Chef Jeremy Umansky is known as the foraging, fermenting, James Beard Award-nominated chef and owner behind Larder Delicatessen and Bakery in Ohio City

Bachelor of Science in business administration, Chef Matt Bolus chose instead to pursue his love of cooking. Bolus attended Le Cordon Bleu in London. Chef Bolus worked as a butcher and fishmonger at the James Beard award-winning FIG in Charleston, SC. He received a 2014 James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant and his restaurant he 404 Kitchen has been named Best Restaurant in Nashville by Eater Nashville.

Chef Brian Duffy is based in Philadelphia. His proven success has made him one of the most in-demand restaurant and hospitality consultants across North America and overseas. He created “Duffified Experience Group” in 2012, a consulting firm with the realization that most of the smaller restaurant and bar operators that are out there needed someone who spoke their language & worked the way that they do. he has a podcast called 'Duffield Live'.

Chef Timothy Hollingsworth is an American chef and restaurateur. In 2012, he left his post as Chef de Cuisine at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry and moved to Los Angeles, where he opened Otium. Hollingsworth has been awarded Rising Star Chef Award from The San Francisco Chronicle as well as the Rising Star Chef of the Year Award presented by the James Beard. In November 2018, he will compete on Netflix’s The Final Table, a global culinary competition series.

Chef Jose Garces recently introduced me to the Head of Brand Ambassador for William Grant & Sons in the US - Charlotte Voisey. We had a great conversation about the role of a Brand Ambassador and cocktail making.

I grew up with a lot of Vietnamese friends and I would eat their food and I loved how their aunts and their parents would cook for us. They would incorporate Louisiana products or Louisiana dishes. It would either be Vietnamese dishes with the Louisiana products or Louisiana products with Vietnamese ingredients. That's how they would do it. And I thought it was just very amazing. I was just inspired by it.

The idea of this conversation with Executive Chef Andre Natera on leadership was conceived for the CMO Club.

Chef Leia Gaccione and Chef Sam Freund pivoted their business a few days after the pandemic hit New Jersey. They implemented curbside pick-up menus and a series of other initiatives. Every restaurant is different and others decided to close for business or for safety reasons. What made them give it a chance? Listen to both of them sharing their respective stories of the hardest three months of 2020.

Creativity versus technique. There is no right or wrong answer, you know, everybody's got their own way to get from point A to point B. People have different styles. You know, some people say rustic is sloppy. I disagree.

In France, the doors between the bakery shop and the laboratory are open. And [when I was a kid] I would sneak my head through the door and look at the guys working. When you put your head there, seriously the flavor, the smell of the fermentation really hit me. That's a place I wanted to go to. I wanted to see how it was done.