The committee included an international group of academics with
expertise in various aspects of food culture and gastronomy such as Joxe Mari Aizega, General Manager of Basque
Culinary Center; Jorge Ruiz Carrascal, Professor of the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen; Marta Miguel Castro, a Research Associate at the CIAL Institute of Research in Food Science, who studies how food components could prevent disorders such as diabetes and obesity; Melina Shannon Dipietro, executive director of Rene Redzepi's MAD project; and Dr F. Xavier Medina, author, social anthropologist and
leading scholar of Food and Culture at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in Barcelona.
US Foods,
leading food - service distributor, invited Taion alongside four prominent chefs from across the country, to showcase their
culinary expertise in a recreated live restaurant kitchen on Wall Street.