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Mom of four, television host and cookbook author Melissa d’Arabian (www.MelissadArabian.net) embodies family home cooking at its finest. With a lifelong passion for cooking and varied life experiences, Melissa naturally connects with today’s diverse families as she shares empowering food and lifestyle solutions that are part of a bigger story about how to eat well, be a responsible consumer and spend with purpose — all while putting satisfying family meals on the table every day. Her distinctive ability to utilize tried-and-true techniques, smart grocery store budget strategies and superior resource management skills while creating approachable family-friendly recipes as flavorful and elegant as they are affordable have made Melissa a trusted, go-to resource for home cooks everywhere. After she won Season 5 of well-known culinary competition series Food Network Star, Melissa's relatable cooking show Ten Dollar Dinners premiered on Food Network in August 2009. Each episode delivers on her $10 promise: four people, ten bucks, infinite possibilities, and proves a delicious budget-friendly meal can be made without compromise. A natural extension of her popular television series, Melissa's first cookbook, Ten Dollar Dinners: 140 Recipes and Tips to Elevate Simple, Fresh Meals Any Night of the Week(Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc.), debuted in August 2012 and became an instant New York Times best seller. Melissa also hosts Cooking Channel’s Drop 5 Lbs. with Good Housekeeping, a cooking and lifestyle series that premiered in January 2012 based on the magazine’s popular monthly column. The fresh, simple and healthy recipes she prepares further the show’s mission to make weight loss easier and more manageable. Additionally, Melissa has appeared on highly rated Food Network prime-time series, including The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Chopped, Food Network Challenge and The Best Thing I Ever Made. Raised by a single mother who was putting herself through college and medical school, Melissa grew up in Tucson, Ariz., with a coupon-cutter mentality and on a shoestring budget in a humble home where waste was frowned upon but where cooking together was a favorite pastime, life lessons that have always remained at her core. Melissa received her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Vermont, and then spent a year at sea as part of the entertainment staff on cruise ships before going on to earn her M.B.A. at Georgetown University. Her professional career began in consulting, and Melissa eventually worked in corporate finance at Disney in Burbank, Calif., and in merchandise finance at Euro Disney outside of Paris, where she met and eventually married her husband, Philippe. After having four daughters in three years, Melissa changed paths to focus on being a stay-at-home mom and quickly realized she was hardwired to streamline the family’s expenses (just like her mom had to do) so they could live on a single income. She could never have guessed that a home video of her making yogurt — a simple yet successful strategy that saved Melissa more than $1,000 a year — to share with local moms would also be her ticket to the newest chapter in her career and life path. National and local media, including the Today show, CNN, People, Food Network Magazine and iVillage.com, regularly feature Melissa’s recipes and tips. She is also invited to participate in top-notch industry events, including the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival and New York City Wine & Food Festival, as well as to speak at engagements nationwide for a variety of organizations such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a cause very close to Melissa’s heart after losing her mother to suicide at age 20. Living just outside San Diego, Melissa and Philippe have four daughters — Valentine, Charlotte and twins Margaux and Océane — who double as Mom’s official taste testers. Melissa believes in the power of the family meal, and always serves food with the goal of nourishing both body and soul — cooking for the person, not the plate. She connects closely to her Christian faith and strives to live her life with meaning and purpose.

Michael Ruhlman has written beautiful books on a number of topics—pediatric heart surgery, boat makers, and boarding schools, to name a few. But his soul, along with many of his most famous titles, seems to lie in food. He champions both the nutritional and emotional value of cooking: “[Cooking]'s just as important and takes just as long as showering,” he told us, “but I’d much rather you didn’t shower.” While making his delicious recipes for Panna, he continually reminded us to spend time with our partners any time we were waiting for the food to finish cooking. We agree with Ruhlman: cooking is essential to living. And to really get the most out of it, Ruhlman wants to make chef-quality food accessible to home cooks. He’s partnered with renowned chef Thomas Keller to write three cookbooks, including The French Laundry Cookbook, and with Chef Brian Polcyn to co-author two books on cured meats. Ruhlman has also written over a dozen of his own cookbooks, on everything from sautéing to schmaltz.Ruhlman came to the Panna studio to take us on a deep dive into one of our most popular ingredients: chicken. After years of cooking with some of America’s best classically trained chefs and editing their recipes, he’s honed all the necessary techniques—from trussing a simple roaster to flattening breasts (with a frying pan!) for an iconic chicken paillard with lemon-caper sauce. From Szechuan to yakitori to three kinds of chicken salad, Ruhlman will show you the many ways this humble bird can truly shine.Michael's Books:Ratio (2010)Grocery (2017) The Making of a Chef (2009)