Growing up in Berkeley, California in the seventies, Phyllis Grant would wake up early, sneak downstairs, and bake breakfast treats like Danish ebilskiver and Belgian waffles. In 1988, she went to New York to train as a modern dancer at The Juilliard School and ended up falling in love with the city and the restaurant world. She went on to cook in numerous bakeries and restaurants, including Nobu, Michael’s, and Bouley. After getting a degree in writing from Columbia University, she moved back to Berkeley, raised two children, and worked as a yoga teacher and birth doula. She is the author of Everything is Under Control: A Memoir With Recipes, an IACP finalist for Personal Essays/Memoir Writing, and a three-time Saveur Food Blog Award finalist for her blog, Dash and Bella: Cooking With 2 Kids. Her essays and recipes have been included in dozens of publications including Best Food Writing, The New York Times, Esquire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Saveur, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Food52, and Salon. She has been teaching her whole life.

Lisa Donovan is a New York Times food columnist and recipe developer, a James Beard award winning writer and an internationally renowned pastry chef who has redefined what it means to be a Southern baker. She has been formative in developing, writing, and establishing a technique driven and historically rich narrative of classic American pastry and desserts in restaurants across the country and in print. Lisa was a featured speaker at René Redzepi’s globally renowned MAD Symposium on the culture and responsibilities of restaurants and centers her work on advocacy and education. Her recipes and essays have been featured in Food & Wine Magazine, Bon Appetit Magazine, the Washington Post, Eater, LitHub, Garden & Gun Magazine and Saveur Magazine. Lisa is the author of OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HUNGER, her first book through Penguin Press, published in August 2020. OUR LADY was the recipient of the LDEI’s MFK Fisher Prize for Excellence in 2021.