Our esteemed group of culinary advisors work with us to create great Mediterranean-inspired recipes to help bring the amazing flavors and tastes of the Mediterranean Diet to even more people and places.

When they're not toiling away in the kitchen, they help us answer food-and culinary-related questions from consumers, and can even consult with manufacturers on product development. We are honored to have this diverse and dedicated group of culinary experts involved in the MFA!

Take a look below to learn more about our incredibly talented team:

Jesse Ziff Cool
Jesse has been dedicated to sustainable agriculture and cuisine for more than 30 years. By supporting local food production and farmers, those she warmly refers to as her heroes and the first real environmental pioneers, her work in the food business supports her politics and philosophy.

Jesse’s work has expanded from her local community, to a national and international audience. She has traveled around the globe connecting to local farmers, shop keepers and families -- embracing what is local, sustainable, and connects us.

Jesse has been the creative force behind five unique restaurants and the author of six books as well as numerous articles. She is a much sought after spokesperson, speaker, teacher and presenter. Jesse spends her free time in her community garden and with her family. Learn more about Jesse Cool.

Cynthia Daddona
Cynthia Daddona is an award-winning on camera personality, food and travel journalist and host of #1 NY Times About.com Greek Food Guide video, “A Greek Islands Destination Cooking Class” DVD. Her successful radio talk show Romancing the Table™, is dedicated to exploring the key ingredients to healthy Mediterranean recipes and cooking, romantic dining, destinations, love relationships and epicurean stories that delight the palette, heart and soul.

She is also the author of the top selling book Diary of A Modern Goddess, a lighthearted wellness guide to creating a life that nurtures your body, mind and soul.

Her work has also appeared on CBS, ABC, NBC, NPR radio, USA Network, and in Travel World News, First for Women, LA Times and USA Today, The Hellenic Journal, Greek Circle Magazine and she has interviewed over 100 top celebrities. While Cynthia was at the 1st Annual Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, she asked the stars on the red carpet to name their favorite Greek dishes, and the answers were as varied as the celebrities themselves!

To learn more about Cynthia and her passion for celebrating and creating love-infused meals and memories around the table, please visit RomancingTheTable.com. Her site also features videos of her work, Romancing the Table™ blog with recipe stories and radio show replays. She can be contacted at cynthiadaddona@aol.com.

Mary Ann Esposito
Mary Ann is the creator and host of the nationally televised PBS series, Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito™. The series celebrated its milestone 20th season in 2010, making it the longest running cooking series on television.

Growing up in Depew, New York, Mary Ann was steeped in the artistry of Italian cooking. Both nonnas, one Sicilian and one Neapolitan, were Italian natives and professional cooks, so life inside the Saporito household was decidedly Italian, no matter what was going on outside their front door in Western New York.

A pivotal trip to Italy made her realize that what she was learning in cooking classes abroad she innately knew from her all-Italian, all-the-time upbringing. She pondered the "what ifs" of hosting a cable program that would teach the cooking lessons she learned as a child. The result was Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito™. And today, 20 years later, Mary Ann has been recognized by countless organizations for her efforts to preserve the traditions surrounding Italian food and culture, and has become the doyenne of PBS.

Mary Ann's television experience spans beyond PBS: she has appeared on the TODAY show, Regis and Kelly, Martha Stewart Radio, QVC, the Food Network, the Discovery Channel, FOX, Pax, RAI International (Italian television), The Victory Garden, Simply Ming, and a host of others. She has been a guest on Sirius Radio's Morning Living on the Martha Stewart channel; and she has appeared beside chefs Todd English, Daisy Martinez, Sara Moulton, Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan, and countless others.

Mary Ann holds a master's degree in food history from the University of New Hampshire. Mary Ann has studied and taught in numerous cooking schools throughout Italy. She received Johnson and Wales University's Distinguished Author Award, and she is a regular contributor to Boston University's School of Lifelong Learning program, as well as a Board Member of Cordon Bleu, Atlantic Culinary Academy, and a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier. In 2006 she was granted an honorary doctorate from St. Anselm College for her dedication to teaching and preserving authentic Italian cuisine.

In addition to producing Ciao Italia and making nationwide appearances, Mary Ann has written 11 cookbooks. Ciao Italia Five Ingredient Favorites (St. Martin's Press) -- hit bookstores in September 2009. Learn more about Mary Ann Esposito.

Nancy Harmon Jenkins
Nancy has a passionate interest in Mediterranean food and cultures, and she has played an important and ongoing role at Oldways since the very beginning. In 1987, she helped founder Dun Gifford organize an extensive culinary trip to northern Italy. Nancy, who is fluent in Italian (and Spanish and another language or two), had just finished a long stint as a food writer for The New York Times and proved to be an invaluable guide to local foods and a source of great inspiration. The result of the culinary trip was Oldways, and Nancy was integrally involved in its founding, also serving as one of the original members of the Oldways’ Board of Directors. The author of half a dozen highly acclaimed cookbooks, including The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, she divides her time between her farmhouse outside of Cortona, Italy and the coast of Maine. Learn more about Nancy Harmon Jenkins.

Steven Jenkins
Variously described in print as “New York’s highest-profile grocer” (New York Magazine), “the enfant terrible of the fancy food business” (The New York Times), and “the eminence grise of American cheesemongers” (The New Yorker), as well as having been featured in New York Magazine’s “The 100 Smartest New Yorkers” issue, Steven Jenkins has worked at New York’s Fairway Markets for most of his career. He was the first American inducted into France’s ancient and elite Guilde du Maitre-Fromagers de St. Uguzon, in 1976, and was only recently elevated to “prud’homme”, the guild’s highest award. In 1980 he was welcomed into France’s super-honorary society, Taste-Fromage, once again, the first American. Jenkins’ first book, Cheese Primer (Workman, 1996), decidedly a “chef-d’oeuvre” (eight years in the making; starred, boxed review in Publisher’s Weekly), is already in its record-breaking tenth printing. Cheese Primer won the James Beard Award and was nominated for the Julia Child Award of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Cheese Primer is regarded as the single-most indispensable book in the world of cheese for both professionals and amateurs.

Jenkins has written extensively for every major food and wine publication, including Gourmet, Food & Wine, Sante and Food Arts, as well as columns for the major trade magazines and domestic and international culinary journals. Jenkins is credited with having introduced countless cheeses and foodstuffs to New Yorkers (and subsequently the rest of the United States), and continues to generate remarkable publicity and public awareness for food artisans and artisanal foods (it was he who popularized the use of the terms “artisan/artisanal” as well as “cheesemonger”).

He was recently named one of the 25 most important people in the history of the American specialty foods industry by Gourmet Retailer in their 25th-year anniversary issue. Steven is a frequent guest lecturer at numerous venues here and in Europe (The National Geographic Society, The University of Pennsylvania, The Rhode Island School of Design, The Smithsonian, The 92nd Street Y, The Aspen Food & Wine Classic, The Fairway Masterclass Series); he is also in demand as a judge at various competitions and culinary schools (The American Cheese Society, The French Culinary Institute), and made frequent appearances on television (PBS with Jacques Pepin and Julia Child; a featured segment on CBS’s Sunday Morning with Charles Collingwood (Martha Teichnor reporting). He is a regular guest on the award-winning NPR program The Splendid Table with Lynn Rossetto Kasper. Jenkins was a board member of The American Cheese Society and is an active participant in the important work of the Oldways (Cambridge, Massachusetts). His many responsibilities at the highly regarded Fairway Markets (New York City) include the pioneering (exclusive) importation of traditional foods from over a hundred European companies. Jenkins lives in New York City with his wife Michelle and their children, Max and Lily.

Aglaia Kremezi
Aglaia Kremezi was born in Athens and for six years lived on Kea, an island of the Cyclades. She is a journalist, writer, photographer and food columnist for the Sunday Athens paper Kyriakatiki Eleftherotypia and the Greek edition of Votre Beaute magazine. She is also a contributing author for the Los Angeles Times, Gourmet, BBC Good Food, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, Food Arts and other publications.

With a group of her friends, she has created Kea Artisanal, a Culture and Food holiday program in Kea. She was inspired to write a book, Mediterranean Hot & Spicy: Fast and Healthy Cooking from Southern Italy, Greece and the Middle East, which was published in the Spring of 2009 by Broadway Books (Random House). Another one of her books, The Foods of the Greek Islands, published the fall of 2000 by Houghton Mifflin, was chosen as the first of the year’s best cookbooks by the New York Times and received raving reviews from Food and Wine, Time, People and many other newspapers and magazines. Her first book, The Foods of Greece, published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang won the Julia Child "First Book" award, in April '94. She is part of the team of Master Chefs --together with Roger Verger, Michel Roux, Richard Olney and others-- creating a small illustrated collection of Meze and Antipasti, for the series "Classic Recipes" published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, in London. She has also published in Athens two collections of her food columns that became best sellers in Greece.

She has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS, and other major and local TV stations and also taught at Macy’s Degustibus, at the French Culinary Institute in New York, at the Culinary Institute in Greystone, Napa CA and many other cooking schools around the country, promoting her books and authentic Mediterranean cuisine. She is a consultant for Molyvos, the upscale Greek restaurant in New York (7th avenue at 55th street) which was awarded three stars by Ruth Reichl of the New York Times. Learn more about Aglaia Kremezi.

Steven Petusevsky
Highly acclaimed chef Steven Petusevsky is widely known as a pioneer in the pairing of health and exceptional taste. His culinary studies have taken him across the globe in search of innovative and authentic cooking techniques.  Robust earthy flavors and vibrant cuisines capture the influence and unique reinterpretations of ethnic dishes he is famous for creating.

Chef Steve has been the National Director of Creative Food Development for WholeFoods Market, the largest natural food retail chain in the country. He wrote the book on natural foods, quite literally. He is the author of the WholeFoods Market Cookbook-The Ultimate Guide to Natural Foods, published by Random House, Fall 2002. His next book, Happiness is a Home Cooked Meal ~ 100 Simple & Savory Recipes & Recollections is also available.

Earlier in his career, he founded Chef Steve's Carried Away Cuisine ä in Weston, Florida, a highly successful meal replacement and retail store concept that offered delicious healthful cuisine to corporate and home consumers.

Chef Steve is a celebrated food journalist with a readership upward of millions. He writes special features for Cooking Light Magazine, and for more than four years, he was a contributing editor to Cooking Light, with a monthly column entitled "Inspired Vegetarian". He writes a weekly syndicated column called Vegetarian Today, for The Chicago Tribune news service, which is published in newspapers across the nation. His work has been featured in Health, Fine Cooking, the LA Times Syndicate, Food & Wine, and Restaurant Hospitality. He is seen regularly on the local NBC affiliate on Saturday mornings, where he hosts a special cooking segment. Learn more about Chef Steve.

Lorna Sass
Lorna Sass is a widely published food writer and an award-winning cookbook author. Her career in food began as a culinary historian: while studying for her PhD in medieval literature at Columbia University, Lorna wrote four historical cookbooks that were published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lorna became interested in pressure cooking during the mid-eighties after her vegetarian mother carted a cooker back from India and began producing delectable curries and dals in a matter of minutes. Realizing that the pressure cooker could produce “fast food” that was both nutritious and delicious, Lorna began culinary experiments that led to the publication of Cooking Under Pressure by William Morrow in 1989.

Cooking Under Pressure sold briskly from the start and has been back to press 28 times, claiming best-seller status. With almost 250,000 copies in print Cooking Under Pressure is considered the bible on the subject and Lorna is considered the country’s leading authority on pressure cooking.

Lorna followed Cooking Under Pressure with Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, and The Pressured Cook. In 2005, William Morrow published Lorna’s Pressure Perfect, her definitive work on pressure cooking. This latest volume contains over 200 recipes and divulges all of the cooking secrets Lorna has developed over almost two decades of cooking under pressue.

For many years, Lorna was a vegan. During this time she wrote many vegan cookbooks, including Recipes From an Ecological Kitchen (now called LORNA SASS' Complete Vegetarian Kitchen in the paperback edition), Lorna Sass’ Short-Cut Vegetarian, The New Soy Cookbook, and The New Vegan Cookbook. Her fourteenth cookbook, Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, was published by Clarkson Potter in November 2006 and was recently awarded the prestigious James Beard Award in the "healthy focus" category, reflecting her passion for an organic, health-promoting, sustainable way of eating. It is already in its third printing! For further information, visit www.lornasass.com.

Michele Scicolone
Michele Scicolone is a cookbook author and writer who specializes in food, wine and travel. She is the author of 16 cookbooks, the latest being The BLT Cookbook co-authored with chef Laurent Tourondel, and Essentials of Italian Cooking (Williams-Sonoma). Entertaining with the Sopranos was published by Warner Books in 2006. Her previous book, The Sopranos Family Cookbook, co-authored with Allen Rucker, was a number one New York Times bestseller published in 9 languages. She was also one of the editors of the 75th Anniversary edition of the classic Joy of Cooking.

Her book 1,000 Italian Recipes, was nominated for a 2004 James Beard Award and was a main selection of The Good Cook book club. Italian Holiday Cooking (Morrow) was chosen as one of the Top Ten Cookbooks of the year 2001 by Food & Wine magazine. Michele is also the author of Savoring Italy, published in 1999 by Williams Sonoma and Time Life. Pizza--Anyway You Slice It! was co-authored with her husband Charles and published in 1998 by Broadway Books. The book received high praise in a New York Times review. A Fresh Taste of Italy was nominated for a Julia Child Award as the Best Italian Cookbook of 1997 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals and was chosen as one of the ten best cookbooks of the year by Amazon Books. La Dolce Vita, a collection of recipes for "life's sweet pleasures" Italian desserts, has been released in a paperback edition from Harper Perennial. It was nominated as the Best Dessert Book of 1994 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Her previous book, The Antipasto Table, was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as Best Italian Cookbook of 1991. Michele is also the author of two books on fish cookery published by Harmony Books.

Michele’s articles have appeared in Bon Appetit, The Wine Spectator, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wine Spectator, The New York Times, Gourmet, Food Arts, and many other publications. Television appearances include Emeril Live, The CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America, and Cooking Live, as well as many local television and radio programs. She has served as a judge for both the Julia Child and James Beard Foundation Book Awards. She teaches cooking at schools around the country including De Gustibus at Macy’s, Sur La Table, The Institute for Culinary Education, and Ramekins. Michele has been a spokesperson for Williams Sonoma and the Italian Trade Commission and has lectured on Italian culture and cuisine at The Smithsonian Institute, Hofstra, and Henderson State Universities. Learn more about Michele Scicolone.

David Shalleck
David Shalleck has worked for over two decades in the food business as a chef and television culinary producer alongside some of America’s most celebrated chefs. He is the author of Mediterranean Summer, a culinary travel memoir published by Broadway Books, and has cooked in noted restaurants and for special events in New York, San Francisco, the Napa Valley, London, Provence, and throughout many of Italy’s famous regions. Recent television credits include the PBS series Jose’s Made in Spain with José Andrés, Chef’s Story at the French Culinary Institute, Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class, Fast Food My Way with Jacques Pépin, and with Cat Cora on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America. His recipe, menu, food styling, and food product development clients include respected cookbook authors, restaurant operators, and many national brands. He is the founder of VOLOCHEF™ Culinary Solutions, offering specialized services to the food service and media industries. A graduate from Syracuse University in set and lighting design, he currently lives in San Francisco. Learn more about David Shalleck.

Ana Sortun
In her memoir, Eating My Words, food writer Mimi Sheraton included Ana Sortun as one of the country’s “best creative fusion practitioners,” describing the chef’s food as “inspired and inspiring.” With a degree from La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris, the Seattle-born Sortun opened Moncef Medeb’s Aigo Bistro in Concord, Massachusetts, in the early 1990s. Stints at 8 Holyoke and Casablanca in Harvard Square, Cambridge soon followed. When Sortun opened Oleana in 2001, she quickly drew raves for her creative combination of farm-fresh ingredients and eastern Mediterranean spice blends. Sortun’s food, explained Catherine Reynolds in the New York Times, “is at once rustic-traditional and deeply inventive.” After a visit to Boston, Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post wrote of Oleana, ”Should you have time for only one place to eat, make it this space.” The judges of the Beard Foundation awards certainly agreed, as they awarded Sortun The Best Chef: Northeast honor in 2005.

Chef Sortun’s cookbook, SPICE; Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, published in May 2006 by Regan Books, celebrated a nomination by the James Beard Foundation for Best Cookbook and is a best seller according to the Boston Globe and LA Times. Amy Scattergood of the LA Times writes, “This is not fusion food, nor has Sortun forced any technique or tradition. Instead she has allowed the flavors of the regional food, and her tangible love of it, to determine her cooking -- and her cookbook.”

In 2006 came the addition of Siena Farms, owned and farmed by Chef Sortun’s husband, Chris Kurth. The farm, named after their adorable daughter Siena, provides the restaurant with most of its fresh organic produce. Learn more about Ana Sortun.