted as a member of the Accademia dei Georgofili, Europe’s oldest agricultural academy based in Florence. In 2017, Foodservice Director included Greg in its “20 People Shaping American Foodservice Today.” Before joining the CIA, he jointly spearheaded a collaboration of some of the world’s leading health experts and organizations—including the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and WHO—in authoring The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid: A Cultural Model for Healthy *** SUBJECT TO CHANGE *** 2021 Worlds of Flavor Presenter Biographies | Updated October 24, 2019 | Page 2 of 5 © 2021The Culinary Institute of America. All rights reserved. Eating. The cumulative results of this research were published in a special edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1995), creating an evidence-based foundation for much of the academic, policy, and media interest in the Mediterranean Diet that followed. (Sacramento, CA)

DOMINIQUE DUFOUR is chef at Gray Jay Hospitality. Dominique was born north-east of Montréal, Quebec. Immersed in French Canadian food culture, she grew up curious. Upon entering her culinary career, she travelled extensively to cook in the UK, Spain and all across Canada. She found a burning passion for culinary history and the Canadian identity. In 2019 she opened her first restaurant, Gray Jay, where she decided to explore those themes further. Today she is still at the helm of the kitchen, spending her time foraging for new dishes and reclaiming old techniques long forgotten. (Ottawa, Canada)

SAMANTHA FORE is a first-generation Sri Lankan-American chef from Lexington, Kentucky. She started her pop-up restaurant in 2016, after traditional Sri Lankan brunches in her home outgrew her dining room. Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites menus reflect Sam’s Sri Lankan upbringing in the American South. Her work has been featured in multiple national publications (including the cover of Food & Wine magazine) and she can be seen on PBS’s Somewhere South. She was named one of Plate’s 2018 Chefs to Watch and was selected as one of Southern Living’s 2020 Cooks of the Year. (Lexington, KY)

NELSON GERMAN is chef-owner of Alamar. (Oakland, CA)

ELENA HERNANDEZ holds a Grand Diplôme in Culinary and Pastry Arts from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, and for 15 years worked her way through hotel and restaurant kitchens while teaching culinary arts in Panama and South America. In 2002, she founded the Academia de Artes Culinarias, the first private cooking school in Panama. Elena has consulted as corporate chef for Copa Airlines, the Panamanian national airline; helped create and starred as head judge on Quiero Ser Chef, a cooking reality show on Televisora Nacional; has appeared as guest chef on Top Chef Panama, and writes regularly about food. Her articles have been published in La Prensa, the leading national newspaper, and several local food magazines. La Prensa named her one of the five most important chefs in Panama of the last 25 years for her contributions to culinary education, while Chilean magazine Blank named her Pioneer of Culinary Education in her country. She served on the board of directors of the International Association of Culinary Professionals between 2007 and 2011. In 2016 she opened St. Francis Café, a restaurant focusing on local, fresh ingredients serving brunch every day of the week. (Panama City, Panama)

CATHY NASH HOLLEY has been publisher and editor-in-chief of Flavor & The Menu since it began nearly 20 years ago. With its annual Top 10 Trends issue, Flavor & The Menu is a valuable resource for the foodservice industry, serving as a source of flavor and menu trends, strategies and innovation. In addition to overseeing the magazine, Cathy gives presentations on flavor trends at industry events, and is immediate past-president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council. She lives in Maine with her teenage twins. (Portland, ME)

MELISSA M. MARTIN grew up on the Louisiana coast and has lived in New Orleans for 25 years. After graduating from Loyola University in New Orleans, she worked as an adult literacy *** SUBJECT TO CHANGE *** 2021 Worlds of Flavor Presenter Biographies | Updated October 24, 2019 | Page 3 of 5 © 2021The Culinary Institute of America. All rights reserved. teacher then headed to California post Hurricane Katrina. She in the Napa Valley at White Rock Vineyards and Inglenook, California is where she honed her self-taught culinary skills to a professional level. Martin returned to New Orleans and opened Satsuma Café, a casual farm- to-table restaurant, and worked at Café Hope, a nonprofit restaurant, teaching at-risk youth to cook seasonal food. In 2014, she opened Mosquito Supper Club a Cajun restaurant created to celebrate the bounty of shrimpers, oyster, crabbers, fin and crawfish fishermen and farmers that define Bayou cuisine. In 2020 she published Mosquito Supper Club Recipes form a Disappearing Bayou. It was long listed for the Art of Eating Prize and named a best new cookbook by Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, NPR, the Splendid Table, Eater, Epicurious, and more. (New Orleans, LA) @mosquitosupperclub

ADÁN MEDRANO ‘10 is a food author and chef, specializing in the indigenous foods of Texas and the Americas. His cookbook, Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage in Recipes, received the Finalist, Book Of The Year award from Foreword Reviews. His recent cookbook, Don’t Count the Tortillas: The Art Of Texas Mexican Cooking, describes cooking as an artistic practice, with over 100 recipes illustrating dishes of Texas borderlands. The New York Times featured Adán’s Texas borderlands cooking as the food cover story: "Don't Call It Tex-Mex!” He is the executive producer and writer of the 2021 food documentary, “Truly Texas Mexican,” which won Best Documentary at the New York Independent Cinema Awards. It was Official Selection at the Sonoma International Film Festival and is streaming internationally in English and Spanish. (Houston, TX) @AdanMMedrano

JOHN MICHAEL ‘05 is director for culinary and hospitality education at the National Institute for Culinary and Hospitality Education. With 20 years of front and back of house experience in London, New York, and California and almost a decade in educational leadership, John was recently recruited to found the National Institute for Culinary and Hospitality Education (NICHE) in Wichita, Kansas. The NICHE, founded on the principles of innovation, sustainability, and accessibility, will bring a new level of sophistication and appreciation to the Great Plains, honoring its traditions while raising the bar. (Wichita, KS)

LEXI MICHAEL ’03 is the executive chef and chair of the National Institute of Culinary Education (NICHE) in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas. A hospitality and culinary industry veteran who has worked in fine dining, lodging and the wine industry, she returned to the Great Plains in part to teach culinary arts but also to advocate for a more sustainable food system in the nation’s Bread Basket. Her Mennonite heritage has inspired her to research Volga German Mennonite culinary traditions and teach them to the next generation of foodservice professionals in her region. (Wichita, KS)

DIEGO OKA is executive chef at La Mar. He was born and raised in Lima, Peru, one of the worlds’ most diverse and eclectic culinary destinations. Blending personal experiences and a background of Japanese descent into his cuisine, he draws on influences ranging from his grandmother’s cooking to the food he discovered while living in Mexico and Colombia. As executive chef of Mandarin Oriental, Miami’s new restaurant, La Mar by Gaston Acurio, Diego focuses on iconic Peruvian cuisine such as cebiche, in addition to a number of lesser-known plates that showcase the multi-culturalism and biodiversity of the country. He received his degree in culinary studies from the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola in 2001. While attending courses, Diego accepted an internship at celebrity chef Gaston *** SUBJECT TO CHANGE *** 2021 Worlds of Flavor Presenter Biographies | Updated October 24, 2019 | Page 4 of 5 © 2021The Culinary Institute of America. All rights reserved. Acurio’s Astrid&Gaston restaurant, a world-class establishment located in Lima that is ranked on the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. This opportunity blossomed into a long- term professional relationship with Acurio Restaurantes continuing to present day. Before joining La Mar in Miami, Diego served as executive chef at other La Mar locations, starting with the original Lima restaurant in 2005 and followed by Mexico, Colombia, and San Francisco. Now at the helm of Mandarin Oriental’s La Mar, Diego is dedicated to sharing the flavors and culture of Peru with Miami, serving authentic Peruvian dishes. (Miami, FL) @diegooka

CHANDRA RAM ‘99 is the editor of Plate, an award-winning food magazine read by chefs all over the country. Chandra is a James Beard and IACP nominated cookbook author who worked in restaurants for years before turning to food writing and editing Plate. She holds degrees in journalism and culinary arts and is the vice chair of the James Beard Foundation journalism award committee. She is a member of IACP, Les Dames d’Escoffier and Southern Foodways Alliance. (Chicago, IL) @chandrasplate

GABRIELA RUIZ is chef-owner of Carmela & Sal in Mexico City.(Mexico City, Mexico)

PARNASS SAVANG ‘11 is chef-owner of Talat Market. He is a first-generation Thai American, and uses his family background and southern ingredients to influence his style of cooking: Georgian Thai. (Atlanta, GA) @talatmarketatl

LUCAS SIN, chef-owner of Junzi Kitchen and Nice Day, opened his first restaurant when he was 16, in an abandoned newspaper factory in his hometown of Hong Kong. Despite spending his Yale undergraduate years in the cognitive science and English departments, Lucas spent his weekends running restaurants out of his dorm, known as Y Pop-up. Prior to joining junzi’s founding team and opening junzi kitchen and Nice Day, Lucas cooked at Modernist Cuisine in Seattle, Kikunoi Honten in Kyoto, and Michelin-starred kitchens in Hong Kong and New York. Lucas has been named a Star Chef Rising Star, an Eater Young Gun, and Forbes 30 under 30. Beyond junzi and Nice Day’s daily menu, Lucas curates a collaborative tasting menu exploring the narrative of Chinese culinary history in relation to other cultures of the world, which became a project known as Distance Dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Eric Sze, the chef of Taiwanese restaurant 886, Lucas co-founded SHY*BOYZCLUB, an introverted Asian pop-up collective. (New York, NY) @lucas.sin

CATHY WHIMS is chef-owner at Nostrana. A channeler of the soul, psyche, and techniques of Italy, Cathy is a master of inventive regional Italian Cuisine. Her many personal relationships with farmers and ranchers in the Pacific Northwest give her access to top quality ingredients, allowing her food to reflect the best of both the region, and the season, in the true Italian spirit. At all three of her Portland, Oregon restaurants—the flagship Nostrana, urban pizza and cocktail spot Oven & Shaker, and her modern wine bar Enoteca Nostrana—Cathy's elemental regional Italian cooking has earned her six nominations for James Beard Best Chef Northwest. (Portland, OR)