Florence Bertheau was introduced to cooking by her father, who only used fresh, home-grown ingredients in his meals. Florence began her career in France as an apprentice at Auberge Monpalaisir before moving to New York in 1985. She has also assisted Rick Rogers, accomplished cookbook author, with recipe development, food styling and catering prestigious events. In the early 1990’s, Florence moved to Los Angeles where she started her successful company, FoodFlo. FoodFlo uses organically grown, hormone- and chemical-free, non-processed foods purchased from small specialty California farmers as much as possible.

Phillis Carey has been teaching easy and elegant gourmet menus with no fuss for more than 25 years. Phillis is also a well-known food writer and author, with articles in Cook’s Illustrated and Cooking Pleasures Magazines and also writes frequent cover stories for the food section of The San Diego Union-Tribune. She has several self-published cookbooks: The Casual Gourmet, The Casual Gourmet: 50 Easy Entertaining Menus, and her latest book, Winning Ways with Chicken Breasts.

Founder of Mrs. Beasley's, Nancy Fox created beautiful assortments of muffins, which became extremely popular in the 1980s throughout the Los Angeles entertainment and business communities. In 1994, she founded Nancy's Healthy Kitchen. The business includes a growing chain of low-fat restaurants/bakeries and a line of packaged cookies and gifts. She is the author of "Nancy's Healthy Kitchen Baking Book." Nancy spends most of her energy making television appearances promoting her products and giving cooking classes.

George Geary is a pastry chef and berry expert who teaches at more than 110 cooking schools. He develops recipes for Driscoll’s Berries and was the Executive Pastry Chef for Disneyland. He has also been conducting high-quality culinary tours all over the world for over 16 years through his own company, George Geary Tours. Chef Geary also hosts food segments on NBC-TV and is the author of "125 Cheesecake Recipes" and "The Best 125 Biscuit Mix Recipes", including his latest, "The Complete Baking Cookbook".

Susan Irby is The Bikini Chef, specializing in light and healthy gourmet cuisine with an Italian influence. Susan has worked as a pastry chef for Beccofino Ristorante & Wine Bar in Florence, Italy. Susan then worked with Master Chef Marc Meneau at the two-Michelin star L’Esperance in Bourgogne, France before returning to Los Angeles. In 2000, Susan wrote and published her first cookbook, Cooking With Susan, Southern Family Favorites and it was the Food Section feature article in The Athens Banner Herald, The Birmingham Post-Herald, The Marietta Daily Journal and The Orange County Register. Susan Irby is an active member of The James Beard Foundation, The American Institute of Wine and Food, as well as Women Chefs and Restaurateurs.

Faye Levy has had the unique achievement of writing cookbooks in three languages—Hebrew, French and English. She is a nationally syndicated food columnist of Tribune Media (formerly known as the Los Angeles Times Syndicate) and the lead cooking columnist for the Jerusalem Post. She is a "grand diplome" graduate of the famed La Varenne Cooking School in Paris and the author of 23 cookbooks, including "Healthy Cooking for the Jewish Home," "1,000 Jewish Recipes" and "Feast from the Mideast," and has won prestigious James Beard and International Association of Culinary Professionals cookbook awards. Faye has written articles for Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Western Chef magazines and is one of the few recipe contributors to Gourmet's Golden Anniversary Cookbook. For six years Faye wrote a highly acclaimed column, "The Basics," for Bon Appetit magazine.

Mahnaz Torabian has been passionate about cooking since childhood. She has lived in England, France, and Iran for several years and in the U.S. for the last 25 years, and this is reflected in her diverse international methods and menus. Her love of cooking is only surpassed by her love of teaching how to cook. Join her on a culinary tour of the world as she helps you discover new exotic recipes with your everyday and some not so everyday ingredients from West Asia and Europe.

Mindy Trotta is a former pastry chef at ChaChaCha as well as the former pastry assistant at Spago and a former apprentice at Campanile Restaurant. She can also be found instructing private cooking classes and teaching at local elementary schools. Mindy is very passionate about the LAUSD program, “Chefs in the Classroom,” where she educates children about proper nutrition.