Chef Jason Wyrick - Chef Jason Wyrick is an award winning vegan chef and the owner of Arizona's only vegan catering company, Devil Spice. Serving the state since 2004 as both a caterer and a prolific vegan culinary instructor, Chef Jason has garnered both local and national attention. He was chosen as vegcooking.com's October, 2005 Chef of the Month and has been featured in the Arizona Republic and on ABC's local morning show, Sonoran Living Live. Formerly a diabetic, Chef Jason approaches vegan cuisine from a health standpoint with an eye for taste and simplicity. He regularly teaches 10 to 12 classes a month and specializes in broadening students' techniques instead of teaching just a recipe. Chef Jason holds a B.A. in Philosophy from TCU.

Chef Jill Nussinow - Jill is a Registered Dietitian and has a Masters Degree in Dietetics and Nutrition from Florida International University. After graduating, she migrated to California and began a private nutrition practice providing individual consultations and workshops, specializing in nutrition for pregnancy, new mothers and children. In 1985, Jill offered her first vegetarian cooking class. Since then she has taught Vegetarian Cooking and Lifestyle classes in various forums, including the Culinary Arts program at Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa Recreation and Parks, Ramekins cooking school and the nutrition and cooking component of The McDougall program. In addition, Jill is a contributor to publications such as Delicious! Magazine, Vegetarian Journal and Vegetarian Times. She is also an active member of the Sonoma County Culinary Guild and IACP. Out of her passion with food, cooking and good health, she began Vegetarian Connection in 1993. She enjoys helping people broaden their nutrition horizons by showing them how to make seasonal food taste great! You can find out more about her at www.theveggiequeen.com.

Chef Richard Barnett - Richard has been an active environmentalist for over 35 years, vegetarian for the last 26 and vegan for the last three. He has worked for most of my career in the UK Public Sector, first in Social Security then in Public Housing. He then moved into Higher Education in 1991 and taught social sciences with an emphasis on housing policy. In 2000 he was appointed as an ‘academic entrepreneur’ setting up business units within the university. Four years ago he and his wife decided to make a huge lifestyle change and leave their 'proper' jobs to set up The Barn Vegetarian Guest House in the New Forest (South Coast of England). They wished to live and work in a more principled way and earn money doing something they both believed strongly in. The guest house has been set up to provide quality accommodation with a small carbon footprint. They have brought the house up to modern standards of insulation, installed energy efficient appliances and now have both solar powered hot water and electricity (the latter giving them around 80% of our needs over a year). They hope it is a business model appropriate to the 21st century. They started the guest house both being vegetarian but after a short while adopted a vegan lifestyle. It seemed to them that the logic of stopping eating meat while continuing to have other animal products was simply not sustainable. Having provided guests with vegan evening meals for the past two years they took the step of making The Barn exclusively vegan from January 2008. They have had great fun learning new cooking techniques and trying new ingredients and they hope to be able to share some of the results over the coming months. You can find out more about The Veggie Barn and Richard at www.veggiebarn.net.

Chef Tyler Black - Chef Black attended The Culinary Institute of America for Culinary Arts and has worked at The Four Seasons Philadelphia and Matthew's of Jacksonville. He was the Chef de Cuisine of Govinda's Philadelphia were he completey re-wrote the menu, creating a vegan fine dining experience. He has also cooked at Horizons of Philadelphia, which is one of the premiere Vegan fine dining restaurants. You can contact Chef Tyler at tylerblack84@gmail.com.

Norman Watson - Chef Norman Watson was born into a restaurant family in New York and raised on a dairy and apple farm. He wanted nothing more than to be a farmer, so as he grew older, having had to work in his grandfather's restaurant and watching his school friends play outside, the last thing he wanted was to become a chef. However, that was not to be and he ended up attending the Culinary Institute of America. After graduating from the CIA, he apprenticed in Europe and returned to New York to further his career. He now finds himself 25 years later working in New Orleans. Health problems have plagued his family and when my older brother passed away from heart disease at age 49, his own mortality was at stake. He became obsessed with researching health issues in the U.S. and is now convinced that a whole food/plant based diet is the only way to go to avoid the many diseases effecting this country. Today, he finds himself converting old stand-by fat-laden New Orleans dishes to healthy alternatives without suffering any loss of flavor. You can contact Chef Norman at chef1952@bellsouth.net.

Chef Alex Bury - Chef Alex Bury was trained as a classical chef at the world's premier culinary college, the Culinary Institute of America. In 2001, she opened the famous all-organic Sparks restaurant in Guerneville, California. Now she lives on Treasure Island and works full-time for PETA, and also teaches the art of compassionate cooking for Bay Area Vegetarians. You can find out more about her on her blog at www.alexbury.com.

Chef Al Chase - Chef Al Chase is the Founder and Culinary Director of the Institute for Culinary AwakeningTM, is a 1979 alumnus of the Culinary Institute of America, a member of the Chefs Collaborative 2000 and EarthSave International, and a 30 year culinary professional who combines his classical training with over 12 years of focus both personally and professionally on the benefits, preparation and creation of all Gourmet, Organic, Plant-Based Cuisine. Chef Al is a gifted teacher who empowers his students through a fun, creative and delicious approach to cooking! To find out more about Chef Al Chase and the Institute for Culinary Awakening, go to http://www.chefal.org.

Chef Tal Ronnen - Tal Ronnen is the executive chef for Veg Advantage, a non-profit group that is dedicated to helping other chefs and food-service professionals offer vegan selections on their menus. He is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Cookery School and has many years of food-service experience working with manufacturers, distributors, and operators. Tal has done cooking demonstrations on numerous morning TV programs and has provide master vegetarian workshops for students and staff at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta. Chef Ronnen contributed recipes in July. To find out more about Chef Tal Ronnen and Veg Advantage, go to http://vegadvantage.com.

Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Raisglid - Dr. Peg Raisglid received a doctorate in Chemistry in December of 1996 from the University of Arizona. After working in research and conducting training for several years, Peg decided to make a slight departure from the lab, starting her own venture by opening a new concept restaurant in Tucson called the Lovin’ Spoonfuls. Peg has been a committed vegan for almost seventeen years. The restaurant features a strict vegetarian (vegan) menu, with food served in a familiar format and somewhat upscale atmosphere. It was Peg’s desire to appeal to mainstream diners in an effort to attract more people to vegetarianism. Chef Peggy Raisglid will be contributing recipes for our September In the Chef's Home Kitchen special. You can find out more about her restaurant, Lovin's Spoonfuls at http://lovinspoonfuls.com/index.html.