EVENT

Jessica Yadegaran

Food & Wine Staff Writer, Bay Area News Group

 Jessica Yadegaran is a wine writer, educator and judge whose work has appeared online and in newspapers and magazines nationwide for more than a decade. She covers food and wine for Bay Area News Group, which reaches 2.5 million readers in print and online every week. She has judged the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the Next Gen Millennial Wine Competition as well as three years of Taste of Terroir.  

Lynne Char Bennett

Food & Wine Staff Writer and Test Kitchen Director, San Francisco Chronicle

Lynne Char Bennett is a staff writer and the test kitchen director for the San Francisco Chronicle’s Food & Wine department, which has won multiple James Beard Foundation Awards for best food section among largest circulation, and most recently in 2011 for best food coverage in the nation in a general interest publication. Bennett has also been a co-recipient of the James Beard Foundation Award for best newspaper series. Bennett writes the “Pairings” column, for which she creates recipes with wine recommendations, and contributes as well to The Chronicle’s coverage of restaurants, chefs, wine and spirits and overall San Francisco Bay area culinary scene. When opportunity and time permits, Bennett also caters, consults and teaches.

 Jeffrey Anderson

Executive Chef and Director of Culinary Innovation, Safeway Inc.

As Executive Chef and Director of Culinary Innovation for Safeway Inc., Chef Anderson engages consumers through a variety a channels and showcases the interesting and unique private branded food products, as well as a myriad of ways in which to use the specialty goods.  He provides recipes and demo for customer outreach, regularly participating in food focused events such as Celebration Weekend, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Cooking for Solutions, Savor the Central Coast, and other privately held events. Chef Anderson previously held the Corporate Executive Chef role with Gordon Biersch Brewing Co., developing signature items and opening many of the new properties for the company. He also was the owner of both The Black Crow Grill and Taproom, and The Rawbar Restaurant and Sushi, located in Chico CA. He attended the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York and then focused his work experience on the newly emerging American cuisine, working at Campton Place Hotel, The Mansion on Turtle Creek, Postrio and The Cypress Club.