Naomi Pomeroy Chef and Restaurateur Naomi Pomeroy has been cooking since age three. She wrote her first recipe at four. Granted, that recipe involved chewing up almonds and mixing them with sprinkles. Nevertheless, that almond mush cake set her on a trajectory to be named one of Food & Wine’s 10 Best New Chefs, a James Beard award-winner, and an Iron Chef competitor. Marie Claire called her the next Alice Waters, but really,…

6 Questions with Giorgio Rapicavoli What do you remember most about growing up part-time in Italy? I think the craziest thing that I can remember more than anything are the smells. The bakeries I went to growing up have a distinct smell, the macelleria where you get coffee has a smell, the cheese shop, the salumeria, my uncle’s garden—I can remember the particular smell of the peppers. So there are…

6 Questions With Elias Cairo What surprised you most about Switzerland? Without a doubt, it’s this insane hyper-focus on precision—no matter what it is. So, if it’s an artisan that’s making a cheese, it’s this hard work to do something rewarding that’s just in their culture. If a train is late in Zurich, it’s on the front page of the newspaper. How did your time in Switzerland shape and influence…

6 Questions with Gavin Kaysen What’s exciting to you right now in the world of cooking? I love to see how easy it is to share and see what others are doing. I feel like it is making our world of food a stronger community. Food is about bringing people together at a table. My challenge to everyone is, what is that majestic moment that you can bring to that…

Jason Neroni Chef At 16 years old while working at Disneyland’s prestigious Club 33, Jason Neroni discovered his love and aptitude for cooking—and that’s only where the magic started. From there, Jason stacked up an impressive resume working in California, New York and Europe at some of the world’s most storied kitchens: Le Cirque, Blue Hill, Essex House, The Tasting Room, 71 Clinton Fresh Food and Superba, to name a…

Heath Ceramics Robin Petravic & Cathy Bailey Heath Ceramics started out as a small-scale pottery in 1948 with husband and wife Edith and Brian Heath. A half-century later, it’s evolved into one of the most well-known American ceramics companies, now helmed by husband and wife Robin Petravic and Cathy Bailey. Heath Ceramics now creates impeccably crafted dinnerware, flatware, decor, furniture and accessories that make lasting impressions. Now you can find…

Gavin Kaysen Chef Gavin Kaysen moved back to Minneapolis because he values community. After heading the kitchen at El Bizcocho in San Diego, competing in The Next Iron Chef, and serving as Executive Chef at Michelin-rated Cafe Boulud in Palm Beach, Toronto and New York, he decided to go all-in on his own concepts. The James Beard Award-winner sought to meld high-end French culinary techniques with seasonal Midwestern flavors. The results:…

Jamie Malone Chef Jamie is a woman of contrasts, soft-spoken with a sharp wit, somebody who values the functional and the beautiful. She’s constantly learning, building, modifying, making. Her cooking career started in 2012, in her hometown of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Just one year into working at award-winning Chef Tim McKee’s Sea Change, Jamie was named 2013 Best New Chef in America by Food & Wine. Fast forward a few years when she…

6 Questions with Aaron Barnett Did you always want to be a chef? I wanted to become a chef when I was 19, and my parents wanted me to finish school first. So I wound up getting into pre-veterinary medicine. I was on a path to becoming a veterinarian, but my math was terrible. At some point I said, “We’re all just wasting our time here.” I wound up going…

Spoiler Alert: It's Not a Tree Here’s everything you wanted to know about Joshua Tree National Park’s namesake tree (and why it's probably not a tree). Why is it a Joshua tree? Botanists call it Yucca brevifolia, a member of the asparagus family, but it has collected many names over time. Mormon settlers in southern Utah nicknamed it “the Joshua,” supposedly because the striking, human-like form was reminiscent of the…