Leather Storrs, Noble Rot • Visit the Noble Rot web site

Leather Storrs, a native Oregonian, grew up on the rough and tumble west side of Portland. His mediocre academic career culminated in a B.A. in English from the University of Colorado. After graduation, Storrs got serious at the Culinary Institute of America, taking home the coveted “Perfect Attendance” award. Formative cooking experiences included stints at Chez Panisse and the French Laundry, under the frightening brilliance of Thomas Keller.

Leather returned to Portland in 1998 to run dinner service at the Bijou café, a venerable breakfast joint. The experiment was disastrous. In an attempt to retire from cooking, Storrs took a position at Brick House wines as an assistant to Doug Tunnell. He also worked as a food critic for the Portland Tribune and Citysearch.com. His wife, Courtney, rescued him from his desert wanderings and installed Leather as the chef of her (and partner Kimberly Bernosky’s) new wine bar, Noble Rot, in 2002. That was big. Noble Rot was a critical and commercial success.

Leather’s food menu, a revolving selection of small plates, is grounded in seasonality and wine friendliness. The press has been kind and the humble onion tart has reached cult status. Now 35, Storrs is nearing the end of his run as a “young Turk,” but he remains cheeky and opinionated. He, Courtney and Bernosky are designing a new restaurant, but his finest creation by far is his young son, Rye.

Jenn Louis, Culinary Artistry • Visit the Culinary Artistry web site

Jenn Louis, owner and chef at Culinary Artistry, got her start as a chef and course instructor for the Outward Bound Schools based in Florida and North Carolina. After graduating with a Liberal Arts degree from Pitzer College in Claremont Calif., Jenn manned a rustic, outdoor kitchen in remote settings working with the contents of twice monthly food drops, cooking everything from scratch for a crowd of hungry Outward Bound instructors. In addition to challenging her resourcefulness and creativity, the experiences reinforced her love for cooking with elemental, whole ingredients, and focus on healthy foods.

Ready for the creature comforts of a soft bed and an indoor kitchen and plumbing, Jenn returned to the West Coast and graduated from Western Culinary Institute in Portland. She put her talents and passion to work, cooking for many years at several of Portland’s premier restaurants such as Wildwood Restaurant and Bar and Mother’s Bistro before launching Culinary Artistry in 1999.

Culinary Artistry specializes in full-service catering, creating menus for special occasions that use the freshest, natural ingredients from specialty purveyors and local farms. From a simple cocktail party to a formal coursed dinner, every event is designed around a client’s tastes and needs. What started as catering for small business functions and wine dinners has scaled to elegant weddings and big parties.

With an interest in urban social issues, including hunger relief, Jenn has supported the homeless youth support program P:EAR and more recently became a founding member of “Fork It Over,” a new initiative that channels leftover prepared foods from restaurants, caterers and food service organizations directly to social service organizations that feed the poor.

Marco Shaw, Fife • Visit the Fife restaurant web site

Born in Washington D.C. Marco Shaw earned a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Randolph-Macon College in 1991, and an A.A.S. in Hotel, Motel, Restaurant Management from J. Seargent Reynolds C.C. in 1994. A year later he became a Certified Chef through the American Culinary Federation. After apprenticing at the Tobacco Company Restaurant in Richmond, Virginia from1991 to 1994, he cooked at various restaurants in Virginia, New Orleans, New York City and in Santa Fe at the famous Coyote Café for two years. Shortly after arriving in Portland he became lead line cook at Oba Restaurante, was Chef at the short-lived Alligator Pear, and also the Tuscany Grill.

Marco opened Fife, an American Restaurant, in December 2002. Rated among the top restaurants in Portland, they use local, organic products to showcase regional dishes from New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the South, the Mid-West and Southwest.

David Machado, Lauro Kitchen • Visit the Lauro Kitchen website

David Machado is chef/owner of two Portland restaurants, the newly opened Vindalho and the Willamette Week’s Restaurant of the Year, Lauro Kitchen. Both beloved neighborhood restaurants, Vindalho celebrates spice route cuisines, while Lauro Kitchen offers dishes inspired by the cuisine of Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Italy and Greece. David Machado is known for his simple and authentic cooking style and his insistence on using the freshest, locally grown and sustainable ingredients available.

Esquire, Food Arts, Food and Wine, Northwest Palate, Bon Appetit and The Washington Post have praised Machado's restaurants, and he was featured on the Discovery Channel's "Great Chefs, Great Cities" cooking series. He is frequently invited as a guest instructor at prestigious institutions like Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, the California Culinary Academy and Draeger's Culinary Center in California.

In 2002, The Oregonian's FoodDay honored Machado on their Honor Roll of "passionate achievers who have enriched the Oregon food scene.” Machado has contributed countless volunteer hours to the Portland and Oregon community over the years, taking a leading role as an officer and director of Portland Farmers Market and a trustee of the Oregon Restaurant Association's Education Foundation, among other causes. He is committed to the issue of hunger relief and regularly contributes his time and energies to Oregon Food Bank and Share Our Strength, one of the nation's leading anti-hunger, anti-poverty organizations.