DANA BENIGNO is chef/owner of chicagocooks.com, a social-networking web venue for culinary related businesses, events planners, chefs, and foodies in Chicago. After earning degrees in Journalism and marketing, Dana also pursued formal culinary training from The Cooking and Hospitality of Chicago, a Le Cordon Bleu affiliate. She is involved with many local culinary organizations as an active Board member of Slow Food Chicago, Les Dames de' Escoffier, Common Threads and Chicago's Green City Market. 

TERRA BROCKMAN was raised in central Ilinois and earned degrees in English Literature and Biology. She travelled extensively working as a teacher, writer and editor in Japan, and then Publishing in New York. Returing to her roots in Illinois, she founded The Land Connection, a nonprofit organization that saves farmland, trains farmers, connects local producers and consumers, and helps educate the many benefits of growing and eating local and organic foods. Terra currently works as the Director of Farmer Training, and as a writer and editor for various publishers. In her spare time, she lends an extra pair of hands when needed at her brother Henry's organic vegetable farm, and sister Teresa's organic fruit farm.

LISA FUTTERMAN is a cheese monger, writer and chef who worships bacon, brunello, and brocolli rabe the way most women love ice cream and chocolate. She has cooked her way through professional kitchens from San Francisco to Philadelphia, but is best known for teaching and directing at Chicago's acclaimed Chopping Block cooking schools. Her writing has appeared in Food & Wine, the Chicago Tribune, and Time Out Chicago.  

AMELIA LEVIN is a freelance food/dining writer and editor based in Chicago. She got her start as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune's City News Service. Currently she is enrolled at Kendall College's culinary program. Outside of work and school she enjoys all things epicurean, and has a particular interest in sustainable/local food and "green" isues. Amelia is a member of Slow Food Chicago, and frequents her favorite Green City Market as often as weather allows!

SUSAN OH is a recent transplant from Toronto whose work has appeared in publications in Hong Kong, Canada and the US. As a broadcast journalist, she has also been an on-air reporter. In recent years, she's branched out into copywriting in advertising and freelance writing and travels the city by bike in search of a good story. In the summer she and her husband can be found coaxing fresh herbs and tomatos from their fourth-floor, balcony garden in Chicago's South Loop.

LYNN PEEMOELLER is a Food Systems Planner and independent consultant. She works on projects and policy to support sustainable agriculture, strengthen the local food system and encourage environmentally sound economic development. Lynn loves working with farmers and planting seeds and watching them grow. She is on the local board of directors for Slow Food Chicago and a Co-Chair of the Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council. 

BARBARA REVSINE was armed with an idea and a batch of fresh sweet rolls baked at a bread class she was teaching, when she walked into the offices of North Shore magazine intent on convincing the publisher she was qualified to write about the local food scene. Thirty years and hundreds of ideas later, Barbara is still writing as a columnist for North Shore magazine, a feature writer for Modern Luxury's FrontDesk and a contributing editor for Food Arts, a renowned trade publication focused on the global food scene. Over the years, she's written for virtually every Chicago-based publication, in addition to The New York Times, Wine Spectator, Travel & Leisure, Epicurious, and Cook's magazine. 

CAROLE TOPALIAN travels the world with a finely tuned photographer's eye. Her ability to communicate through photographs is like a visual feast. Carole owned a Los Angeles-based multimedia company where she produced several award-winning advertising and promotional campaigns for corporate America, and has also studied depth psychology at the Pacifica Graduate Institute. Along with being Co-founder and creative director of Edible Communities Publications, her fine arts photographs have been exhibited in over 70 shows throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work is also on display at the Smithsonian Institute.

photograph by carole topalian