Danny Bowien is a chef and restaurateur born in South Korea and raised in Oklahoma. He is the founder and owner of Mission in New York City and co-founder of Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco, California. Bowien is a James Beard Award winner and the main subject of season six of the food and travel show, The Mind of a Chef.

Mission Chinese gets its roots from the west coast, having begun as a street food concept in the Mission District of San Francisco by Anthony Myint. Over the next two years, Mission Street Food became Mission Chinese Food: a restaurant-within-a-restaurant and trailblazer of the pop-up genre.

Myint came to partner with Danny Bowien, an ambitious young chef who focused the project on mouth numbing flavors of Sichuan cuisine. With the prospect of opening a standalone location of Mission Chinese Food, Danny Bowien and Youngmi Mayer moved to New York City and signed the lease on a modest Thai takeout spot with an attached beer garden on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side. This new iteration of Mission Chinese Food was a runaway hit and was named New York Times Restaurant of the Year for 2012. Shortly thereafter, Bowien won a James Beard award for “Rising Star Chef”. In 2013, Mission Chinese Food on Orchard Street was closed by the Department of Buildings as a result of unpermitted construction by previous ownership. Shortly thereafter, Mission Chinese Food found a new home for its flagship location on East Broadway in Chinatown. In 2018, Bowien opened a second New York location located in the industrial neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Chef Kenneth “Kenny” McPartlan is a self-taught pit master whose family has run a saloon in the northern part of the South Bronx for three generations. Chef Kenny prides himself in cooking up his own unique style of BBQ, combining elements of Texas, St Louis and Kansas City traditions. This is what you’ll find at his Hudson Smokehouse, the only BBQ place of its kind in the Bronx.

Hudson Smokehouse opened their doors in the first week of March 2020. The pandemic may have shut the dining room down just two weeks later, but that didn’t stop these pit masters. They banded together and grew strong, winning over their Mott Haven community with takeout and delivery. The team also showed their spirit, cooking over 300 meals a day for New Yorkers in need by way of World Central Kitchen during the pandemic.

Hudson Smokehouse continues to serve up their unique BBQ to the Mott Haven community. When you taste their melt in your mouth brisket, you will surely be in need of more BBQ.

Einat Admony, also known as the ultimate balaboosta, (meaning “perfect housewife” in Yiddish) is the chef and owner of Balaboosta, the fine-dining Middle Eastern restaurant; Kish-Kash, New York’s first couscous bar; and the beloved falafel chain, Taim. She is also the author of two cookbooks: Balaboosta, and the upcoming Shuk (Fall 2019), with Artisan Books.

Einat, named a “fiercely determined chef” by The New York Times, grew up in Tel Aviv, worked as a cook in the Israeli Army, walked away from college after two months, roamed around Germany as a gypsy, then packed up her life to move to New York City. Now, after 20+ years in New York, Einat persists in her work and expansion with her new ventures, including Kish-Kash. Hand rolled couscous, deemed “fine as sand” by Eater, is served fresh there every day and is a perfect example of how Einat continues to innovate and push the food scene.

“Cooking is a way to express my love and compassion for those around me,” Einat says. “It is also a way to connect the past with the present and future. The flavors, the smells, the sounds, they flood me with memories and bring me instantly back to my childhood. And make me feel whole.”

When she is not at one of her restaurants, she can be found at home in Brooklyn, cooking for her two children, Liam and Mika, her husband and business partner, Stefan Nafziger, plus, a constant flow of dinner parties with family and friends.

Bombay Sandwich Company was founded at the Smorgasburg food festival in Brooklyn in 2012. We opened our first brick and mortar shop in Manhattan in 2014 and are proud to be called “Best Sandwich,” “Best Bowl,” “Best Indian,” and of course, “Best Chai.”

We’ve been featured on The Cooking Channel, Food Network, and CBS, and have even fed global tastemakers like Bono, Julianne Moore, Fred Armisen, Anne Hathaway, and Yoko Ono. And most recently, we were honored to be visited by Deepak Chopra.

While we launched vegan, we’ve since expanded our menu to offer both vegan and vegetarian dishes. Today, we are best known for innovating new recipes, introducing chef-crafted modern Indian sandwiches.

In fact, Bombay Sandwich Co. was one of the first in NYC to introduce a tikka burger! We love creating in the kitchen, and we are honored to continue to introduce new flavor profiles to our audience.

Notably, our cafe is also home to a sister restaurant, Bombay Curry Co.

Bombay Curry Co. was created with love by our Bombay Sandwich Co. owner and operator, Nisha. Inspired by recipes from home and propelled by the need for quality takeout and delivery options during the pandemic, Nisha crafted a virtual restaurant brand that would bring high-quality curries to homes across the city.

Maria Loi’s mischievous grin, sparkling eyes, and culinary prowess have made her a food superstar; she is a popular television chef in Greece and the author of more than 36 cookbooks, and over 150 magazine editions. She owns an exquisite gourmet restaurant in idyllic Nafpaktos and has a line of Maria Loi dinnerware and kitchen appliances. The Chef’s Club of Greece, a worldwide culinary organization has recognized her as the Global Ambassador of Greek Gastronomy; in June of 2016, she was unanimously re-elected for a second term as the official Ambassador.

Maria now shares her expertise and knowledge with American audiences. She quickly earned a reputation as the U.S. leader in authentic Greek cuisine and ingredients: In March 2012, Maria was invited to cook for President Obama, Vice President Biden, and 250 honored guests at the White House.

Chef Loi brought her unique approach to Greek cuisine to Loi Estiatorio, her flagship restaurant in the heart of Manhattan, an ode to the flavors of Greece (opened February 2015). In 2016, Chef Loi was the inaugural chef of The Ritz-Carlton Central Park South’s Kitchen-Takeover series; she was a panelist at the Mediterranean Diet Roundtable Conference in LA, with professors from Harvard University and other decision-makers in the food industry. She was a judge at the inaugural Ernesto Illy Coffee Awards at the UN, and traveled to Australia as a featured chef for OMG Week, a weeklong festival in Melbourne curated by Chef George Calombaris, with the top Greek chefs from around the world.