John Batchelor is a freelance writer who has been the Food Critic for Greensboro News and Record for more than 30 years. He is the founding judge for the Fire on the Rock Chefs' Challenge. This year, he also created the scoring sheets for the preliminary competitions.

Susan Dosier is a native North Carolinian hailing from tiny Sparta, North Carolina. Today, as Public Relations Director for LKM (a full-service advertising and public relations agency in Charlotte), she works on accounts such as North Carolina Tourism, the North Carolina Wine & Grape Council, and EUE/Screen Gems. Prior to joining LKM, Susan spent 20 years in the publishing industry; most of those years were spent at Southern Living magazine. When she left the magazine in 2006, she was the executive editor for food and entertaining and helped manage and plan the magazine’s content across the board as well as directing the magazine’s test kitchen and foods staff. While her children were young, Susan owned the Susan Dosier Company, a food communications, spokesperson and event company with clients such as Healthy Choice, the National Pork Board, and Cooking Light magazine. She is the co-author of Discover Dinnertime: Your Guide to Family Time Around the Table (a cookbook) and three books for school age children featuring historical recipes.

Natalie Kelly Brown is an Assistant Food Editor with Southern Living magazine for the last 2 1/2 years. Natalie has a B.A. in Communications from the University of Alabama and prior to joining Southern Living was a Senior Quality Assurance Analyst with a major computer software company for over 10 years. She has always had a passion for baking, and decided to back to school to fulfill that dream. After completing an Associates degree in Pastry Arts and Confections from Culinard, Natalie was hired at Southern Living and was able to combine her love for food and writing. She has been a judge at the 2007 National Cornbread Cook-Off in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and also a judge for the Nature Cakes Bake-Off at the Moss Rock Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.

Carla is the chef and owner of Alchemy Caterers in Washington DC. Recently a finalist on Bravo's Top Chef series, she gained national recognition for her blend of Southern and French cuisine. She enjoys creating memorable comfort dishes with fresh, seasonal and local ingredients. Carla approaches each event as an opportunity to make a connection with the client and to change the way they experience food. She always has good European butter, Couverture chocolate, bacon, heavy cream, olive oil - pomace and extra virgin - on hand and pies are one of her favorite things to make.