Our Chefs, Scientists, and other Experts
Dave Arnold
Dave Arnold is a renowned food scientist, inventor, and mixologist. He is the founder and president of the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD); the host of the radio show Cooking Issues; an owner of Booker and Dax, a food and drink research lab in New York; a food science writer and editor; the author of Liquid Intelligence: The Art & Science of the Perfect Cocktail; and an innovator in the field of culinary technology.
David Estroff
David Estroff is an expert in pediatric medicine and nutrition. He graduated from the Hahnemann University School of Medicine in 1976. He works in Tacoma, WA and three other locations and specializes in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics and Pediatrics. His experience includes work as a pediatrician at Madigan Army Medical Center and at United States Army Health Center Grafenwoehr in Germany. Prior to that, he served as a pediatrician at MultiCare Medical Center in Tacoma. He has also been involved in research and residency programs.
“Meathead” Goldwyn
“Meathead” Goldwyn is an American food writer, chef, and online publisher. In 2021 he was elected to the Barbecue Hall Of Fame. He is the author of New York Times best seller Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling. He is also a former columnist for the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, and AOL.
Christopher Harris
Christopher Harris is an award-winning confectionary artist and instructor. After a successful career as a pastry chef, Harris turned his talents to teaching full-time as the head instructor at one of the finest baking programs in America: the Seattle Culinary Academy. He has won numerous awards for his unbelievable sugar work and specialty cakes.
Kären Jurgensen
Kären Jurgensen is a professional chef and is the founder of sustainability curriculum at Seattle Culinary Academy and one of the school’s senior culinary instructors. Jurgensen is a recognized leader in the local and national food communities, and she spends time supporting many organizations, sitting on the Boards of a few. She spends summers at Quillisascut Cheese Company’s Farm School teaching professional chefs, culinary students, and agricultural professionals farm-to-table immersion courses and philosophy. She is the co-author of Rethinking the Kitchen: the sustainable kitchen handbook and Chefs on the Farm cookbook. She has won many awards and honors for her work in sustainability, including the Chefs Collaborative National “Sustainer” Award and being named “Edible Education Hero” by Chef Alice Waters.
Sandor Katz
Sandor Katz is the bestselling author of many books, including The Art of Fermentation, which won a James Beard Foundation Book Award in 2013. Through his writing and hundreds of workshops he’s given, Sandor shares his love for the transformative power of microbes to make delicious fermented foods.
J. Kenji López-Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt is an American chef and food writer. His first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, became a critical and commercial success, charting on the New York Times Bestseller list and winning the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for the best General Cooking cookbook. The cookbook expanded on López-Alt’s “The Food Lab” column on the Serious Eats blog. López-Alt is known for using the scientific method in his cooking to improve popular American recipes and to explain the science of cooking. López-Alt started Wursthall in 2017, a beer hall style restaurant in San Mateo, California, and he maintains a popular YouTube channel in which he demonstrates many recipes and cooking techniques.
Harold McGee
Harold McGee is a world-renowned authority on the science of food and cooking. Named one of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine, McGee earned his PhD in English from Yale and his undergraduate degree in science and literature at Caltech. He has written two prize-winning books, On Food and Cooking and The Curious Cook, as well as many articles and reviews. He was also named food writer of the year by Bon Appétit magazine.
Ewald Notter
Ewald Notter is a master of confectionery arts, National and World Pastry Team Champion, and Pastry Chef of the Year. He has won over 15 gold medals, and he led the US team to its first and only Gold Medal in Lyon, France, with the highest-ever recorded score (699 out of 700). He is also an esteemed author and educator. Notter has been honored by the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences with the 5-Star Diamond award as on of the “Finest Confectionery Chefs of the World.” He was also the first pastry professional inducted into the Pastry Art and Design Hall of Fame. Notter remains a prominent figure in the most illustrious competitions as venerable coach and distinguished judge.
Jacques Pépin
Jacques Pépin is one of the best-known and most highly respected chefs in the world. Pépin is the author of 29 books, a former writer for the New York Times, and the recipient of a multitudes of awards and honors, including five honorary Doctorate degrees and France’s highest civilian honor, La Légion d’Honneur. He has received 16 James Beard Foundation Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, Pépin received the American Public Television’s Lifetime Achievement Award in November and the inaugural Julia Child Award, which was presented to him at The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. A longtime close friend of Julia Child, he starred with her in a PBS series called Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, which won both an Emmy Award and a James Beard Foundation Award in 2001.
Michael Silver
Michael Silver is a professional scientist, author, chef, baker, food scientist, and food safety instructor. He has an accomplished career with work in many other fields, including math, music, art, molecular biology, computer science, technology, motorsports, teaching, language, scuba diving, and emergency medicine (with EMT and DMT certifications). For his work with NASA he was made an honorary Air Force Captain. His volunteer work includes teaching for the American Red Cross, emergency medicine for the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, training animals for the SPCA, teaching high-performance driving and track safety, and doing molecular biology research at Stanford University. He has served on Boards for both Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc. and the Motorsport Safety Foundation. Michael’s professional career also includes major projects for Apple, NASA, Google, LucasFilm, EA, and other companies as well as Elon Musk, Larry Page, Frances Ford Coppola, Keith Richards, and many others.