Photo Credit :: Jordan A. Colbert

Georgia native Nicole A. Taylor hosts Hot Grease, a food culture podcast and is the principal of NAT Media. She has contributed to First We Feast, Cherry Bombe, Amtrak, Southern Foodways Alliance, Travel Noire and her recipes are featured on Colorlines, Design*Sponge and in the America I Am: Pass it Down Cookbook and The Way We Ate: 100 Chefs Celebrate a Century at the American Table cookbook. Nicole self-publishes the Modern Travelers' Green Zine, a print publication focused on food + travel. In 2014, she produced a short documentary on the desegregation of an Athens, GA drive-in restaurant.

A member of Black Urban Growers and James Beard Foundation. Nicole worked for the Brooklyn Food Coalition, served on the fundraising committee for the Vendy Awards NYC, instructed young adults at Kingsborough Community College's Project Rise (a GED & internship program that weaves in urban farming & food culture) and facilitated media landscape workshops for the The LAMP NYC. 

Nicole's first title The UpSouth Cookbook: Chasing Dixie in a Brooklyn Kitchen (Countryman Press/WW Norton) will be available this October.

Photo Credit :: Ashley Dingess

Shannon Mustipher is a Brooklyn based "bartender, blogger, and bon vivant" and the founder of SUPERETTE and A GOOD ROOM, consultancy projects that craft food and beverage based experiences that range from creating bespoke cocktails to events styling and design for a diverse range of both private and industry clients.

When she is not running an event, penning drink recipes, or working behind the bar, Shannon enjoys cooking, gardening, entertaining friends and family and collecting "too many books". You can read about Shannon's forays into spirits and cocktails on her blog, as well as and follow her musings on all things edible and potable on twitter.