Judging Panel

Tina Ruggiero

Tina Ruggiero, M.S., R.D., L.D., is a nationally recognized nutrition expert, television correspondent and author. Her highly anticipated first book, The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet, is on store shelves now. Tina loves incorporating Driscoll's berries into meals and snacks; she believes they play an important role in diet, health and overall wellness.

Rick Rodgers

Rick Rodgers is one of the most versatile professionals in the food business. Through his work as a cooking teacher, food writer, cookbook author, freelance cookbook editor and radio and television guest chef, his infectious love of good food reaches countless cooks every day. He is the author of over thirty-five cookbooks on a wide range of subjects. Rick's recipes have also appeared in Food and Wine, Men's Health, Cooking Light and Fine Cooking. He is a frequent contributor to Bon Appetit and blogger at Epicurious.

Kim Haasarud

Kim Haasarud is a professional mixologist and mom of two. She describes herself as a chef, but for drinks and cocktails. She creates cocktail menus and beverage programs all around the country for various hotels, restaurants, media and more and has been doing it for over 10 years. She has also written six cocktail books over the course of her career.

Jackie Gordon

Jackie Gordon, the Singing Chef, is passionate about blending food, music, humor and fun facts together to create events, tastings and workshops that entertain and inspire people to eat well and to cook! She calls it "EAT-ertainment".

She blogs and tweets under the Diva That Ate New York and organizes gatherings for the rich tri-state food community. The combination of having done practically every job in the food industry and failing in her retail chocolate business inspired her to become a business coach and create her new platform called Hey, Feed Yourself! where she helps food industry professionals sharpen their business and life skills "knives" (coming 12/11).

Patti Londre

Patti Londre is the passionate publisher of Worth The Whisk, resonating with readers who seek adventure from as close as their kitchen to faraway corners of the earth. Saveur selected her site as one of its "Sites We Love." A graduate home economist, she is a leader in the blogging community as co-founder of Food Bloggers LA, producer of Camp Blogaway Bootcamp for Food Bloggers, and frequent speaker on social networking, blogging and DIY marketing.

Babette Pepaj

Babette Pepaj, founder of BakeSpace.com, created an online social kitchen. BakeSpace is about preserving and reinventing the traditions of a traditional kitchen in cyberspace. BakeSpace offers a grassroots online community where people from around the world gather to share recipes, build new friendships, learn from one another and express their passion for all things food related.