Megan Giller

Megan Giller is the author of Bean-to-Bar Chocolate. She is a food writer and journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Slate, Zagat, Food & Wine, and Modern Farmer. Giller has written extensively about the food scenes in both New York City and Austin, Texas, and her blog Chocolate Noise was a 2016 Saveur Food Blog Awards finalist. She offers private chocolate-tasting classes, hosts “Underground Chocolate Salons,” teaches classes at shops across the country, and judges at chocolate competitions. She lives in Brooklyn.

Michael Laiskonis is Creative Director of New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education, and manager of its bean-to-bar Chocolate Lab. Previously Executive Pastry Chef at Le Bernardin for eight years, he was awarded Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2007 by the James Beard Foundation, and in 2014 the International Association of Culinary Professionals tapped him as its ‘Culinary Professional of the Year’.