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Keegan Gerhard, named one of the nation's top 10 pastry chefs of 2002 and 2004 by both Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design magazines, brings a wealth of experience and abundant competitive energy to his position as Executive Pastry Chef.A one-time cyclist, Keegan originally pursued a career in culinary arts simply to have a mobile source of income that would allow him to train for the Olympics anywhere, any time. But convenience soon gave way to passion, as Keegan found himself running the kitchen of a French bistro in San Diego. The day he fired his pastry chef and took over, he discovered his true passion – and it has been a wild ride ever since.Keegan set out to learn from the best, and worked as the assistant to the celebrated Master pastry chef, Jacquy Pfeiffer, the Alsace-born owner and founder of the French Pastry School in Chicago. Keegan describes this as more of an apprenticeship and awakening. Subsequent positions as Pastry Chef with Charlie Trotters Restaurant, the Waldorf Astoria and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company ensued, as did a position as Corporate Pastry Chef for Dean and DeLuca and Executive Pastry Chef of Four Seasons Chicago. Keegan was a proud member of the opening team for Wynn Las Vegas and is now Corporate Pastry Chef for Las Vegas Gourmet Imports.Keegan has an enthusiastic but controlled approach to pastries, "I like to stay away from things that are too contrived, and prefer to create desserts that are refined and elegant," he explains. "I sometimes compare pastries to jazz music: 70 percent is based on enduring principles or the foundation of the style, and then the great musicians give you the 30 percent which is a surprise."When he's not preparing seasonal product-driven delicacies in the pastry shop, Keegan spends time organizing and serving as emcee for the National Pastry Team Championships, The World Pastry Team Championships and Food Network Challenge programs.He has been featured numerous times on the Discovery Channel's Great Chefs of America, as well as the Travel Channel and CNN. For the 2001 Pastry World Cup, he served as technical advisor to Team USA, which brought home a gold medal. Keegan is the recipient of the 2003 Distinguished Visiting Pastry Chef award from Johnson & Wales University, and has received the Jean Banchet Culinary Excellence Award. Keegan has had the honor of participating in 5 different James Beard Dinners. His light, fresh fruit desserts have also been featured widely in A Neo-Classic View of Plated Desserts, Chocolatier, FoodArts, Pastry Art and Design and many other publications.

Marc Forgione competed on and won season three of The Next Iron Chef in 2010, beating out some of the country’s top chefs for the ultimate culinary title – Iron Chef. Marc began his career at the age of 16, joining his father, Larry Forgione (a culinary legend who revolutionized American-style cooking in the '70s and '80s), in the kitchen at An American Place. Marc fully embraced his father's livelihood and has built on his unique culinary foundation to carve out an identity of his own. Marc opted for a traditional four-year education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he graduated from the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. He spent his summers working the line at restaurants such as Above in New York, with acclaimed chef Kazuto Matsusaka. These stints would lay the groundwork for Marc's post-collegiate toils, again alongside his father at An American Place and later under Patricia Yeo at AZ. When Yeo and celebrated chef Pino Maffeo opened Pazo, they took Marc along to serve as sous chef at the short-lived eatery. When Laurent Tourondel set out to develop his flagship, BLT Steak, he recruited Marc as his sous chef. In an effort to diversify his experience, Marc left for France, where he secured a series of humble posts under Michel Guerard in Eugenie les Bains. Working at three of the region's finest restaurants, Le Pres D'Eugenie, Ferme aux Grives and Le Cuisine Minceur, Marc absorbed the nuances of classic French techniques and further developed what had already become a meaningful relationship with ingredients. When he returned to New York, Marc promptly reunited with Tourondel, who invited the now seasoned chef to serve as chef de cuisine at BLT Prime. The restaurant would go on to earn sterling accolades from relevant publications nationwide, culminating in a 27 in the Zagat Guide, making it the highest-ranking steakhouse in the history of New York City. Following his role as chef de cuisine, Marc was named corporate chef for the BLT Restaurant Group, a position that enabled him to develop recipes and maintain the quality of the BLT brand as it went on to include more restaurants across the country. Marc has played a key role in the openings of BLT Fish and BLT Market, as well as the Washington, D.C., San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Dallas locations of BLT Steak. With Marc Forgione, formerly known as Forge, Marc’s first restaurant, he has created an approachable place "that people walk by and are compelled to enter and where the ingredients are the star." Marc was most recently coveted with his second Michelin star in the 2011 guide, making him the youngest American-born chef and owner to receive the honor in consecutive years (2010, 2011). In addition, Marc received a two-star review from Sam Sifton of The New York Times. The restaurant also earned the distinction of being named "Key Newcomer" by Zagat Guide 2009, "Top 25 Restaurants in NYC" by Modern Luxury magazine and "All Star Eatery" by Forbes magazine. Marc was awarded "Star Chefs Rising Star of the Year Award 2010," named "Rising Star 2008" from Restaurant Hospitality magazine and mentioned "New Formalist" by Esquire magazine in 2008. Marc currently lives in New York City.