Cookbook Awards Chair

Paula Forbes is a journalist, cookbook author and critic; her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, GQ, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and more. She was integral to a cult favorite food Aughts website, Eat Me Daily, and has also served as an editor for Eater and Epicurious. She shares cookbook criticism, news, and ephemera in her IACP award-winning newsletter, Stained Page News, and her latest book is Cured: Cooking With Ferments, Pickles, Preserves & More, written with San Antonio chef Steve McHugh. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Digital Media Awards Chair

Cass Gardiner is an Anishinaabe Algonquin writer, curator, and filmmaker from Kebaowek First Nation in what we now call Quebec, Canada. Her writing on Indigenous art, and food has been published in Inuit Art Quarterly, Cherry Bombe, and Compound Butter Magazine and her work on feasting as lawmaking was accepted to the Oxford Food Symposium in 2023. Her documentary film THE EDIBLE INDIAN has met critical acclaim internationally and was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the American Indian Film Festival.

Food Writing Awards Chair

Lyndsay C. Green is the dining and restaurant critic at the Detroit Free Press. In her role, she covers the gamut of metro Detroit’s food industry. Appointed in 2021, Green became the newspaper’s first Black restaurant critic, bringing an unprecedented perspective to local dining criticism. In Detroit, a predominantly Black city, Green has become a voice for diners whose cultural experiences have seldom been celebrated. In 2023, Green was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and earned a James Beard Award for Emerging Voice in Journalism.

Food Photography & Styling Awards Chair

Jesse Szewczyk is an editor, recipe developer, and food stylist based in New York. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Food Network, Epicurious, TODAY, Food52, The Washington Post, King Arthur Baking, The Kitchn, BuzzFeed, Tasty, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Allrecipes, Simply Recipes, and several other publications. He was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 of Food & Drink and is the author of Tasty Pride (Clarkson Potter, 2020), and Cookies (Clarkson Potter, 2021), which was named one of the best cookbooks of 2021 by The New York Times and The New Yorker.

Cookbook Awards Executive Committee

Born and raised in New York and New Jersey, Concepcion first stepped into the food world in Saint Louis, working his way up in restaurants as a cook after studying writing and art at Washington University. Learning on the job and reading cookbooks voraciously, he continued to work as a chef until moving to Los Angeles in 2006 where he worked for Wolfgang Puck for twelve years. In the fall of 2017, Concepcion along with his partner, Michelle Mungcal, opened Now Serving, the only dedicated cookbook shop in Los Angeles in nearly ten years.

Cookbook Awards Executive Committee

Julie Giuffrida is a chef, recipe tester, recipe developer and writer. She has cooked in a variety of settings including restaurants, catering halls and private homes and has developed and tested recipes for The Los Angeles Times, the Food Network and a celebrity chef cookbook. She earned a Culinary Diploma from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, a Master’s degree focused on the restaurant industry from Cornell University’s prestigious Hotel school and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Syracuse University.

Cookbook Awards Executive Committee

Stephanie Gravalese is a freelance food and beverage writer, photographer, and creative force behind Slow Living Kitchen. Slow Living Kitchen showcases seasonal recipes, sustainable preservation techniques, and informative foraging guides. Based in western Massachusetts and upstate New York, Stephanie's blog emerged from a profound belief that spending more time in the kitchen, garden, and nature, and building a connection to food, will help build skills in food independence.

Cookbook Awards Executive Committee

Alice Knisley Matthias is a regular contributor for Allrecipes, Better Homes & Gardens, The New York Times for Kids, Kids Discover, TIME for Kids, Taste of Home, Birds & Blooms, Family Handyman, Food Network, Washington Post Kids, Eating Well, The Kitchn, Delish, and Parade. Her work has appeared in Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and America's Test Kitchen. Her book for young readers, "Tasty Snacks in a Snap!" is published with Scholastic. She holds a BA in Musical Theatre and an MS in Education from Wagner College.

Cookbook Awards Executive Committee

With early training alongside her father, Charlotte Rutledge learned to love baking from a young age. She spent the first part of her career practicing her skills in restaurants in the U.S. and England. Then in 2011, she joined the King Arthur Baking Company test kitchen where she led a team of bakers in developing, writing, and curating high-quality recipes for home bakers across the country. In 2022 Charlotte embarked on a new career journey, sharing her joy and knowledge of cooking and baking via her Substack newsletter–Balanced Diet.

Cookbook Awards Executive Committee

Tina Ujlaki was the Executive Food Editor at Food & Wine Magazine, where she oversaw the test kitchen and recipe development, scouted new and exciting products, and traveled widely to identify up-and-coming chef talent. Among her greatest thrills as an editor was working very closely with Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Jacques Pépin and Paula Wolfert. Tina has also has worked on cookbooks with José Andrés, Lidia Bastianich, Georges Blanc, Michel Guerard and Anne Willan, as well as on a number of volumes in The Good Cook series from Time-Life Books.

IACP Director of Awards

Paola is a cooking writer and avid cook who wrote her very first recipe for a key lime cookie pie at age six. She is a proud Pata Salada, that's Mexican coastal surf speak for a native of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico—paradise. Her cooking is a reflection of her coastal roots and is fueled by her background in food anthropology and classical culinary training. Her recipes have been published in L.A. Times, Food & Wine, Epicurious, and more. She publishes a new original recipe every week on her Substack newsletter–Fresca: A Recipe Newsletter.

IACP Communications Coordinator

Lisa Hecht was born and raised in Montreal and will happily describe what she thinks makes a good bagel or poutine. She is a trained artist and has an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she studied Print Media. She was an exhibiting artist and taught university classes for 10 years before deciding to get a culinary degree. Lisa now works as a food stylist at QVC supporting production on photo shoots and live TV. She has been part of the IACP team since 2019. Lisa now lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Marcelino and cat, Minou.