Meet The Team / Chris Dudley

Diane Campbell wore many hats before donning the metaphorical purple stovepipe to become the Willy Wonka of San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood: She was a cook, a fundraiser, and a marketer for a dot-com, among other things. Her passion, however, has always been candy. As a little girl growing up on Long Island, she used to buy big sacks of the sweet stuff from the supermarket, carry her haul home on her bike, and repackage the candy into goodie bags for her family and friends. She turned this lifelong love of candy into a career five years ago when she and her husband opened what has since become the city's premier sweet shop, known simply as The Candy Store.

Read more about Diane and The Candy Store after the jump...

Don't be fooled by the name; there's more to Clear River Pecan Company than nuts. Sure, owner John Dubea started out selling the rich, buttery bounty of the Texas state tree, but that was twenty-one years ago. Today, his business is a multifaceted dessert emporium, offering ice cream, pastries, fudge and whatever else your sweet tooth aches for, all made fresh daily. But this evolution hasn't altered Clear River's decidedly small town feel. From its 50's soda shoppe decor to its Main Street address, John Dubea has created a delicious sliver of bygone Americana deep in the heart of Texas.

Read on about John Zubea and his time warp treats after the jump.

Japanesse expats Mamoru Matsumoto and his wife Helen dreamed of opening their own business in Hawaii. It was a long, hard journey -- he started out peddling goods on a bicycle while Helen labored as a seamstress -- but it eventually happened. They opened their own grocery, M. Matsumoto Store Inc., in the historic town of Haleiwa in 1951. Following the birth of their three children, the couple decided it was time to expand. They settled on shave ice, which they believed would appeal to the growing number of hotrodders, surfers and hippies invading the North Shore. Their "snow cones" cascading with homemade syrups were instant hits, and the couple become local celebrities. They were living the American dream.

Following Mamoru's death in 1994, his son Stanley and wife Noriko took the reigns. This new guard ditched the groceries for T-shirts and souvenirs (to cater to the growing number of tourists), but kept the shave ice. And business is better than ever. Just ask Roxanne Lloyd, a loyal employee trusted to run the store on a day-to-day basis. We recently caught up with her to talk about shave ice and its many tangents, including David Hasselhoff, sumo wrestlers and the problem with paradise.

Read all about island girl Roxanne Lloyd and her frozen life after the jump.

Kris Furniss can pinpoint the exact moment he metamorphosed from Morgan Stanley money man to aspiring food world impresario. It was the week of 9/11. The Long Island bred boy had always loved food -- he confesses to reading Gourmet when he should have had his nose in the Wall Street Journal -- and was already looking for a career change. Furniss had worked in the Towers, and when they fell, he acted. Three days after the attack, he enrolled in culinary school. Today, Furniss owns and operates one of the Low Country's premier food retail boutiques with his wife Margaret in her native Charleston.

Read more about Kris Furniss and his South Carolina culinary creation after the jump.

The Big Springs region of the Missouri Ozarks has been designated as one of the "Last Great Places" by the Nature Conservancy, thanks in no small part to people like Nicola MacPherson. As owner of Ozark Forest Mushrooms, she's doing her part to preserve the unique ecology of the region while at the same time bringing its best culinary offerings to the masses. Her operation, run from a family-owned farm located along a picturesque, limestone ridge detour of Sinking Creek, grows shiitakes as nature intended: on logs, in the forest.

Read more about Ms. MacPherson's adventures in fungal farming after the jump.