Second Annual Chow 13 Celebrates the People Inspiring Food Trends

CHOW Honors Baker’s Dozen of People Who Are Changing the Way You Eat

SAN FRANCISCO, CA & CHARLESTON, SC – September 16th, 2010 – The editors of CHOW.com today announced the second annual CHOW 13, a provocative list of people pushing the food world in new and adventurous directions.  CHOW editors examined the American culinary scene and came up with a short list of the people who inspired the biggest trends over the last year. More information on the CHOW 13 can be found here.

The CHOW 13 isn’t about creating a list of the hot new chefs, but looking at people whose work is hitting a nerve and becoming part of mainstream culture, said Lessley Anderson, Senior Editor, CHOW.com. We looked at this year’s biggest stories in food: cult wines, unfancy foods, competitive bar hopping… and identified the person or people that we believe help set the movement in motion. The list may include people you’ve heard of and a lot that you will hear about in the year to come.”

From Internet entrepreneurs to chefs to photographers, the CHOW 13 represents the people at the epicenter of food trends that we’ll feel the impact of for years to come. This year’s CHOW 13 winners are (in alphabetical order):

• RUTH BOURDAIN, an elusive Twitter food media celebrity who spouts hilarious mash ups of commentary from food world icons Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain.
• SEAN BROCK, combining molecular gastronomy techniques with a farm-to-table sensibility in his role as chef at McCrady’s restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina.
• ANN COOPER, a chef and champion for school lunch reform seeking solutions to the school food crisis.
• DENNIS CROWLEY, co-founder and CEO of Foursquare, the mobile app that has turned going out to eat into a game.
• KEN GROSSMAN, CEO and founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, the original craft beer makers.
• CHRISTOPHER HIRSHEIMER, a chef, editor, and photographer who led the movement towards messy-natural looking food photography, and also created an entirely new form of food media with her Canal House series—it’s part magazine, part cookbook.
• ANDY AND MATEO KEHLER, artisan cheese-making brothers on a quest to revive a dying dairy community in Northern Vermont.  
• TOM MYLAN, DIY enthusiast, butcher, founder of the Unfancy Foods Show, and co-founder of The Brooklyn Kitchen, a utopia for the thriving urban homesteading movement in Brooklyn.
• ANTHONY MYINT, pop-up and non-profit restaurant chef extraordinaire, blazing the trail for new restaurant models with his Mission Street Food and Commonwealth ventures in the Bay Area.
• ABE SCHOENER, a winemaker whose unorthodox methods (ultra natural fermentation methods, wine served from a tap, etc.) have resulted in extremely edgy wines with a cult following.
• SUSAN SPICER, a New Orleans chef who is spotlighting the impact of the BP oil spill on local restaurateurs and food purveyors by filing a class action lawsuit against the company.
• SEVERINE VON TSCHARNER FLEMING, farming advocate and director of Greenhorns, an organization that promotes and supports young farmers in America.

CHOW’s videos, stories and design have won a number of awards recently, including a Webby for the You’re Doing It All Wrong video series and an Emmy nomination for the video “Soda Pop” from the Obsessives series.  CHOW.com received the 2010 James Beard Award for Best Food Website.

Over the past year, CHOW has continued its growth as a leading destination for food and drink lovers with unique monthly visitors growing by 19%.  In addition, as the site continues to create more video content about everything from how to cut onions properly to chefs’ go-to dishers, video views have also jumped XX% in the past year.  (Source: comscore MediaMetrix, U.S. Only August 2010; Panel Only)

About CHOW
CHOW.com is the Webby and James Beard Award-winning site with a fresh look at cooking and restaurants. With informative, entertaining videos, easy-to-follow and reliable recipes, and a vocal community of Chowhounds seeking out flavor from every corner of the country, it’s your online destination for food.  

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