Food & Drink
THE NEXT BIG BITE: The Bite that Heals - Food’s Next Frontier
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An immersive event where function meets flavor, science meets pleasure, and healing meets joy. This year’s annual Next Big Bite, which kicks off Les Dames 50th anniversary, explores how food is transforming into a vehicle for personal well-being. Through dynamic panels and engaging tastings, we’ll examine how chefs, farmers, doctors, and thought leaders are shaping a new standard for nourishment—one that’s delicious, culturally rich, and deeply restorative.
In between, enjoy a curated walkaround tasting featuring a delicious array of health-forward foods and better-for-you sips, courtesy of Jennifer Bradley-Harroun (Pier Sixty), Tara Khattar (Maison Tara), Maria Loi (Loi Estiatorio), and Jessie Riley (Chef Instructor ICE, Co-Founder of Food Startup Help)
KEYNOTE: Grande Dame Marion Nestle: Celebrated nutrition advocate and author previews her upcoming book, What to Eat Now, highlighting how policy, access, and education influence our ability to heal through food.
PANEL 1: Kitchen Farm-acy – From Soil to Spoon
Explores food as the new pharmacy—from regenerative farming to functional beverages.
Moderator: Corby Kummer of the Aspen Institute
FOOD & BEVERAGE EXPO
Showcasing nutrient-rich dishes and conscious sips—from ayurvedic bites to plant-based and keto offerings.
PANEL 2: Healing Modalities – Tradition, Evolution & Application
Explores how culinary artistry, science, and integrative medicine are merging.
Moderator: Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan – Award-winning journalist
Marion Nestle
Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita
IG @marionnestle / IN @marion-nestle
Grande Dame Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor, of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal (for science and society).
Corby Kummer
Executive Director, Food & Society at the Aspen Institute; Senior Editor, The Atlantic; James Beard Award-winning author
IG @cskummer / IN @corby-kummer
Corby Kummer is the founding executive director of the Food & Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science, and a senior editor of The Atlantic, for which he was a longtime food columnist and originated a vertical on food, sustainability, policy, and food justice. He attended the Loomis-Chafee School and received a BA from Yale College.
Corby is the author of The Joy of Coffee and The Pleasures of Slow Food, the first book in English on the Slow Food movement, and has been restaurant critic of New York, Boston, and Atlanta magazines and a food and food policy columnist for The New Republic. He has received six James Beard Journalism Awards and is a featured commentator on food and food policy weekly on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio.
Alix Daguin is the Project Director of All One One All (AOOA), a nonprofit regenerative silvopasture farm, eatery, and distillery in the Hudson Valley. AOOA is a living experiment in how responsible agriculture, culinary innovation, and community education can work together to restore ecosystems, support local food systems, and inspire a more sustainable future. Visitors are invited to walk the fields, meet the animals, enjoy seasonal meals, and experience firsthand how farming can be both nourishing and regenerative.
A licensed architect, Alix is passionate about designing spaces and experiences that connect people to their food. The love of food runs in the family – she counts eight generations of hoteliers, restaurateurs, tavern-keepers, and food industry entrepreneurs among her ancestors. Alix earned her BS from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and a Master’s in Architecture from California College of the Arts. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her dogs Glen and Paul, and an outgoing goose named Bilou Bilou.
Dame Erica Duecy has been called “a powerhouse in the drinks industry” (Sommeliers Choice Awards). She is founder of Business of Drinks, a podcast and drinks advisory service, and is one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She has built marketing and data insights programs for Drizly, Union, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies.
Erica served as Chief Content Officer for VinePair and Pix, and was founding Editor in Chief of SevenFifty Daily. She also has led digital editorial teams at Architectural Digest, Saveur, and Fodor’s Travel. Her content, podcast, and video programs have won more than 40 digital and editorial awards. She is a WSET Advanced-certified wine and spirits communicator, wine judge, and author of the cocktail book Storied Sips (Random House), about the real-life stories behind the world’s most famous cocktails.
Richard LaMarita has had a diverse culinary, educator, and Ayurvedic career. He had been a Chef Instructor for the world-renowned health-supportive program at the Natural Gourmet Institute, NYC, for 25 years. He now holds a position as Chef Instructor in the Health-Centered Culinary Arts Program at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. His specialty is vegan, vegetarian, Indian, Italian and Ayurvedic Cuisine. He has been teaching Ayurveda cooking classes since the mid-1990’s.
He is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, having completed the Culinary Arts and Culinary Management Program in 2003/04. He has worked with numerous, well-known chefs and restaurants in NYC, including Tabla Restaurant, the groundbreaking Indian restaurant. He has combined his teaching career with being a private chef in Manhattan and the Hamptons since 1995, working for numerous and notable families in NYC.
He is a long-time TM meditator and has been a practitioner and teacher of Ayurveda for over 40 years. Richard is a graduate of the master’s program in Maharishi Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine at Maharishi International University (June 2023). He continued his studies in Advanced Clinical Training and Entrepreneurship. He now practices out of the New York City area, teaching, organizing workshops, seeing clients and doing Ayurvedic cooking classes.
Dame Stefanie Sacks, MS, CNS, CDN is a nationally recognized Culinary Nutritionist, author, educator, and consultant with over 30 years of experience at the intersection of food, functional nutrition, and healing. Her book, What the Fork Are You Eating?, is a practical guide for navigating food choices with clarity and confidence. She is also the co-founder of WTFork.com, a no-nonsense digital platform focused on food, nutrition, and cooking.
Stefanie holds a Master of Science in Nutrition from Teachers College, Columbia University, is a Certified Nutrition Specialist® and Board-Certified Dietitian Nutritionist, and trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. Her approach is deeply informed by her personal journey through Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), chronic illness, and disordered eating. She has pioneered trauma-informed culinary nutrition experiences that educate, empower, and transform, bridging the gap between science and the kitchen. Stefanie has collaborated with top integrative practitioners, advised renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and contributed to the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
Her work has been featured across major media outlets. An inductee of Les Dames d’Escoffier, Stefanie serves on the advisory board of A Greener World and is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American Nutrition Association. She lives on Long Island with her husband, two sons, and rescue pup, Faith—and finds joy in family, food, the ocean, and the outdoors.
Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan
Award-winning journalist
IN @christinehaughneydarebryan
Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan is an award-winning journalist and creator of the Emmy nominated and James Beard award winning Netflix docuseries Rotten. She has reported and written extensively on food and The Boston Globe has described her as one of the top food safety journalists in the US. Her reporting on food safety for the Boston Globe Spotlight team appeared in the Emmy award winning Netflix doc Poisoned and her reporting on food safety for Politico earned a James Beard nomination.
Dr. Basma Faris is a Board-Certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist and Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist. Dr. Faris attended the University of California at Berkeley where she received a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition Sciences. She went on to complete a Master of Science in Nutrition at Brooklyn College and completed the Registered Dietetics Internship at the same. She received her medical degree from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University at Buffalo in 2009 and then went on to complete her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Faris began her career in healthcare as a Registered Dietitian. She enjoys educating her peers on how to incorporate nutrition into everyday practice and helping patients at the intersections of nutrition and women’s health. She owns a telehealth practice aimed at treating people with PCOS using an evidence-based mix of Culinary Medicine and Gynecology.
In 2022 she joined The Mount Sinai Health System in New York as a laborist, where she holds the position of Assistant Professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science.
Dr. Faris practices General Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She became a Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist in 2020 and now serves as Chair of the Advisory Board to the American College of Culinary Medicine. She recently joined the PCOS Awareness Association Advisory Board and also advises multiple women’s health startups.
Dame Lynn Fredericks is the founder of Family Cook Productions and an award-winning pioneer in the field of obesity prevention and family nutrition. Author of two cookbooks, she has led the development of hands-on culinary nutrition education programs reaching over 370,000 parents and children through program licensing and instructor training. She has presented dozens of scientific abstracts on Family Cook program efficacy at professional conferences and has published over a dozen studies in peer-reviewed journals. In 2020, her original research on 10 Experiential Drivers of Behavior Change for Teaching Kitchen practitioners, a culmination of 25 years studying the best practices for achieving new healthy food habits, was published in Health Promotion Practice. Ms. Fredericks was honored in 2020 by SNEB with the Program Impact Award, and by the New York State Public Health Association as Public Health Leader of 2017. In Spring 2024, her preschool program, Nibble with Willow, was the grand prize winner of the Robin Hood Foundation Fuel for 50 early childhood initiative.
Dr. Rob, the Chef is a Harvard-trained physician, researcher, public health scientist, TEDx speaker, and chef, board certified in both Internal and Integrative Medicine. Trained in Holistic and Functional Medicine, he has spent over 20 years pioneering the integration of food and lifestyle into medical care. Together with his wife Julie, he co-founded FRESH Medicine, built on the five ingredients of health: Food, Relaxation, Exercise, Sleep, and Happiness.
Dr. Graham earned his master’s in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health, completed fellowships in General Internal Medicine, Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, and Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, and received his culinary degree from the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York. Known as a passionate “food fighter,” Dr. Graham has long prescribed “food as medicine” to help patients prevent and manage chronic disease, optimize gut health, and reduce reliance on medications. He is recognized as an international expert in culinary medicine, nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and integrative approaches to conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disease, depression, and anxiety. When not seeing patients, Dr. Graham trades his white lab coat for chef’s whites with the goal of advocating for a new model of integrative, “food-first” lifestyle-focused healthcare called Culinary Medicine. He has taught over 1000 healthcare workers, mostly doctors, how to cook whole food, plant-based meals, and created the first edible rooftop garden on a hospital in NYC.
In addition to his private practice, Dr. Graham serves as Chief Health Officer at Performance Kitchen, a medically tailored meal company, founding Medical Director of Integrative and Functional Medicine at Catholic Health, and wellness physician and consultant for AMAN New York. He also co-founded FRESH MED U, an online self-care university designed to empower people to achieve their FRESH goals for health and happiness.
Dr. Graham has advised multiple policymakers, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams, focusing on institutional foods, a true honor for a native New Yorker. In 2022 he participated at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, advancing the national dialogue on food and health.
Host and executive producer of the cooking series Ellie’s Real Good Food on Public Television and well known from her hit Food Network show Healthy Appetite, Dame Ellie Krieger is the leading go-to nutritionist in the media today, helping people find the sweet spot where “delicious” and “healthy” meet. Her success can be attributed to her accessible way of offering tools for nurturing a richly satisfying, sumptuous lifestyle while cutting through the gimmicks, hype and extreme eating that permeate our world.
Ellie is a New York Times bestselling, IACP and two-time James Beard Foundation award winning author of 7 cookbooks. She is also a weekly columnist for The Washington Post and has been a columnist for Fine Cooking, Food Network magazine and USA Today.
Ellie is a registered dietitian nutritionist who earned her bachelor’s in clinical nutrition from Cornell University and her master’s in nutrition education from Teacher’s College Columbia University. Her latest book Whole in One: Complete, Healthy Meals in a Single Pot, Skillet or Sheet Pan was released in October 2019. She finds happiness living with her daughter and husband in New York City.
Proceeds benefit LDNY’s scholarship fund for women in food and beverage.
All ticket sales are final.
Green Tables Committee Co-chairs, Jen O’Flanagan and Christina Jacobs
Nancy Jessup and the Green Tables Committee
