Speakers & Seminar Hosts
Melanie Hansche
Melanie Hansche has been the deputy editor at Food & Wine since 2018, where she spearheads both its travel and home coverage, develops recipes close to her heart (crumpets, anyone?), and often writes about her experiences of being a restaurant owner working in food media. Before joining F&W, she was the editor-in-chief of Organic Life at Rodale, oversaw the company's test kitchen, and acted as food director across all its brands. Melanie spent her formative years at one of Australia's most successful food brands, Donna Hay magazine, as its executive editor. Since 2017, Melanie has been the co-owner of Tucker, an Aussie-inspired cafe and general store.
Padma Lakshmi
Padma Lakshmi is an Emmy-nominated producer, television host, food expert, and a New York Times best-selling author, as well as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People (2023).
She is the creator of the critically-acclaimed and Emmy-nominated Hulu series “Taste the Nation”, which is the recipient of a James Beard Foundation Award top prize in Visual Media – Long Form. Lakshmi served as host and executive producer for 19 seasons of Bravo’s two-time Emmy-winning series “Top Chef”, which has been nominated for 47 Emmys, including her five-time nomination for Outstanding Host for A Reality-Competition Program.
Lakshmi is co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EFA) and an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Artist Ambassador for immigrants' rights and women's rights. Lakshmi was also appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
She established herself as a food expert early in her career, hosting two successful cooking shows: “Padma’s Passport”, and “Planet Food” and writing the best-selling Easy Exotic, which won the Best First Book award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Lakshmi followed this with the publication of her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet and her memoir The New York Times best-selling Love, Loss and What We Ate. She later published The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs. In August of 2021 she published her first children’s book Tomatoes for Neela which was also a New York Times bestseller.
Additionally, Lakshmi is a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has received the 2018 Karma Award from Variety, as well as the 2016 NECO Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Just when she thought her modeling days were behind her, she graced the pages of Sports Illustrated Magazine’s Swimsuit Edition in 2023.
Kristen Kish
Kristen Kish is the chef/partner of Arlo Grey in Austin, TX and the host of Bravo's Emmy award-winning Top Chef. She is also the host and producer of Restaurants at the End of the World on National Geographic/Disney+. In 2023, she was named to TIME100's Next, AdWeek's Creative 100 and Marie Claire's Power lists.
Born in South Korea and adopted into a family in Kentwood, MI, Kristen showed an affinity for cooking at a young age. After culinary school, she honed her skills at several high-profile restaurants in Boston.
Kristen's TV career began when she competed on and won season 10 of Top Chef. In a full circle moment, she was named host of the beloved series for its 21st season premiering March 2024. Her credits also include co-star of Fast Foodies on truTV/Food Network and co-host of Iron Chef on Netflix.
In 2017, Kristen released her first cookbook, Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques and in 2018 she opened her first restaurant, Arlo Grey at the LINE hotel. The restaurant reflects Kristen's playful yet refined cuisine, pulling inspiration from her classical training as well as nostalgic dishes that highlights her upbringing and love of travel.
Chris Shepherd
Midwest-raised, James Beard Award-winning Chef Chris Shepherd has helped change the landscape of the Houston culinary scene since opening Underbelly in 2012. He built the restaurant to support the Houston food community and its suppliers by buying local and drawing inspiration from the people and cultures that live in the city. Thanks to Chris' vision and passion, Underbelly was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, was named one of the best new restaurants in the country by Bon Appetit and Esquire and was named one of 38 essential restaurants in America by Eater. Chris was named one of the 10 Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine in 2013 and was then awarded the 2014 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest.
Chris was a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef in 2019 and was named Robb Report's Chef of the Year the same year. Chris' first cookbook, Cook Like a Local: Flavors that Will Change the Way You Cook and See the World, was published by Clarkson Potter in September 2019 and was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Foundation Book Award. In 2023, Chris launched a TV show Eat Like a Local on Houston's KPRC-TV, where he tells the stories of Houston's rich and diverse food and beverage scene. He also hosts an onstage conversation series, Table to Stage, with the biggest names in food and beverage.
Chris began his fine dining career at Brennan's of Houston, where he spent seven years in the kitchen and then ran the wine program for two. He left Brennan's in 2006 to open Catalan Food & Wine, which was named one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America that same year.
Chris' foundation Southern Smoke has distributed more than $11 million directly to people in the food and beverage industry in crisis via the Emergency Relief Fund and provides free mental health counseling to F+B workers.
Kat Kinsman
Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine's Gold Signal Award-winning podcast Tinfoil Swans, and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor-in-chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir, and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing. She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.