Our 2011 VENDY AWARD Judges!

John T. Edge

John T. Edge writes a restaurant column for Garden & Gun and is a longtime columnist for the Oxford American. His work has been featured in eight editions of the Best Food Writing compilation. And he has served frequently as judge on Iron Chef America Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, is the editor of seven books and the author of six books, including Fried Chicken: An American Story. In 2009, he was elected to the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. In the spring of 2012, Workman will publish his latest work, Truck Food, a survey of stories and recipes from America’s signal street food cooks.

Kat Kinsman

Kat Kinsman is the Managing Editor of CNN’s food blog Eatocracy (@Eatocracy), the year-old site devoted to all things edible. Kat is the former Senior Editor for AOL Food and Slashfood, a KCBS Certified Barbecue Judge and the vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee. You can catch her talking about food periodically on CNN Newsroom and rather constantly on Twitter as @kittenwithawhip.

Melissa Mark-Viverito

Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was elected to the City Council in January 2006 to serve as Council Member for the 8th Council District. Melissa is the first Puerto Rican woman and Latina elected to represent her district. Melissa has sponsored several local laws to address tenant harassment, increase safety and transparency in our public parks, and improve safety at construction sites. In the fall of 2009, Melissa was elected to a second term as Council Member for District 8. She currently serves as Chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee as well as Co-Chair of the NYC Council Progressive Caucus and Co-Vice Chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus.

Prior to her election to the City Council, Melissa worked for the 1199 SEIU New York’s Health Care Union, as well as several community organizations and political campaigns. Melissa has been very active in community affairs, founding Women of El Barrio—an organization that promotes the development of women as leaders in the economic, political and social life of their community.

Zeina Muna

This year’s Citizen Judge, Zeina Muna, is a street food enthusiast, that will be attending her fifth Vendy Awards in 2011. She developed a love for new flavors and no-frills eating while growing up in Greece and the Middle East. On her travels around the world, Zeina always seeks out local street food for cheap, tasty dining and colorful subject matter for her photo blog. Zeina works in media at Conde Nast and lives in the East Village where she and her friends spend their weekends experimenting in the kitchen and sampling famous and not-so-famous vendors across the city. She watched (and taste tested) as her friends developed People’s Pops from a kitchen freezer and single cart to a business with multiple locations in the city. Zeina appreciates the creative delights of the diverse New York street vendor community and is excited and proud to be a Citizen Judge at the 2011 Vendy Awards.

Peter Hoffman

Peter Hoffman is the chef-owner of Back Forty, a casual East Village tavern that debuted in 2007. He also owned the seminal SoHo locavore restaurant, Savoy, for 20 years before closing it in June 2011. He will be opening a new restaurant in the former Savoy space in November 2011.

Back Forty operates with a simple premise–to create delicious and memorable meals using the best ingredients from local farmers. Buying directly from producers and understanding what it takes to produce great ingredients is fundamental to Hoffman’s cooking approach and to his role as a teacher and leader in the culinary community.

From 2000-2006, Hoffman served as the national chair of the Chefs Collaborative, a 1,000-member organization of culinary professionals who promote the use of sustainable food in the restaurant industry. He and his restaurants have been featured in numerous publications, including Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, The New Yorker and The New York Times (as part of a four-part “Chefs of the Times” series). He has also appeared on the PBS series, “Chefs A’ Field.”

Gavin Kaysen

Gavin has energy, talent and incredible motivation,” says Daniel Boulud of Gavin Kaysen, Café Boulud’s Executive Chef since late 2007 “He is a very well trained American Chef who embraces classic French cooking,” making him a superb choice for Café Boulud, and its French-American cuisine. He also has drive and courage, demonstrated by his taking on the famously rigorous Bocuse d’Or International Cuisine Competition, a veritable culinary Olympics held biennially in Lyon, France. Leading up to the 2007 competition Kaysen turned to Boulud as a mentor figure who would help him to navigate the French culinary world. The experience lead Gavin Kaysen to New York, where he arrived with several accolades under his belt. He has been awarded “Critic’s Choice Best Chef” by San Diego Magazine, named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s “10 Best New Chefs” (2007) and appeared in the Next Iron Chef TV series. Most recently, Gavin won the James Beard Foundation’s prestigious 2008 “Rising Star Chef” award. Originally from Bloomington, MN, Gavin worked as Executive Chef at San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo Inn for three years. He gained international experience at l’Auberge de Lavaux in Lausanne Switzerland and under Marco Pierre White at London’s l’Escargot.

Colin Quinn

Colin Quinn A native of Brooklyn, Quinn began his comic career in New York as a regular on the comedy show circuit. Colin made his television debut as co-host of MTV’s popular game show “Remote Control”. In 1995, Quinn landed a spot on the legendary late-night show “Saturday Night Live”. After “SNL”, Quinn hosted his own late night series, “Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn”.

In addition to various appearances in films and shows, Colin has written and performed many one man shows, most recently the Broadway hit Long Story Short, which was directed by Jerry Seinfeld and became an HBO special which aired in April 2011.

Colin continues to write and perform stand up, in addition to regular appearances on radio and TV shows in New York City.

Gayle King

Gayle King is Editor-At-Large of O, The Oprah Magazine, a position she has held since the magazine’s inception in 1999, and is the host of The Gayle King Show on OWN and XM/Sirius Radio.

King has helped guide the editorial and creative vision of O, The Oprah Magazine,which premiered on April 17, 2000, and was one of the most successful magazine launches in history. King is a three-time Emmy® Award-winning newscaster, anchor- ing the local news on the CBS affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut for 18 years.

King is the mother of a daughter, Kirby, and a son, Will.