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Awarded “Outstanding Chef” and “Humanitarian of the Year” by the James Beard Foundation, José Andrés remains an internationally recognized culinary innovator, bestselling author, educator, Emmy-nominated television personality, humanitarian, and chef/owner of the José Andrés Group. A pioneer of Spanish tapas in the United States with Jaleo in the District of Columbia, Andrés has created restaurants from the vegetable-focused fast-casual Beefsteak to the two-Michelin-starred Minibar by José Andrés to the 35,000-square-foot dining and market destination Mercado Little Spain. Formed in 2021, José Andrés Media, or JAM, produces unscripted and scripted television series, books, podcasts, and digital short and mid-form content with a focus on food-related stories and characters and the culture of food. The José Andrés Group was originally conceived as ThinkFoodGroup with co-founder Rob Wilder, and is now led together with president Sam Bakhshandehpour. It has more than 30 restaurant concepts in Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Fla., Washington, D.C, The Bahamas and the United Arab Emirates.
Ron Ruggless
Sharon Arthofer is an esteemed retail executive and seasoned entrepreneur with a passion for franchising and business development in the food and beverage space. She has more than 25 years of multi-unit experience as an operator for respected national brands including Wetzel’s Pretzels, where she served as the brand’s first franchisee.
With her experience growing start-ups and proven success in bolstering national brands, she created Sip Fresh — a specialty beverage concept serving fresh fruit-based juices, smoothies, and teas. The beverages are handcrafted several times a day in small batches, which is the concept’s differentiator as it looks to grow in its home market of California, as well as in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. As CEO, Arthofer is targeting shopping-mall locations, as well as nontraditional locations like universities, transportation hubs and entertainment centers.
As the fledging company looks to grow its footprint, Arthofer is committed to empowering franchisees and fostering a thriving franchise community. She is also focused on maintaining streamlined operations and a low labor model focused on driving high ROI and strong margins for franchisees.
Alicia Kelso
Elizabeth Blau is a longtime restaurateur, having worked for many companies before forming her own group with her husband, Kim Canteenwall, in 2012. Their restaurants include Buddy V’s Ristorante, Honey Salt, and others. Though the company and many of its restaurants are in Las Vegas, the also have units in Vancouver, Canada, and recently opened Crown Block in Reunion Tower in Dallas.
In February 2020, Blau created nonprofit organization Women’s Hospitality Initiative with the goal of accelerating woman leaders in the industry. According to the group, less than 7% of women ever advance to an executive chef or restaurant owner role, even though women make up over 50% of enrollees at hospitality and culinary schools. The WHI creates programs, networking opportunities and sponsorships to address gaps in leadership development.
Leigh Anne Zinsmeister
Ravi DeRossi has been a quiet powerhouse in New York City’s East Village for nearly two decades, starting in 2006 with the Bourgeois Pig, a wine bar serving cheese and chocolate that he opened with the last of the money he earned as a visual artist.
Since then he has gradually expanded, mostly with cool bars focused on serving the neighborhood, but also with Death & Co., the now-iconic cocktail bar that has since expanded to Denver, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
His mission has changed in recent years from running fun venues, which he still does, to working to make the world a better place.
In 2020, with his priorities shifted in the wake of the pandemic, DeRossi reorganized most of his concepts (but not Death & Co., which he operates with partners) under the Overthrow Hospitality umbrella. Those bars & restaurants, including Cadence, Etéria, Proletariat, Amor y Amargo, & Beer, Soda Club, Avant Garden, and Ladybird, all in the East Village, plus Ubuntu which recently opened in West Hollywood, Calif., all have a focus not only on great hospitality, but animal welfare, environmentalism, community involvement, and inclusivity.
Their menus are entirely vegan and several of them are run by women of color.
Bret Thorn
Ford Fry is chef and CEO of Rocket Farm Restaurants, overseeing the company’s 23 (and counting) restaurants in Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Nashville, Tenn., Houston, and Cary, N.C. Fry, who studied at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, spent the earlier part of his career honing his craft, including as a fine-dining chef in Florida, Colorado, and California. He eventually landed in Atlanta and made the city a springboard for his company, which began in 2007 with the opening of JCT. Kitchen & Bar.
Along with his roles at his restaurants, Ford is also the founder of one of Atlanta’s most popular food events, the Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival. More than 11 years strong, this annual event is now led by Georgia Organics and has featured some of the South’s best chefs and mixologists, paired with local farmers to create innovative tomato dishes. He is also the author of Tex-Mex: Traditions, Innovations and Comfort Foods from Both Sides of the Border, published in April 2019.
Ford is a four-time semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurateur Award and won the Georgia Restaurant Association’s Crystal of Excellence (GRACE) Award for Restaurateur of the Year in 2013.
“I want to create restaurants that strike a timeless emotional chord — restaurants that don’t pander to trend, but draw generations of families together,” he said.
Alicia Kelso
Simon Kim is the proprietor of Gracious Hospitality Management, the company behind the Michelin-starred COTE Korean Steakhouse in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood, COTE Miami, and bespoke cocktail lounge Undercote. The company also has several new projects in the pipeline, including Coqodaq, a new fried-chicken concept opening soon in Manhattan; COTE Singapore, the brand’s first international outpost; and a multi-level project at 550 Madison Avenue in New York.
Born in Seoul, Kim began his hospitality career at MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, while studying hotel administration at the University of Nevada. He would go on to lead the front-of-house teams for notable chefs, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller, and open his first Michelin-starred restaurant, Piora, at the age of 31.
Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Simon opened COTE in 2017, New York City’s first Korean steakhouse and the only Michelin-starred Korean tabletop grill restaurant in the world, an honor now shared by COTE Miami following its first year in the city’s Design District.
Kim also serves as an associate board member of the National Restaurant Association. He was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year New York 2022, is a Crain's 40 under 40 honoree, and a recipient of the Next Generation Award from the NYC Hospitality Alliance. In 2021, Kim founded Taste of Asia, an annual tasting event celebrating New York City’s AAPI communities. Featuring a curated selection of 40 restaurants serving Asian-inspired bites in Madison Square Park, this event honors the diversity and vitality of AAPI culture and cuisine in New York City and beyond, raising $1.2 million in its inaugural year and $1.4 million in 2022 for three organizations: City Harvest, Apex for Youth, and Madison Square Park Conservancy.
Alicia Kelso
Nick Kokonas is well-known as the restaurant executive and business mind behind such famous restaurants as Alinea, Next, and The Aviary, that he founded with his business partner, Grant Achatz. Besides cofounding The Alinea Group, Kokonas gained recognition in the restaurant world for starting Tock, a restaurant reservation system that started off as a ticketing system to help upscale restaurants like Alinea manage their reservations. It was founded in 2014. During the pandemic, Tock expanded to Tock 20 to include numerous digital tools for restaurants like reservation organization, delivery and pickup orders, events, waitlists and contactless payments. After selling Tock to Squarespace in 2021, Kokonas stepped down from the company in 2022 and is now focused on running The Alinea Group while looking for his next opportunity in the restaurant space.
Joanna Fantozzi
Juan Padró has been delighting Denver restaurant goers since he and his partners opened Highland Tap & Burger in 2010. Now his Culinary Creative Group runs 13 restaurants and bars, including A5 Steakhouse, Israeli concept Ash’kara, two-unit coffeehouse Aviano, Cuban/Puerto Rican bar Ay Papi, craft cocktail bar Forget Me Not, Italian restaurant Bar Dough, a lounge called Bungalow, Breakfast restaurant Fox and the Hen, Latin-inspired Señor Bear, and others.
Padró places a priority on developing his staff and working with local organizations such as the Denver Public Schools and Access Opportunity, which helps low-income high school students pursue successful college careers, and global campaigns such as Water is Life, which has a mission of getting clean drinking water to an additional one billion people.
During the pandemic he turned his restaurant Morin (now A5) into a commissary to feed frontline workers, and he also worked with other organizers to run a drive-up vaccine clinic that vaccinated more than 10,000 members of Denver’s Latino community in two days.
Bret Thorn
Hollis Silverman is perhaps best known as the entrepreneur who helped launched Jose Andres’ culinary brand into one of the best known restaurant groups in the world. As the former COO of ThinkFoodGroup, Silverman oversaw the hospitality group’s food and beverage, service, and human resources teams as the company exploded in growth. Silverman is now flying solo as the founder of Eastern Point Collective, headquartered in Washington, D.C. Her concepts include new American restaurant The Duck and the Peach — which opened in 2021 — Italian(ish) eatery La Collina, and gin bar The Sanctuary. Silverman is just as well-known in the restaurant community for her equitable pay and benefits packages for employees as she is for her thoughtfully curated hospitality portfolio.
Joanna Fantozzi
Stephen Starr, the creator of the Philadelphia-based Starr Restaurant Group, oversees more than 30 restaurants in Philadelphia, New York, the District of Columbia, and Florida. The brands range from Buddakan and Barclay Prime to El Vez and Talula’s Garden.
Starr began his career as an entertainment promoter, with his first venue being a diner and comedy club called “Grandmom Minnie’s” in Philadelphia’s Old City.
Starr founded Starr Restaurants in 1995 with the opening of Continental Restaurant & Martini Bar in Philadelphia.
Starr won the 2017 "Outstanding Restaurateur" James Beard Foundation Award; and his restaurant Le Coucou, with chef Daniel Rose, was named 2017’s “Best New Restaurant” by the James Beard Foundation.
Restaurant Hospitality honored Starr with the Innovator of the Year award in 2013.
Ron Ruggless
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