Conference 2026: Origins

Two days of talks, tastings and connections bringing together the minds shaping food business. Explore how heritage and innovation intertwine to define what we eat across cultures.

Topic: Origins

The talks will dive into ancestral ingredients and knowledge, migration and identity, cross-cultural influence on cuisine, and the modern reinterpretation of heritage in food and business.

From the humble beginnings of a brand to the evolution of award-winning menus inspired by indigenous ingredients, we invite you to uncover the origins of how we eat — and who we are — today.

Speakers

Virgilio Martínez

Chef & Owner, Central and Mil; Founder, Mater and MAZ
Marcus Samuelsson‬

Award-Winning Chef, Restaurateur, Author, Activist
Paige Walker

Scotch & Digital Innovation Director, Diageo
Lotta & Per-Anders Jörgensen

Co-founders & Creative Directors, Fool Agency
Pablo Rivero

CEO, Resy & VP Global Dining, American Express
Liv Weidner

Director of Global Reservations for Gracious Hospitality Management
Carolina Cossu

Director of Sales, Ethica Wines
Norman Van Aken

Founder Norman's Orlando, Author, James Beard Who's Who
Michael Beltran

Chef/Owner, Ariete Hospitality Group
Kaja Sajovic

Journalist, Co-author of Ana Roš: Sun and Rain
Jesús Brazón

Founder & Head Baker, Caracas Bakery
Will Thompson

Founder, Sunny's Steakhouse
Luciana Giangrandi

Co-Chef/Owner Boia De and Walrus Rodeo
Teresa Gallina

Chef/Owner Recoveco
Tiger Saliba

Owner, BEYBEY
Andrew Friedman

Author & host/producer of Andrew Talks to Chefs podcast
James Pergola

Coffee Ambassador at Nestlé Nespresso SA

Chefs

Paola Carlini

Chef & Food Experience Curator

Alejandra Espinoza

Executive Chef and Owner Cotoa

Diego Oka

Executive Chef, La Mar by Gastón Acurio

Deborah de Corral

Chef

Ana De Sa Martins

Chef

Guillermo Eleicegui

Chef

Leicel Ros

Co-Founder & Chef Sili

Nancy Dominguez

Chef

Justing Garriga

Executive Chef Rosemary's

Program

Tuesday / April 14, 2026

09:00 am

Breakfast by Nespresso
10:30 am

Firechat Keynote /

Caracas Bakery, a story of origins, migration and memory

Jesús Brazón (Caracas Bakery), Nidal Barake (Moderator)

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Jesús Brazón shares the story of how deep culinary traditions travel across borders, evolve through migration, and become the foundation of celebrated local businesses. With Caracas Bakery as a case study, this keynote explores how Venezuelan bakery culture, itself shaped by waves of influence from Portugal, was reimagined in Miami’s multicultural environment. Jesús will reflect on how honoring tradition while adapting to a new place has enabled Caracas Bakery to become both a homage to its roots and a distinct contributor to Miami’s food landscape, illustrating how origins are not static but dynamic forces that travel, transform, and take shape in new communities.

Jesús Brazón (Caracas Bakery), Nidal Barake (Moderator)
11:30 am

Featured Keynote /

Origins as Knowledge: Territory, Culture, and the Meaning of Place

Virgilio Martínez (Central), Ryan King (Q&A)

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For Virgilio Martínez, origins are not a starting point, they are a system of understanding the world. In this keynote, the chef behind Central shares how decades of research across Peru’s ecosystems, communities, and altitudes have shaped a cuisine rooted in territory rather than tradition alone. Drawing from his work documenting biodiversity, ancestral knowledge, and the relationship between people and landscape, Virgilio explores how food can become a tool for cultural preservation, dialogue, and regeneration. This presentation reframes origins not as something to replicate, but as something to study, respect, and continuously reinterpret, offering a powerful perspective on how cuisine can express identity, responsibility, and place in a rapidly globalizing world.

Virgilio Martínez (Central), Ryan King (Q&A)
12:30 pm

Lunch by Resy
02:00 pm

Firechat Keynote /

How We Discover Restaurants Today

Pablo Rivero (Resy/Amex), Olivia Weidner (Cote), Ryan King (Moderator)

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The way people find restaurants has changed dramatically. What was once driven by word of mouth, neighborhood reputation, and critics is now shaped by technology, platforms, and digital communities that influence where and how we dine. In this conversation, Pablo Rivero, CEO of Resy/Amex, sits with a restaurant owner to explore how restaurants are discovered today, from the perspective of those who create them and those who help connect diners to them. Together they will discuss how culture, storytelling, data, and technology influence dining choices, how platforms shape visibility for restaurants, and how chefs navigate this new ecosystem while staying rooted in their culinary origins. This talk offers a look at how tradition, creativity, and technology intersect to define the modern restaurant landscape.

Pablo Rivero (Resy/Amex), Olivia Weidner (Cote), Ryan King (Moderator)
03:00 pm

Panel /

Designing a Restaurant's Identity

Teresa Gallina (Recoveco), Luciana Giangrandi (Boia De), Tiger Saliba (Bey Bey), Kaja Sajovic (Moderator)

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Origins don’t just influence chefs, they shape entire restaurants. From the initial idea and menu to service, design, and atmosphere, a restaurant is often a reflection of a founder’s background, experiences, and the cultures that have shaped them. This panel explores how personal and cultural origins are translated into successful restaurant concepts not by copying traditions, but by reinterpreting them. Through stories of migration, cross-cultural learning, and growth, the conversation reveals how founders build restaurants that feel authentic, relevant, and rooted, especially in a city like Miami, where food and identity are constantly evolving.

Teresa Gallina (Recoveco), Luciana Giangrandi (Boia De), Tiger Saliba (Bey Bey), Kaja Sajovic (Moderator)
04:00 pm

Keynote /

The Origins Manifesto by Fool Magazine

Lotta Jörgensen & Per-Anders Jörgensen (Fool Magazine), Ryan King (Q&A)

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In 2013, after publishing only two issues of Fool magazine from Malmö, Sweden, the team unexpectedly won “World’s Best Food Magazine” at the Gourmand Cookbook Awards with an issue themed Origins—a topic that has guided their work for fourteen years. Rather than following a strict theory, Fool explores food through stories about people, places, and traditions, from chefs preserving heirloom grains to communities protecting cultural ingredients and knowledge. Across its eight issues, the magazine developed a clear mission: questioning who gets to tell food stories, in what language, and whose voices are excluded. To stay closer to cultural sources, writers first publish in their native languages before being translated into English, bringing perspectives rarely heard internationally. Created in multicultural Malmö during the rise of the “pure” New Nordic cuisine movement, Fool instead focused on inclusion and cultural context, ultimately asking whether global culinary exploration represents true exchange - or simply another form of extracting origins.

Lotta Jörgensen & Per-Anders Jörgensen (Fool Magazine), Ryan King (Q&A)
04:45 pm

Happy Hour by Gluttonomy

Wednesday / April 15, 2026

09:30 am

Breakfast by Nespresso
10:30 am

Firechat Keynote /

From Humble Beginnings to Lasting Places. The story of Sunny's

Will Thompson (Sunny's)

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Every successful restaurant has an origin story, but not all origins are about place. In this keynote, Will Thomson reflects on the journey from opening a small, intimate bar in downtown Miami—Jaguar Sun—to building Sunny’s Steakhouse, one of the most talked-about restaurants in the U.S. Rather than focusing on scale or hype, the conversation explores the founding principles that shaped both projects: intention, restraint, hospitality, and long-term thinking. Through this evolution, Will shares how staying true to the original ideas behind Jaguar Sun allowed Sunny’s to grow into something bigger without losing its soul, showing how origins, when clearly defined, can become a blueprint for sustainable success.

Will Thompson (Sunny's)
11:30 am

Featured Keynote /

Identity as Innovation: Turning Roots Into Creative Power

Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster)

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In this keynote, followed by a conversation, Marcus Samuelsson explores how identity, migration, and memory shape not just flavor, but opportunity. Born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, and rooted in Harlem, Marcus has built a global culinary career by embracing the layers of his story. At Lengua, he will share how diaspora can be a source of creative power, how heritage informs innovation, and how restaurants can act as platforms for community, storytelling, and economic impact. From redefining American cuisine through Red Rooster to creating concepts that celebrate origin while scaling thoughtfully, Marcus will unpack what it means to turn roots into growth. This talk is about ownership, authenticity, and how the future of hospitality belongs to those who understand where they come from and use it to shape what’s next.

Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster)
12:30 pm

Lunch by Resy
02:00 pm

Panel /

From Origin to Innovation: Shaping the Future of premium brands

Carolina Cossu (Ethica Wines), James Pergola (Nespresso)

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Taste does not emerge in a vacuum, it is shaped by culture, ritual, place, and the shared moments that define how people gather and share. In this panel, leaders from Diageo, Ethica Wines, and Nespresso come together to explore the origins of taste and how they influence the evolution of premium brands across categories: from spirits and wine to coffee. The conversation will examine how global brands grow by understanding local drinking cultures, traditions, and consumer behaviors, translating them into products and experiences that resonate across markets. Rather than seeing innovation as disruption, this panel frames it as interpretation: the ability to transform cultural origins into brands, rituals, and categories that feel authentic, relevant, and rooted in place.

Carolina Cossu (Ethica Wines), James Pergola (Nespresso)
03:00 pm

Keynote /

The Generation That Invented the Modern Chef

Andrew Friedman (Andrew Talks to Chefs)

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Andrew Friedman’s keynote explores the origins of modern chef culture by revisiting the chaotic, creative, and rebellious decades that transformed cooking into a cultural force. Drawing from his book Chefs, Drugs & Rock & Roll, Friedman tells the story of the free spirits, outsiders, and misfits who, in the 1970s and 1980s, reinvented what it meant to be a chef. Through vivid stories and firsthand accounts, he traces how a generation of cooks broke away from rigid culinary traditions and built a new profession rooted in creativity, personality, and cultural change. What emerged from this era was the foundation of today’s restaurant world, where chefs became creative leaders, restaurants became cultural spaces, and cooking became a powerful expression of identity and community.

Andrew Friedman (Andrew Talks to Chefs)
03:20 pm

Panel /

The Making of Miami Cuisine

Mike Beltran (Ariete), Norman Van Aken (Norman's Orlando)

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South Florida cuisine did not emerge overnight, it was built over decades through migration, ingredients, adaptation, and cultural exchange. This conversation brings together two defining voices from different generations of Miami’s food scene to explore how the region’s culinary identity took shape and where it is headed next. From early expressions of New World and Latin-influenced cooking to today’s more self-aware, ingredient-driven restaurants, the panel examines how local products, immigrant communities, and evolving sensibilities have defined what “Miami food” really means.

Mike Beltran (Ariete), Norman Van Aken (Norman's Orlando)
04:00 pm

Happy Hour by Gluttonomy