Graham Elliot

Chef Graham Elliot is the culinary mastermind behind Chicago’s first “bistronomic” restaurant, Graham Elliot, which tempers four-star cuisine with humor and accessibility. In a very short time, the 33-year-old chef has accrued accolades, including Best New Chef in 2004 from Food & Wine magazine and three James Beard Nominations. At age 27, Elliot was the youngest four-star chef in America. In May 2008, he opened the aptly named Graham Elliot, a restaurant that would not only bear his name, but become an extension of his passionate personality embodying his core principles of humility, courage, vision, respect and focus.

He is also the chef/culinary ambassador for Lollapalooza, a three-day music festival, in which he cooks for bands backstage as well as oversees all of the restaurants at the Lollapalooza Chow Town.

Joe Bastianich

Joe Bastianich opened his first restaurant, Becco, with his mother, Lidia, in 1993. Soon after, he partnered with Mario Batali, and together they have established some of New York’s most-celebrated restaurants, including Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, Lupa Osteria Romana, Esca, Casa Mono, Bar Jamon, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria and Del Posto. Expanding their horizons beyond Manhattan, Bastianich and Batali opened Enoteca San Marco, B&B Ristorante and Carnevino in Las Vegas and Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles. The duo also purchased a vineyard in Italy with the goal of creating the world’s finest wines and olive oils. Their latest venture, a revolutionary retail food concept called Eataly, debuted in 2010 in New York.

Bastianich is an accomplished author whose passion for the culinary arts has been recognized with professional awards from Bon Appétit magazine and the James Beard Foundation.

Gordon Ramsay

Chef Gordon Ramsay’s first years in the kitchen were spent training under culinary luminaries such as Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux in London, after which he moved to France where he worked in the kitchens of Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon. In 1993, Gordon became chef of the newly opened "Aubergine," and within three years the restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars.

Gordon's first book, Passion for Flavour, was published in 1996. A number of hugely successful books have followed. His recipe book, Gordon Ramsay’s World Kitchen was published by Quadrille in November 2009.

In 1998, at the age of 31, Gordon set up his first wholly owned restaurant, "Gordon Ramsay," in Chelsea. On 2001 it won its third Michelin star. Over a decade later the restaurant is still the only three Michelin starred restaurant in London. Ramsay has since opened a series of other acclaimed, award-winning restaurants of all kinds, proving him to truly be a superstar chef with celebrity status.

In 2004 Ramsay starred in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, which received a BAFTA and an International Emmy. Shortly after, Gordon was given two weeks to direct a group of celebrities towards Michelin standard cooking in the series Hell's Kitchen. A second series of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was followed by the debut The F-Word, a high-octane food show with cooking, topical VT's, food campaigns and celebrity guests. In America, Hell’s Kitchen also became a long-running hit.