Ben Bebenroth

Chef Ben Bebenroth is the founder and CEO of Spice Catering + Events and the founder of Boom's Pizza. He graduated in the top 10 of his class at Johnson & Wales in Charleston, South Carolina, with honors in 2004, after winning the university's national "Taste Down Under" cooking contest.

By 2006 he was back in Ohio, launching Spice Catering Co. In 2012 he opened Spice Kitchen + Bar, a farm-to-table trendsetter named Best New Restaurant in 2013, and in 2014 he started Spice Acres, a 13-acre farm in Cuyahoga Valley National Park that grew produce for his kitchens. In 2016 he founded the nonprofit Spice Field Kitchen to teach students agriculture, cooking and nutrition through a STEM-based curriculum. After the 2020 pandemic lockdown he closed Spice Kitchen + Bar after eight years and created Boom's Pizza, whose first shop in Lakewood was named Best New Restaurant of 2023; it has since opened at Van Aken and in Solon. A Marine Corps veteran, he leads his food companies with a culture of accountability and radical candor.