Meet The Leaders And Visionaries Fueling Change in Food, Drink, Travel, and Hospitality Featured In FOOD & WINE’s Special July Icons and Innovators Issue
NEW YORK, June 05, 2023–FOOD & WINE unveils its 2023 Game Changers list, recognizing 15 people and companies in the culinary, hospitality, travel, and consumer packaged goods industries who are thinking deeper, dreaming bigger, and collectively changing the way we eat and drink for the better. The leaders and visionaries named to the third annual FOOD & WINE Game Changers list are featured in the special July Icons & Innovators Issue of FOOD & WINE and at foodandwine.com/gamechangers2023
FOOD & WINE Editor in Chief Hunter Lewis said, “Since 2021, we have recognized and celebrated culinary innovation at all levels of the supply chain. We are thrilled to introduce this year’s Game Changers– a list filled with rule breakers, trailblazers, and creators who are unafraid to innovate – making our world more creative, more delicious, and more sustainable for future generations.”
2023 FOOD & WINE GAME CHANGERS
- Theaster Gates — An acclaimed artist, city planner, and visionary transforming predominantly Black neighborhoods in Chicago into cultural hubs.
- De La Calle Tepache—The first company to bring tepache, a fermented pineapple beverage made in Mexico for over 3,000 years, to the U.S. market.
- Lisa Cheng Smith — A Brooklyn, New York-based retail entrepreneur giving a platform and an identity to Taiwanese products and makers.
- Katie Jackson —Thanks to her Rooted for Good initiative, America’s ninth-largest winery, Jackson Family Wines, has emerged as a leader in sustainability.
- Reem Assil — Celebrated San Francisco chef who’s turning her restaurant, Reem’s California (a 2018 F&W Restaurant of the Year), into an employee-owned co-op, hoping it will serve as a model for others.
- Great Wrap — A compostable cling wrap using the humble potato and helping to solve the world’s single-use plastic waste problem.
- Meherwan Irani — The Asheville-based restaurateur has played a pivotal role in reshaping how America sees, eats, and thinks about Indian cuisine.
- Maui Nui Venison — This mission-driven business on Maui humanely harvests Axis deer, a threat to Hawaii’s native species, and transforms them into venison.
- S.A.L.T.— Silversea Cruises Sea And Land Taste program offers the most innovative and compelling culinary tours at sea and on land.
- Rockefeller Center— Real estate developer Tishman Speyer is transforming this New York City icon by building a new community of chefs.
- Dia Simms — Liquor industry executive and co-founder of Pronghorn, Simms is working to diversify the booze business and create more than $2 billion for the Black community in the next ten years.
- Heilala Vanilla — Founded in 2002 in Tonga, this vanilla company is the first of its kind to be awarded B Corp certification for its dedication to quality and sustainability.
- Induction Cooking— Since the technology debuted in consumer kitchens in the mid-80s, innovation in the space is heating up more than ever, fueled by new tech, new regulations and new products.
- FryAway — This plant-based, nontoxic powder is environmentally friendly and transforms liquid cooking oil into solid organic waste.
- Joanna Lee Molinaro— Known by her moniker The Korean Vegan, this former attorney has become one of TikTok’s and Instagram’s most influential food creators.
The special July Icons & Innovators Issue of FOOD & WINE featuring the 2023 F&W Game Changers will come to life June 16-19 at the 40th Anniversary FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen, a three-day epicurean experience in Aspen, Colorado with an all-star roster of tastemakers.
To read the profile of each winner named to the 2023 FOOD & WINE Game Changers, visit here. To reference last year’s FOOD & WINE Game Changers, see the link here.
About FOOD & WINE
FOOD & WINE is the ultimate authority on the best of what’s new in food, drink, travel, design, and entertaining.FOOD & WINE includes a magazine in print and digital; a website, foodandwine.com; social media channels, a books division; plus newsletters, events, and more. At FOOD & WINE, we inspire and empower our wine- and food-obsessed community to eat, drink, entertain, and travel better—every day and everywhere. FOOD & WINE is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.
