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The basic ingredients of bread are well-known: flour, water, salt, and some kind of leavening agent. But for really, really good bread—the kinds of loaves that change your life—you need one thing more. Patience. And that’s something Zachary Golper, the baking mastermind behind Brooklyn’s Bien Cuit, has in spades. It’s a skill he developed from the very beginning of his adult life, when he was 20 years old and working on an Oregon farm–cum–meditation retreat. That’s where the scent of baking bread lured him from his bed one night at 1 a.m. to the kitchen (in a sheep barn) where he first learned to ferment loaves for days. From there (and following an extensive detour through South America), he continued his apprenticeships—in Seattle, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia, where he worked as baker-in-chief to Georges Perrier, the chef at the renowned Le Bec-Fin.Along the way, he developed the skills and the deep knowledge of fermentation that you can taste in the breads he bakes at Bien Cuit, which he opened in 2011. The crusts are crackling, thick, and mahogany dark—in other words, bien cuit, or well-done in French. They’re the kinds of breads you want to slather with really good butter, or dip into a hearty soup, or drape with paper-thin slices of salty ham... if you can keep from nibbling them down to nothing on the way home from the bakery. (We’re speaking from experience here.)They’re also the kinds of breads you can actually bake at home, thanks to Golper’s in-depth, step-by-step instructions. And while, yes, they’ll require a bit of patience (fermentation does take time!), you won’t have to spend 15 years learning how to make them, as Golper did. We’ve broken his best, most important recipes down into 5 fundamental lessons that will show you how to produce sourdoughs, baguettes, rolls, ciabattas, and Pullman loaves that may very well change your life, or at least make you a better, more patient baker.Zachary's Restaurants:Bien Cuit Grand Central (Brooklyn, NY)Bien Cuit (Brooklyn, NY)Zachary's Book:Bien Cuit (2015)

Justin Devillier was raised in Dana Point, California, a small beach town in South Orange County. He spent summers fishing for Yellowtail and Albacore tuna, and in the fall and winter he would dive for lobsters just steps from his front door. This bounty of local seafood inspired him to enter the culinary industry and after working in local restaurants right out of high school, he decided to focus all of his time on becoming a chef. In 2003, Devillier moved to New Orleans and cooked in the kitchens of Bacco, Stella and Peristyle. While at Peristyle, he worked with Chef Anne Kearny-Sands and learned the intricacies of French cuisine.In 2004, Devillier joined the team at La Petite Grocery, housed in a century-old building with a storied history, and became sous chef a year later. After Hurricane Katrina, he helped re-build La Petite Grocery’s infrastructure by managing the daily specials and training the new line cooks. In 2007 Devillier was promoted to Executive Chef, and in 2010 he and his wife Mia bought La Petite Grocery. Here, he puts his creative spin on traditional New Orleans cuisine with dishes like Turtle Bolognese and Blue Crab Beignets. Devillier has been named a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: South in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, and was also named 2014’s “Chef of the Year” by New Orleans Magazine. In March 2014, Devillier and the team at La Petite Grocery proudly celebrated 10 years of operation at the restaurant. More recently, Devillier was named Best Chef: South at the 2016 James Beard Awards Gala.Devillier’s second restaurant, named Balise after the first French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi River, opened in the Central Business District of New Orleans in early 2015. Set in a 19th century Creole townhouse, Balise features a menu that celebrates New Orleans as a port city and its unique access to a wide variety of ingredients.When Devillier has free time, he can be found fishing and hunting, or at the beach with his wife and two young daughters.Justin's Restaurant:La Petite Grocery (New Orleans, LA)

Alton Brown began his career as a cameraman when he was still in college, then followed with eight years directing television commercials before heading to culinary school in the early 90s with the goal of making food shows. Today, Brown has been on Food Network nearly 20 years, 14 of which he spent as the writer, host and showrunner of cooking/science/history/comedy show called Good Eats.During that time, he also served as the culinary commentator and host of such shows as Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, wrote eight books on food and cooking and toured two live culinary variety shows to sold-out houses around the country, as well as Broadway.His musical trio released their first CD in 2016 featuring Brown’s original music from the stage shows and managed to make the Billboard charts not once, but twice. His trio has a holiday album in the works for 2019, which will pair perfectly with a new holiday-targeted stage show that will hit the road that same year.There are two James Bead awards with Brown’s name on them in a drawer in his office, and somewhere in the world there’s a coveted Peabody awarded to Good Eats that was stolen out of his car back in 2013.Brown is producing Good Eats: Reloaded, for which he’s shooting new material to “renovate and repair” classic Good Eats episodes, and plans to reboot the series in 2019 with The Return of the Eats on Food Network.Although Brown is a pilot, scuba diver and motorcycle enthusiast his current hobby time is focused on brewing coffee, rejecting smartphone updates, and attempting to housebreak a rescued Boston Terrier named Scabigail. He shares a loft in Marietta, GA with designer Elizabeth Ingram and another dog named Franny, who seems to have the whole “going to the bathroom outside” thing worked out.He watches a lot of movies (Brown has insisted on several occasions that Stanley Kubrick is, in fact, his father) and owns several vintage electric guitars which he plays badly. He also collects typewriters which he plays with considerable proficiency. He drives a 35-year-old car.Oh, and he cooks.

Scott Conant brings a deft touch and an unwavering passion to creating singular dining experiences with soulful food and a convivial atmosphere. His career spans nearly 30 years and includes multiple restaurants, an enthusiastic following of fans and an ever-expanding brand. He has established himself as one of the country’s top chefs and restaurateurs. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Scott broke out onto the restaurant scene in his 20s, running the kitchens of famed Italian spots such as il Toscanaccio, Chianti and City Eatery, which earned glowing reviews under his leadership. Scott officially put his name on the map when he opened the beloved L’Impero in 2002. It garnered a three-star review from The New York Times, the title of Best New Restaurant from the James Beard Foundation, and praise from top publications such as Gourmet and Food & Wine, which named Scott one of America’s Best New Chefs in 2004. Following the success of L’Impero, Scott opened Alto, an elegant Italian restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Always looking to raise the bar, Scott eventually moved on to bring his own vision of sophisticated, savory Italian cooking to life with Scarpetta, which he now operates in Las Vegas and Miami. In March 2016 Scott opened Impero Caffè, a relaxed Italian spot for all-day dining at the INNSIDE New York Hotel that serves a variety of antipasti and housemade pastas, the hallmarks of his cuisine. In the same year he opened Mora Italian, a modern, convivial osteria in Phoenix. In recent years Scott has also opened D.O.C.G. Enoteca, a casual wine bar at The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, and unveiled his SC Culinary Suite, a beautiful private loft in SoHo where he can interact directly with guests and bring them his special brand of hospitality through private dinners, cocktail parties and cooking demos. In 2013 he debuted a signature menu at McCarran International Airport’s new American Express Centurion Lounge. Scott has appeared on the Today Show, The Chew, CBS’ The Talk, Live with Kelly & Michael, and Good Morning America, and he is a regular judge on Chopped, consistently one of Food Network’s highest-rated programs. He has also published three cookbooks: New Italian Cooking, Bold Italian and The Scarpetta Cookbook. As Scott continues to embark on new opportunities, he looks forward to sharing his enduring philosophy: Savor the pure pleasure of food, down to its last taste.

What’s a guy from Philly doing in New Orleans cooking modern Israeli food? Killing it, basically. His namesake restaurant, Shaya, won the 2016 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, thanks to dishes such as creamy hummus topped with a lamb ragù melting in duck fat and peppery harissa, and softly charred wood-fired-to-order flatbreads.It’s not his first time at the rodeo: In 2015 chef Shaya won the Beard for Best Chef: South for his Italian cooking at Domenica and later Pizza Domenica, where he’s been praised by patrons and publications (Esquire, Eater, Food & Wine) alike for his luscious pastas and wood-oven pizzas. It’s not such a stretch from pizza to pita, really.A stint in Israel, cooking for troops, reconnected chef Shaya with his roots—and planted the seed for Shaya the restaurant. Each time he returned from subsequent trips, the food at Domenica became more inflected with Israeli flavors—lamb bolognese with tahini, za’atar crostini, even hummus disguised as ceci purée. It was time to give this food its own home: Shaya.New Orleans, a place that had seemed like a mystical land to Shaya as a young cook, made its way into his cooking too. After Hurricane Katrina he prepared vats of jambalaya for volunteers out of an improvised kitchen, and at Shaya (in a truly Israeli fashion) he uses local ingredients at their peak.Chef Shaya himself will tell you that both Israel and America are melting pots. And so it’s not so improbable that a boy from Philadelphia—who learned to cook at his Israeli grandmother’s apron-strings, polished his skills at the CIA, and was mentored by acclaimed restaurateur John Besh—would become a chef of many cuisines. What’s remarkable is that he does it all with such finesse, evident in each bite of kibbeh tartare, and each spoonful of Louisiana shrimp shakshuka.Alon's Restaurants:DomenicaPizza DomenicaShaya