Kristen Kish is the chef/partner of Arlo Grey in Austin, TX, a three-time Emmy-nominated host of Bravo’s award-winning series Top Chef, and a New York Times best-selling author for her memoir, Accidentally on Purpose.

A Korean adoptee raised in Michigan, Kristen discovered her passion for cooking at a young age. After working her way through various kitchens in Boston, she competed on season 10 of Top Chef, ultimately winning the coveted title. Following her win, she published her first cookbook and starred in several other hit shows including Fast Foodies on TruTV, Iron Chef on Netflix, and Restaurants at the End of the World on National Geographic/Disney+.

In 2023, Kristen became the host of Top Chef for its 21st season. Both she and the show received nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards in Outstanding Host and Best Reality Competition Series, respectively.

Most recently, she joined the cast of Season 4 of The Traitors and returned to Top Chef for its latest season in the Carolinas.

Kristen has earned recognition across leading industry lists, including TIME100’s Next, Adweek’s Creative 100, Marie Claire’s Power, Variety’s 30 Most Powerful Women on Reality TV, and Vulture’s Reality Masterminds.

Chef John Manion is a culinary leader whose restaurants reflect a genuine passion for live-fire cooking and South American flavors. His original voice helped to establish him as one of the city’s most popular chefs. Multiple nominations for "Chef of the Year" culminated most recently in a win at Chicago’s Jean Banchet Awards and the cover of Chicago Magazine's “Best Steakhouses” issue.

Long before Chicago’s West Loop became a sure thing, Chef Manion opened La Sirena Clandestina in 2012. The neighborhood darling maintained a cult following for nearly a decade. A few years later, he opened El Che Steakhouse & Bar in 2016. Inspired by Argentine live-fire cooking traditions, the restaurant continues to define the modern Chicago steakhouse.

In 2024, Chef Manion opened the bold, wood-fired Latin-inspired restaurant Brasero in Chicago’s West Town. The innovative concept reflects the chef’s boyhood memories of living in São Paulo and extensive travels throughout South America. Brasero caught fire with fans very fast, capturing hearts and stomachs and recognition as one of the country’s “Best New Restaurants of the Year” by Robb Report.

Elena Besser is a Brooklyn-based, Chicago-bred Chef, TV Host, and founder of The Lineup, a dinner series platforming the top cooks at the most-talked-about restaurants. Elena is a frequent culinary personality on The Today Show, where she does live cooking demos and hosts two digital series: Today’s Table, a stand-and-stir recipe series, and Head of The Table, a travel series where she highlights female trailblazers in the culinary industry.

Elena graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied theater and film, and got her culinary degree from International Culinary Center in 2016. Elena went on to cook professionally at New York Times 3-Star Restaurant, Lilia, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Elena has been a TV host since she was 14. You can watch her on the Food Network / Cooking Channel’s The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Beat Bobby Flay, and Chopped. Elena previously hosted a Food Network digital series, Breakfast with Besser, an interview show meets cooking show, featuring guests like Bowen Yang and Chris Redd!

James Rigato is the chef/owner of Mabel Gray in Hazel Park, Michigan. A Michigan native and Schoolcraft College graduate, his philosophy on cooking stems from a lifelong love of food and an appreciation for the diverse agricultural area in which he was raised.

Chef Rigato’s contemporary American cuisine with a Michigan focus has garnered regional and national attention, including The Detroit Free Press 2012 Restaurant of the Year award, a 2012 Food & Wine The People’s Best New Chef: Great Lakes nomination, the 2015 Food & Wine The People’s Best New Chef: Great Lakes Award, and appearances on Cooking Channel, Food Network, Uncharted with Gordon Ramsay on NatGeo. He was also a cheftestant on Top Chef Season 12.

He was nominated for Best Chef: Great Lakes by the James Beard Foundation in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022. In 2025, Mabel Gray was awarded USA Today Restaurant of the Year and Hour Detroit Restaurant of the Year.

He recently began documenting his international travels on mabelgraytravelguide.com, and when he’s not cooking or traveling, you can find him working in his yard or up north in the Keweenaw with his partner Samantha and their beloved dogs, Lady Mae and Chandler.

John is a Detroit native and a twenty-plus-year veteran of the hospitality industry, with a career that includes opening more than a dozen restaurants. He holds a Bachelor of Culinary Arts degree from the acclaimed Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated with honors.

John began his professional journey with the esteemed Charlie Trotter Corporation, working under the tutelage of two-Michelin-starred Chef Charlie Trotter. During his tenure, he was named Head Chef of Trotter’s To Go, the company’s catering division. He later joined Chef Art Smith’s flagship Chicago restaurant, Table Fifty-Two, as Executive Sous Chef, where he met his friend and business partner, Chef Joe Giacomino.

After nearly four years, John signed on with Chef Graham Elliot, spending time at Elliot’s two Michelin-starred restaurants before being named Executive Sous Chef of Graham Elliot Bistro. Prior to forming Four Man Ladder Hospitality, John served as Director of Culinary Operations for Chicago-based Folkart Management, overseeing concepts including A10 Hyde Park, Billy Sunday, and Yusho.

John has been recognized by FSR, Zagat, Crain’s Detroit, StarChefs, Time Out Chicago, and other industry publications. In 2012, he appeared as a contestant on Bravo’s Around the World in 80 Plates, an international culinary competition series.

He currently serves as co-owner of Four Man Ladder Hospitality, which operates Grey Ghost (2016), Second Best (2018), Basan (2022), and Little Ghost (2025).

Jenna Arcidiacono’s first job at age 14 was slinging chili dogs and root beer floats at Cook’s Drive-In in Kentwood, Michigan. Slowly, she began realizing that cooking was more than just a way to pay for her stirrup pants, music cassettes, and perms. She soon moved to East Lansing, where she earned her BFA from Michigan State University while working in restaurants near campus.

Wanting to live in a big city after graduation, she moved to San Francisco, where she fell in love with both the city and a handsome Italian who was visiting from Milan. After living in Italy for three years and spending time in the kitchen with her new mother-in-law, her passion for Italian Casalinga cuisine grew even stronger.

Jenna worked for small businesses and corporations and also pursued a few entrepreneurial ventures before realizing it was time to take the leap and open Amore Trattoria Italiana in Michigan in 2010. Her dream was to bring back the mom-and-pop feel by using locally sourced products and personally welcoming guests in the dining room, much like dinner at home. Maurizio and Jenna are proud to have continued earning food service awards throughout their years in business.

Jenna is also the founder of Food Hugs, a nonprofit dedicated to spreading kindness through meals and other acts of kindness and generosity. In 2020, she was surprised with $10,000 from Mike Rowe on his show Returning the Favor, allowing her to continue feeding frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. She continues to expand her culinary knowledge by hosting trips throughout Italy twice a year with Onward Travel. If you see a sparkly pink SUV on the streets with a "Food Hug" license plate, that's her.

Brian Riggenbach and Mikey Corona are the duo behind some of Nashville’s most beloved dining destinations, including The Mockingbird and Tío Fun Taqueria. With more than two decades in food and hospitality, their culinary journey together began in Chicago in 2009 with Yo Soy Underground Supper- a roaming underground dining series known for bold flavors, imaginative menus, and bringing an eclectic mix of people together around the table. What started as a creative culinary playground ultimately became the foundation for a partnership that would take them from Chicago to Nashville.

(They even let HGTV’s House Hunters tag along to document the move.)

In Nashville, the husbands turned that supper-club spirit into brick-and-mortar reality, opening The Mockingbird, their playful, globally inspired modern diner, in 2017. Nine years later, the restaurant remains a Music City favorite, and in 2023 they added Tío Fun Taqueria, bringing even more personality, nostalgia, and flavors rooted in Mikey’s Mexican-American heritage to the mix. Through it all, their philosophy has stayed remarkably similar to those early Yo Soy nights: make delicious food, don’t take yourself too seriously, and give people a reason to gather around the table.

Along the way, Brian has turned up the heat on national television—becoming a Food Network Chopped Champion, taking home the trophy on Tyler Florence’s Bite Club, and fiercely battling it out on Beat Bobby Flay. Mikey brings the hospitality side of the duo to life through storytelling, events, community connections, and a healthy dose of general shenanigans. Together, they’ve spent nearly two decades proving that some of the best things happen when good food, good people, and a little fun collide.