Beejhy Barhany (@tsioncafe) is an entrepreneur and activist who was born in Ethiopia, raised in Israel, and currently resides in New York. At a very young age, she emigrated to Israel. She acclimated to Israeli life, living in a kibbutz and joining the army. Soon after, she traveled across South America for a year and again emigrated, this time to the US. She is the founder of the BINA Cultural Foundation non-profit, dedicated to celebrating and advocating for Ethiopian Jews in North America. Today, she is the chef and owner of an eclectic Ethiopian restaurant, Tsion Café, that incorporates cuisine from the many places that have been influential on her journeys.

Hélène Jawhara Piñer (@helenejawharapiner) is a cookbook author of Sephardi: Cooking the History – Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora from the 13th Century to Today (Cherry Orchard Books, 2021) and PhD in History, Medieval History and the History of Food. She is an internationally sought after speaker, writer, and expert on Jewish heritage, Jewish cuisine, and culinary coexistence between Jews and Muslims Hélène’s recipes have appeared in the Sephardi World Weekly, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, and S&P Central’s Newsletter, Moment Magazine, etc. Her next book, Jews, Food and Spain, is soon to be released. Her accomplishments and service on behalf of the Sephardic community, as well as the field of Sephardi Studies and Crypto-Judaic Studies have been recognized by the Broome & Allen Fellowship of the American Sephardi Federation and by the David Gitlitz Emerging Scholar prize from the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies. Today, she leads live cooking demonstrations and continues to study the medieval culinary history of Spain through inter and multiculturalism with a special focus on the Jewish culinary heritage written in Arabic.

Originally cooking at Chef Assaf Granit’s “Machneyuda group,” Israel-based chef Noam Reuveny (@noam_reuveny) built his reputation at the “Machneyuda” restaurant, the wild “Yudale” food bar, and then as su-chef at the exclusive ‘Dekel 3’ restaurant by the same well-known group. A few culinary trips later and after studying wines, spirits, pastries, breads, and other cultures’ food, Noam started his successful line of private cooking events, recently going all the way to Wall Street’s legend and founder of Birthright program, Michael Stienhartd. These days, Chef Noam offers a variety of options for those who are looking for a different dining experience varying from private events at the customer’s place of choice, culinary counseling, and even private events hosted at his very own home.