JULIA CHILD was born in 1912 in Pasadena, California. After attending Smith College, she joined the Office of Strategic Services (now the Central Intelligence Agency) where she facilitated top-secret communications between U.S. government officials and intelligence officers during World War II. While stationed in Sri Lanka, she met fellow OSS employee Paul Child, and the two married after the war. In 1948, the couple moved to Paris, where Child attended the famous cooking school Le Cordon Bleu. Her first book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was published in 1961, was an instant bestseller, and is now a revered classic. In 1962, she launched the first live cooking show, The French Chef. From the 1960s through the 1990s, she starred in many television shows and published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books. She is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in American cooking. She died of kidney failure in Montecito, California, in 2004.

MARTHA DEANE was the radio persona of journalist Marian Young Taylor, who hosted The Martha Deane show on WOR from 1941 until 1974 and interviewed more than ten thousand guests, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Fred Astaire. Among her many honors was the Broadcast Pioneers Distinguished Service Award, which she won in 1968. She died on December 9, 1973.

SHARON HUDGINS is the food editor of European Traveler website, the columnist for German Life magazine (U.S.), and a regular contributor of food, travel, and cultural articles to several websites and print publications, including Saveur, Gastronomica, and National Geographic Traveler.

POLLY FROST is a writer and performer in New York City. She is the author of With One Eye Open and Deep Inside, and the coauthor of The Bannings. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other publications.

JEWELL FENZI is the former wife of an American diplomat, and the author of two memoirs and a cookbook.

MICHAEL ROSEN is a director, producer, and former production executive for the Television Academy.

WILBERT JONES is the president of the Wilbert Jones Company, a Chicago-based food product development and marketing company, founded in 1993.