12 ASHFER BIJU: Culinary Artist, Executive Chef at The Pierre New York

In today’s conversation, Andy talks with Ashfer Biju, the executive chef and food and beverage director at the iconic The Pierre, A Taj Hotel in New York City, responsible for all things culinary. To Ashfer, however, he’s more than his official job title; he’s a self-proclaimed “crafter of perishable art.”

After growing up in a small fishing town in India, Ashfer discovered his passion for food as a child and was driven to share his love with others ever since. With his entire family working in the restaurant industry in some fashion, Ashfer quickly dove into the hospitality industry and helped launch a vegetarian restaurant in India when he was only 18. He studied hospitality and pursued a degree at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California. Soon after, Ashfer traveled to open restaurants around the world, from Berkeley to Mauritius and the Maldives. By 2009, when he had already opened numerous hotels and restaurants, the time for Ashfer to move to New York City had come.

Not surprisingly, Manhattan ended up being far more than the mere short-term piece of a working travel circuit as he’d expected; Ashfer found his calling in what he considers one of the three “maximum food cities” of New York, London, and Hong Kong. Extending beyond his current work at The Pierre, Ashfer and Andy delve into the “extreme form of art” that is food, the importance of food’s personalization in weddings, why food is an experience at heart, and even why turmeric is “the next kale.”

After their conversation, Andy had the opportunity to experience Ashfer’s food firsthand through a tasting at Perrine in The Pierre. Read about his experience below the links.

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11 COLIN COWIE: Creating Groundbreaking Luxury Experiences

Colin Cowie is a top designer for all things weddings—as well as galas, charitable events, corporate and destination celebrations. He’s beloved by the likes of Oprah, Jerry Seinfeld, Elton John, Michael Jordan, Bruce Willis, Jennifer Aniston, and countless other A-list celebrities.

Ever since Colin arrived in Los Angeles from Kitzwe, Zambia at the height of apartheid in 1985, his professional life has soared. While teaching cooking lessons at age 23, he met a woman whose chance encounter soon led to his first wedding assignment for a local bachelor: Hugh Hefner.

Thirty-one years of parties, weddings, and multi-day events later, he’s never created the same event twice.

The degree to which Colin cares for and personalizes his work is not just unmatched, it’s nearly indescribable, and precisely why he’s consistently relied upon by the most discerning of clientele. He learns everything there is to know about his clients, over hors d’oeuvres and champagne, until the event he crafts (and the journey on which he takes his clients to get there) is not just perfectly tailored, but permanently unique. When he isn’t designing weddings and Fortune 500 parties, Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball or Guinness Book of World Records-breaking pyrotechnic shows abroad, Colin works as “creator-director” for elite brands like NetJets, Dom Pérignon, and Bergdorf Goodman; even private islands.

Idyllic as Colin’s life may sound, and so often is, he and Andy extend their conversation today beyond the exclusive glamour of the luxury events industry to the unseen challenges once faced in the midst of the great recession, Colin’s daily routines (from meditation and “I am” statements to nightcaps), professional strategies, and the critical value of humility and gratitude.

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10 JOANNE BROWN: Queen Of Caribbean Destination Weddings

When planning a dream-come-true wedding on an island getaway, only one name immediately comes to mind: JoAnne Brown. In this week’s conversation, Andy talks to the go-to planner for weddings in the Cayman Islands and beyond.

Even before she dominated the destination wedding world, JoAnne was fittingly immersed in the tropics. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, with a mother born in the Caymans and a father who launched Appleton Rum in Jamaica, JoAnne adored helping others from the start. She’d decorate everything from birthday parties to her friends’ Christmas trees, as long as she was designing something that would bring joy to a family she’d come to know. Before long, a friend asked JoAnne to decorate and plan her wedding locally; from there, momentum grew by word-of-mouth until she could no tackle the work independently out of her front living room.

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9 ANDY MARCUS: A Life in Wedding Photography

As the second of three generations to uphold the Fred Marcus Studio brand, Andy Marcus has grown into his status as one of the rare few wedding photography legends, with his son, Brian, poised to carry the legacy forward. In Andy’s nearly 50 years of work in the industry, he’s photographed the weddings of Eddie Murphy, Kelsey Grammer, Mick Jones, Mary Tyler Moore, several of the Trumps, Princess Yasmin Aga Kahn, Billy Baldwin, Marvin Davis and more.

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8 BILL SPINNER: Director of Sales & Catering at The Pierre New York

An icon of the hospitality industry, Bill Spinner was literally born into it—as a young man, he first learned what it means to make people’s experiences special by doing everything that needed to be done at his family’s restaurant and inn. Today, Bill is in his 20th year at The Pierre New York, where he’s Director of Sales and Catering. In that time he’s worked with celebrities, socialites, heads of state and CEOs, and he applies that same care to weddings hosted at The Pierre.

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