Amanda Hesser has been named one of the fifty most influential women in food by Gourmet. She has written the award-winning books Cooking for Mr. Latte and The Cook and the Gardener, and edited the essay collection Eat, Memory. Her book The Essential New York Times Cookbook was a New York Times bestseller and the winner of a James Beard Award.

Merrill Stubbs has worked in the food industry for more than a decade. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, she has written for the New York Times, Edible Brooklyn, and Body+Soul, and she was the food editor for Herb Quarterly magazine.

Food52.com, which has more than 20,000 recipes and 900,000 monthly visitors, was named Best Food Publication at the 2012 James Beard Awards.