Erin Gleeson of The Forest Feast

After several years of working as a food photographer in New York City, Erin Gleeson moved to a cabin in the woods in Woodside, California where she created The Forest Feast food blog and cookbook series which fuse her love of cooking with her own photography and watercolor paintings. Inspired by local ingredients she creates simple, mostly-vegetarian recipes that are full of fruits and vegetables. Erin also has a line of Forest Feast stationery and gift items which feature her artwork. This fall she is headed to Europe for 3 months to work on her 4th cookbook which will be focused on Mediterranean small plates.

Laurence Jossel of Nopa

Laurence Jossel is the chef/co-owner of Nopa and Nopalito. After spending time at La Folie and The Dining Room at The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco under Gary Danko, he opened Kokkari, Chez Nous, and finally Chow, where he met his partners for Nopa and Nopalito. He is building neighborhood restaurants that's making simple, hearty, accessible food with local ingredients and a focus on sustainability.

Rebecca King of Garden Variety Cheese

Rebecca King is owner, shepherdess and cheesemaker at Garden Variety Cheese, a farmstead sheep cheese dairy located on a 40 acre ranch in Northern Monterey County and a recipient of Whole Foods Market's Local Producer Grant. As an environmental studies student at UC Santa Cruz she worked as an intern at a small goat dairy farm called Sea Stars Goat Cheese and developed her love for dairy animals, cheesemaking and farmers markets. After a number of years working on different organic farms and in the office of the Organic Farming Research Foundation, she enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. A part-time job at Cowgirl Creamery's Artisan Cheese introduced her to sheep milk cheese and the dreams of a small farmstead sheep dairy were born. After five years of working as a cook and chef she cashed in her savings and bought 50 dairy ewes and began her current adventure. 

Keba Konte of Red Bay Coffee

Keba Konte has invested his life as an artist, food entrepreneur and community man. His artwork has been widely published and exhibited in museums and galleries. He is the founder of Chasing Lions Cafe and Red Bay Coffee Roasters. Through his work he has embraced and hired people of all backgrounds and strive to be inclusive of those who have traditionally been left out of the specialty coffee industry, especially people of color, the formerly incarcerated, women and people with disabilities. In his spare time he enjoys aquaponic gardening, judo and making waffles while listening to ol’ time singer Valerie June.                                                                                    

Yoni Levy of Outerlands

Yoni Levy began his culinary career in the Bay Area working at One Market in San Francisco and The Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur. Levy’s next stop was Boston to help open the Great Bay restaurant. He then moved to Chicago to work at Blackbird, Lula Café, The Bristol, and Old Town Social. Each chef Levy worked with instilled in him a deeper appreciation for building strong relationships with local farmers, ranchers, seafood suppliers, and the local community. Yoni was Chef de Cuisine at Flora restaurant in Oakland before opening Daniel Patterson’s Alta CA as Head Chef. Levy is currently the Executive Chef at Outerlands in San Francisco where he highlights local produce, seafood, and meat. Yoni’s goal at Outerlands is to run an honest, community based kitchen.

Dilsa Lugo of Los Cilantros

Chef/owner Dilsa Lugo brings her vast experience in restaurants and farming to offer a selection of home-style Mexican dishes, all made from scratch, that highlight family recipes and the beauty of responsibly and locally-sourced ingredients. Because Mexican food is more than just rice and beans, Los Cilantros aims to introduce the Bay Area market to a wide array of regional specialties from throughout Mexico, offering simple interpretations of traditional dishes that highlight the richness of Bay Area ingredients. (Image courtesy of Leah Millis, The Chronicle)

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table & A Brown Kitchen

Nik Sharma is an author, food writer and photographer of the blog A Brown Table and also writes the column, A Brown Kitchen, at the San Francisco Chronicle. His work has been the recipient of numerous awards and his key interests lie in understanding flavors that he grew up with and experienced growing up in India and then later as an immigrant in America. He explores this through cooking using words, recipes and visual story telling as tools while calling attention to the issues faced by colored and gay immigrants in the food world. Nik is currently working on his first solo cookbook, Season (Chronicle Books) that comes out in Fall 2018.                                                               

Pim Techamuanvivit, Kin Khao Thai Eatery

"Born and raised in Bangkok, Pim took a circuitous route through the world of food–writing, jam-making–before she realized her life-long dream of opening her own restaurant. Longing for Thai food of richer quality and variety in the U.S, Pim is on a mission to liberate her beloved Thai cuisine from the tyranny of peanut sauce. Her first restaurant, Kin Khao, was named one of GQ Magazine's 25 Most Outstanding New Restaurants of 2015 and Bon Appetit Magazine's 50 Best New Restaurants in the same year, and has been awarded 1 star in the Michelin Guide since 2015. in 2016, San Francisco Magazine named Kin Khao the Best Thai Restaurant of The Year."

Margo True, Food Editor of Sunset Magazine

Margo True has been the food editor at Sunset since 2006. Before coming to Sunset, she was the executive editor at Saveur magazine, and before that, a senior editor and writer at Gourmet. A multiple winner of James Beard and International Association of Culinary Professionals journalism awards, she’s edited several cookbooks for Sunset, including The Sunset Cookbook (2010), The One-Block Feast (2011), and The Great Outdoors Cookbook (2014), an IACP cookbook of the year. Every Tuesday at 3, in Sunset’s test kitchen, she hosts a Facebook Live segment called “In the Kitchen With,” an interactive cooking lesson featuring chefs from the San Francisco area and beyond.