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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.

Marcus Samuelsson is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, philanthropist and food activist. His most recent restaurant is New York City’s acclaimed Red Rooster Harlem, which opened in December 2010. The restaurant celebrates the roots of American cuisine in one of New York City’s liveliest and most culturally rich neighborhoods. Chef Samuelsson has been featured on Iron Chef, Chopped All-Stars, Top Chef Masters, 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, The Martha Stewart Show, the Today show, and his own television show, The Inner Chef, on Discovery Network.Marcus was recently honored as a guest chef at the White House under the Obama administration, where he planned and executed the administration’s first state dinner for the first family, Prime Minister Singh of India and 400 guests. While he has been honored by the prestigious James Beard Foundation on multiple occasions, including “Rising Star Chef” (1999), “Best Chef: New York City” (2003) and “Best International Cookbook” (2007), Marcus continues to maintain humility with regard to the art of food and his UNICEF endeavors, working toward immunization and curbing malnutrition for children throughout the world.His books include Aquavit: And the New Scandinavian Cuisine (2003), Discovery Of A Continent: Foods, Flavors, And Inspirations From Africa (2007), New American Table (2009), Yes, Chef: A Memoir (2013), Marcus Off Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home (2014), Make It Messy: My Perfectly Imperfect Life (2015) and The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem (2016).

Since opening his first restaurant, Amada, in 2005, Chef Jose Garces has emerged as an enormous talent and one of the nation’s most gifted chefs and restaurateurs. His eponymous Garces Group operates restaurants in Philadelphia, Pa.; Chicago, Ill.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Palm Springs, Calif.; and Atlantic City, N.J. In addition to his duties as chef-owner, Chef Garces is the author of the stunning cookbooks, Latin Evolution (Lake Isle Press, September 2008) and The Latin Road Home (Lake Isle Press, October 2012). He is a 2009 winner of the James Beard Foundation’s prestigious “Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic” award and one of only eight chefs in the country to hold the prestigious title of Iron Chef. He regularly appears on the Food Network hit Iron Chef America, a role he earned after besting nine other competitors on The Next Iron Chef. In addition, Chef Garces is the owner of 40-acre Luna Farm in Bucks County, Pa., where he and his team grow much of the produce for his Philadelphia restaurants. He is also the proprietor of one of the nation’s best-loved food trucks, Guapos Tacos, which is available for private events and can often be found on the streets of his adopted hometown of Philadelphia. “Since opening Amada, my life and career have taken off in directions I could never have anticipated, and it has been an amazing ride,” says Chef Garces. “Each new opportunity has brought a fresh set of challenges, and it has been exhilarating to overcome them and continue to evolve and grow — as a chef, as a hospitality professional and as a person.” Chef Garces’ Philadelphia ventures are each counted among the city’s best bars and restaurants: Amada, an authentic Andalusian tapas bar; Tinto, a wine bar and restaurant inspired by the Basque region of Northern Spain and Southern France; Distrito, a spirited celebration of the vibrant culture and cuisine of Mexico City; Chifa, a Latin-Asian restaurant named after the Peruvian eateries of the same name; Village Whiskey, a classic American bar with more than 80 whiskies and world-class bar snacks; Garces Trading Company, a European-style cafe and gourmet market; and JG Domestic, an ingredient-focused restaurant serving artisanal American food and drink. Also based in Philadelphia are: Guapos Tacos, his mobile truck serving modern Mexican street food; and Garces Catering, a full-service event planning division that designs and executes gatherings ranging from casual business luncheons to dramatic black-tie weddings and everything in between. Chef Garces is also the executive chef at Chicago’s much-praised Catalan restaurant Mercat a la Planxa, where he works in collaboration with Sage Restaurant Group. Both Distrito and Mercat were named to Esquire magazine’s list of “20 Best New Restaurants, 2008.” In the past 12 months, Chef Garces has expanded into a variety of new markets. Most recently, he partnered with Revel, a new beachfront resort in Atlantic City, N.J., to open: Amada, Village Whiskey and Distrito Cantina, a festive margarita bar with a selection of 100 tequilas and Mexican street food from the adjoining Guapos Tacos food truck. Earlier, Chef Garces brought his hospitality and cuisine to the Southwest, opening restaurants in cooperation with Joie de Vivre and The Sydell Group at their new Saguaro hotels in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Palm Springs, Calif. At the Saguaro Scottsdale, Chef Garces operates Distrito; Old Town Whiskey, a bar evocative of frontier drink parlors of old, serving a collection of domestic spirits and artfully crafted cocktails alongside classic American dishes; and Garces Trading Coffee Kiosk, a takeout counter serving his custom-roasted GTC coffees and house-baked goods. At the Saguaro Palm Springs, Chef Garces oversees room service and poolside eats and manages two restaurants: El Jefe, a modern Mexican restaurant and margarita bar with a look and feel inspired by the Wild West, and Tinto. This year, Garces Catering will partner with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia (Broad and Spruce Streets, www.kimmelcenter.org). Chef Garces will create and execute menus for all special events and concessions for the Kimmel Center, Academy of Music and Merriam Theater, and will also open a full-service restaurant inside the Kimmel Center. Always on the lookout for a new way to bring his food to his guests, Chef Garces authored his first cookbook, Latin Evolution (Lake Isle Press, Fall 2008). The strikingly photographed tome focuses on modern recipes through which Chef Garces provides authoritative, much-needed context for the now-ubiquitous flavors and cooking styles of Spain, Mexico and much of South America, exploring the history of these cuisines even as he shapes their future. His second cookbook, The Latin Road Home (Lake Isle Press, October 2012), takes readers on a tour of a variety of Latin cultures through food. An American chef born to Ecuadorian parents and raised in Chicago, Chef Garces began his culinary training in the kitchen of his paternal grandmother. In developing his personal cooking style, something he says is an ongoing pursuit, Jose spent years perfecting different cuisines in top-rated professional kitchens, graduating from Chicago’s Kendall College School of Culinary Arts and going on to work in New York City before moving on to Philadelphia, where he has built an impressive stable of restaurants and resides today with his wife and two children. Known for his wide smile and educational approach to food, Chef Garces has been featured on top TV shows and in prestigious publications including the Today show; Nightline; The New York Times; Travel & Leisure; Bon Appetit; Food & Wine; and The Wall Street Journal. For more information on Chef Jose Garces or any of his restaurants, please visit www.garcesgroup.com and follow them on Twitter: @garcesgroup and @chefjosegarces.

Emmy-winning television host Jeff Corwin has worked for the conservation of endangered species, natural resources, and ecosystems around the globe. Through education and awareness, he believes these vital elements of our planet can be conserved for future generations. Jeff also remains a passionate explorer of human culture especially as it relates to regional cuisine; he believes food is often the glue that cements together a community and culture. As the host of Food Network's primetime series Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin, Jeff embarks on exciting and educational culinary adventures through culturally-diverse lands – meeting the natives, sampling the incredible indigenous foods, and enjoying countless surprises every step of the way. In February 2009, Extreme Cuisine premiered as a one-hour primetime special on Food Network, and it was then picked up for a full series premiering September 17th, 2009. Jeff has a long history in the food industry, working in restaurants since he was 12 years old. From dishwasher to busboy, to prep and line cook, to waiter and bartender, he has worked everywhere from greasy spoons to high-end locales. His family played a major role in sparking Jeff's culinary interests; in fact, his great grandfather owned Maccarelli's – one of the first pizza parlors in the United States. His food passions now focus on sustainable cooking, mushroom foraging, fishing, and oneology. Jeff also hosts of a variety of popular television series seen in 120 countries worldwide including Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin Experience, Corwin's Quest, Spring Watch, Giant Monsters, Realm of the Yeti, Spring Watch USA, and King of the Jungle; Disney's Going Wild with Jeff Corwin; Discovery Networks' Investigation Earth; NBC's Emmy-nominated Jeff Corwin Unleashed; Travel Channel's Into Alaska and Into the American West; and Discovery Health's Pets and People. In 2007, Jeff also co-created and co-hosted CNN's Planet in Peril with Anderson Cooper. In November 2008, Animal Planet premiered The Vanishing Frog, a powerful documentary highlighting Jeff's year-long, global odyssey exploring the mass extinction of the planet's amphibian species. Now in its fifth edition, Jeff's first book, Living on the Edge: Amazing Relationships in the Natural World (Rodale, 2003), focuses on diverse ecosystems and their inhabitants. Through Puffin Books, Jeff is publishing a book series for young readers focusing on wildlife, ecology and conservation under The Jeff Corwin Jr. Explorer Series brand. His new book, 100 Heartbeats: A Journey to Meet Our Planet's Endangered Animals and the Heroes Working to Save Them (Rodale), due out in November 2009, explores the plight of the planet’s most endangered wildlife species. The title of the book refers to the species with 100 or fewer individuals alive in the wild today. Jeff will also host an accompanying two-hour MSNBC documentary entitled Future Earth: 100 Heartbeats, due out November 22, 2009. Jeff established EcoZone in 2002, an interactive museum and environmental education center in Norwell, Mass. (his hometown) to build awareness for the wildlife and ecology unique to the wetlands of southeastern Massachusetts. In 2008, Jeff was named Embassodor of Climate Change and Endangered Species on behalf of the Defenders of Wildlife, one of the United States‘ most prominent conservation organizations. Jeff has B.S. degrees in Biology and Anthropology from Bridgewater State College, a M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and an honorary doctorate in Public Education from Bridgewater State College. When not traveling the world, Jeff enjoys life at home off the coast of Massachusetts with his wife, Natasha, and two daughters, Maya Rose and Marina Faye. He and his wife believe it's important to show their daughters where food comes from and to connect them with the resources. At home, they grow about 20% of their food including many fruits, vegetables and herbs. They eat fish that they catch themselves and also have clam beds, mussel beds, and lobster traps. This lifestyle contributes to Jeff's belief in sustainable, locally-grown fare and renewable resources.

For the past 15 years, Chef Tyler Florence (www.tylerflorence.com) has delighted the masses by sharing the sights, sounds and flavors of his unique culinary vision with fans around the world. After graduating from the prestigious culinary program at Johnson & Wales University, Florence tackled the Big Apple where he helmed multiple acclaimed restaurants and established himself as one of New York City’s finest young stars. In New York, he honed his culinary skills under the tutelage of some of the city's premier chefs, including Charlie Palmer at Aureole, Marta Pulini at Mad 61 and Rick Laakonen, ultimately becoming executive chef at Cafeteria. As the buzz about the charismatic young chef’s food picked up steam, a fresh new television network took notice; the rest is history. After more than 14 years as a Food Network star, Florence has taken his food and his wit across the globe, finely tuning what is regarded as one of America’s most important culinary voices. He has starred in such series as How to Boil Water, his cooking show for novices; Food 911, his hugely popular "recipe rescue" show; as well as his signature series, Tyler's Ultimate. Florence has also hosted numerous other Food Network shows and specials, including Planet Food, All American Festivals and My Country, My Kitchen. Tyler is also a regular guest on The Today Show, CNN, The View, The Tonight Show, Oprah, Access Hollywood, Extra, Good Morning America, and more. In July 2008, Tyler opened his first kitchen retail shop, The Tyler Florence Shop, in Mill Valley, Calif. Outposts will also be opening soon at San Francisco International Airport and in Napa. Adjacent to the Napa shop will be Tyler's new restaurant concept, Tyler Florence Rotisserie & Wine. Tyler also released two best-selling cookbooks in October 2008: Stirring the Pot and Dinner at My Place (Meredith Books). He also has three previously released books: Tyler’s Ultimate, Eat This Book and Real Kitchen (Clarkson Potter). In January 2009, Tyler launched his signature lines of steel-clad cookware and titanium cutlery on Home Shopping Network and at major retailers across the United States, including Macy’s, where Tyler is a member of the prestigious Macy’s Culinary Council. Also in 2009, Tyler opened his first signature restaurant, The Empire Plush Room, at the new Hotel Vertigo in San Francisco. In June 2010, Tyler opened his first signature restaurant, Wayfare Tavern, in San Francisco's Financial District and later opened the historic El Paseo in Mill Valley in fall 2010. Tyler lives in Mill Valley, Calif., with his wife, Tolan, and has three children: sons, Miles and Hayden, and daughter, Dorothy.

As an avid home cook and successful spice-shop owner, Janet Johnston brings her bright personality and true passion for spices to Food Network in her show, Spice & Easy. Janet shares her deep knowledge of spices and demonstrates the ease of infusing spices and seasonings into everyday dishes resulting in fantastic flavors. Her approachable techniques and ideas eliminate intimidation and prove that spicing things up is both fun and simple. Janet grew up in Hoffman Estates, Ill., outside of Chicago, with her parents and three siblings. She earned an associate degree in 1990 from William Rainey Harper College. She then moved to the city and studied photography at Columbia College and received her bachelor’s degree in 1993. After graduation, Janet worked for 13 years at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), starting as an executive assistant and working her way to being a manager on the Internet marketing team. In 2000, Janet met her future husband, Mike, who worked in the spice industry. He ignited her passion for spices and cooking, and they moved to Denver in 2004 to realize their dream: open a beautiful spice shop and build a successful business together. They married in August 2006 and opened their second shop in September in Littleton, Colo. They opened a third shop in Boulder, Colo., in July 2008 and a fourth shop in East Denver’s Lowry Town Center in October 2008, which served as a prototype for their new franchise business. The first franchise opened in November 2009 in Colorado Springs with several more in the works. Janet and Mike manage the overall business every day in addition to constantly creating new spice blends and developing approachable recipes for their customers. In August 2008, Savory Spice Shop was featured on the Denver episode of Food Network’s Road Tasted with the Neelys as a standout local business. Since then, Janet and Mike have appeared on episodes of Paula’s Best Dishes and Down Home with the Neelys to cook up some of their favorite spice-filled delights. Besides cooking and eating, Janet enjoys traveling, antiquing, gardening and exercising including yoga. Janet currently resides in Denver, Colo., with her husband, Mike, and their dog, Bounder. Spice & Easy is filmed in Denver — both in their 100-year-old Victorian home as well as in the original Savory Spice Shop.