Michael Ruhlman

Judge

Michael Ruhlman, born in Cleveland, Ohio, is a renowned author who has written 12 books of mostly nonfiction, the best known have been in collaboration with American chefs.

Ruhlman has collaborated with chef Thomas Keller to produce the cookbooksThe French Laundry Cookbook (1999), Bouchon (2004), and Under Pressure (2008); with French chef Eric Ripert and Colombian artist Valentino Cortazar to produce the lavish

coffee-table book A Return to Cooking (2002); and with Michigan chef Brian Polcyn to produce Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing (2005).

In 2007, he produced "The Elements of Cooking" based on the structure of the classic grammar book "The Elements of Style." Much of the insight in the book is based on his previous food-related experiences at the CIA and from working with celebrity chefs.

Ruhlman has acted as a judge on the reality show, Cooking Under Fire and on The Next Iron Chef. He has also made several appearances in shows hosted by Anthony Bourdain.

After seven successful years in France,Chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli returned stateside and maintained her connection with the cuisine, joining the venerable Daniel Boulud at restaurant Daniel, where she quickly rose through the ranks to become sous chef at the Manhattan standard. Always looking to expand her culinary knowledge, Alexandra moved to Los Angeles for two years to join Joachim Splichal's Patina Group, where she worked at the acclaimed Patina restaurant in West Hollywood before moving to New York to open Splichal's first New York City venture.

In 2003, Alexandra was given the opportunity to expand her repertoire and become the executive chef at Butter Restaurant, where she would create her own eclectic American and green market-inspired menu. In addition to her restaurant work, Alexandra inspires budding chefs as a Chef-Instructor at New York City's Institute of Culinary Education.

Alexandra has made appearances on Iron Chef America, Chopped and is also the host of The Cooking Loft.

Fred Griffith has been with WKYC since May, 2000. Before that, he was with WEWS for 33 years, as a reporter, news producer, news and public affairs director, and for over 26 years, host of the daily two hour Morning Exchange program. For nearly five years he was also co-host of the hour-long Afternoon Exchange. He holds the national record for time on live TV, with more than 13,700 hours. He has worked with his wife, Linda, on six cookbooks. Nuts, their most recent work, was published in April 2003 by St. Martin’s Press. The Best of the Midwest (Viking, 1990) profiled creative chefs in the region. The New American Farm Cookbook (Viking, 1993) grew out of a study of the farmer-chef connection. Their first book for Chapters, Onions Onions Onions, (1994) won a James Beard Award. Cooking Under Cover (Chapters,1996) was a best seller and a main selection of the Book of the Month Club. Garlic Garlic Garlic from Houghton Mifflin was published in 1998. He has also written Cleveland; Continuing the Renaissance (Towery, 1997). He is a columnist for Currents, published by the Chagrin Valley Times. (wkyc.com)

Chef Lee Anne Wong exchanged one creative calling for another when she abandoned her career in fashion design to attend The French Culinary Institute in 2000. She has since returned to the school as the Executive Chef of Event Operations, where she now composes original menus of her modern global fusion style, drawing on her artistic background for inspiration.

In late 2005, Lee Anne flew out west to film Bravo’s new reality series “Top Chef”. Upon her return to New York, Chef Wong rang in 2006 by cooking an extravagant New Year’s Eve dinner at The James Beard House. These days she is as busy as ever, recently completing culinary consultation on the new Warner Brothers film “No Reservations”, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart. She also assisted in the production of “Chef’s Story”, a new TV series filmed at The FCI starring 26 of America’s greatest chefs including Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Rick Bayless, which aired on PBS in Spring of 2007. Chef Lee Anne returned from Los Angeles and Hawaii and was brought onboard as the Supervising Culinary Producer for Season Two of Top Chef. She is currently starring in her own weekly webisode series, “The Wong Way to Cook” on Bravotv.com., which is in it’s fourth season of production. Chef Lee Anne is also playing a vital role in the design of The FCI’s Culinary Lab, a state-of-the-art laboratory and classroom outfitted with today’s most cutting edge technology and equipment, slated to open in 2008. Here, she will work alongside visiting chefs and The FCI’s Director of Culinary Technology, David Arnold, in continuing to develop and showcase the next generation of avant garde cooking techniques.
Lee Anne is moving forward with her versatile pursuits in 2008, continuing her role as the Supervising Culinary Producer for Top Chef, recently completing Seasons Three and Four in Miami and Chicago in 2007.

Chef James Briscione, 29, knows the Dixie/French culinary dance. For 4 years he was the chef de cuisine at Frank Stitt’s award-winning Highland’s Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama where he cooked up local, Southern ingredients with French-inspired technique. A move to New York City and to Restaurant Daniel came next. As a sous chef in the private dining room, James cooked for the international elite executing dinner parties to French, 4-star standards. James currently works as a chef-instructor at The Institute of Culinary Education. He recently took his star turn on Food Network’s latest primetime hit Chopped, where he walked away the champion.

Chef Paula DaSilva was born in Brazil but has lived in the states for over 20 years. Her first experience in the kitchen came at the age of 10 when her parents opened a small Brazilian Restaurant in Medford, Mass. There she helped her mom peel garlic, clean vegetables and would even help on the stove cooking the rice, Feijoada and Mariscada.

After 3 years in that restaurant, her family decided to move to sunny south Florida and open two larger restaurants. Over the next five years Paula assisted her parents in all aspect of operating the restaurant. In between attending High School classes and playing in the basketball team, she was always at the restaurant. Most of her time was spent in the kitchen cooking, prepping the meats for the “rodizio” and ordering. She also learned to run the front of the house, trained wait staff and controlled food and beverage costs.

Upon graduating from H.S., Paula attended the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. She graduated in 1998 with an Associates degree in Culinary Arts. It was then Paula was ready to venture out and got her first job in an “American” kitchen working the pantry station at Sheffield’s and Sea Breeze Restaurant located in the Harbor Beach Marriott in Ft. Lauderdale. For the 2 years she rotated the entire kitchen and learned all the stations. It wasn’t until December of 2000 when 3030 Ocean Restaurant opened and she landed her first job as Sous Chef for the infamous Dean James Max. Under Dean’s leadership and Paula’s drive for success, the restaurant has won many awards and accolades.