In the culinary world, the most prestigious career option is to work as a head chef. The head chef is the highest position in the kitchen, and it can take incredible skill, hard work and lots of training to achieve that title. If you're willing to put in the time and work it takes to become a head chef, the role can be fulfilling as well as potentially lucrative. [...Read More]
Anthony Bourdain, Bobby Flay, and Jamie Oliver – the television chefs of our time are more popular than their pre-TV forerunners could ever have dreamed of becoming. Of course, the vast majority of chefs do not spend 80% of their time on television or writing books. To be quite honest, once someone has attended culinary arts school and obtained a qualification as a professional chef, his or her first job is normally to start at the bottom – as commis chef. In this article we will briefly examine what a job as a commis chef entails. [...Read More]
Paul Kahan has won more awards than most other chefs in the United States, but do not expect to find him on a glitzy TV show. This computer scientist-turned-chef, who won the coveted James Beard Award for best chef last year, is very shy of the limelight; instead, he prefers to concentrate on his family and the couple of top Chicago restaurants he manages with his partners. The list includes nationally known restaurants such as The Publican and Blackbird. [...Read More]
The executive chef at Union Hospital in Maryland, Gerald Ward, spent his childhood years in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania. He loved sports; he played basketball, baseball and football when he went to college. Somewhere along the line, however, he discovered his real passion: baking and cooking. The Cecil Daily, the oldest newspaper on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, recently interviewed the chef. When asked how he got started in the world of culinary arts, Ward replied that he attended a small college with one aim only: to play football. The college, however, had a baking class, which he enrolled for. It was about commercial baking and to his surprise he found that he enjoyed it immensely. [...Read More]
Chef Dale Miller, who currently lives in Clifton Park, New York grew up in Tribes Hill, Amsterdam. In 1985 he relocated to the Capital District after being offered a job as executive sous chef by Albany Marriott on Wolf Road. Miller, one of 68 Certified Master Chefs in the United States, is currently the president of Master Chef Consulting Group LLC. In a recent interview with the Troy Record, Miller was asked when he earned the coveted Certified Master Chef distinction. He answered that it happened 18 years ago, back in April 1996. Miller is also Global Master Chef certified by the World Association of Chefs; there are only 800 of these in the world right now. He also belongs to the American Academy of Chefs, which he describes as “a sort of honor society of the ACF”. [...Read More]
Nobody would ever dream of disputing the vital role women have played in the field of culinary arts in this country, or so it seemed until Time magazine caused a major commotion when it published a spread in November 2013 entitled Gods of Food. It was undoubtedly an ode to culinary professionals – but not a single female chef was included in the list. The ruckus had a ripple effect and next there were charts appearing in newspapers showing that there is a dearth of female representation at the country’s main food festivals. The New York Times joined the discussion in January, devoting a whole page in its dining section to the progress female chefs have made. [...Read More]
Michelle Obama, the country’s first lady, will soon lose Bill Yosses, her beloved executive pastry chef – and she should partly carry the responsibility for this. He revealed in a telephone interview a couple of days ago that she has nurtured his interest in the close relationship that exists between good health and good food. The chef, who prepared the Hawaiian chocolate-malted ganache when the French president was entertained at the White House, will now head to New York, where he will teach adults and children about the benefits of eating better. Yosses describes his move to New York as “a bittersweet decision.” [...Read More]
Representatives from one of the premier competitive teams on earth visited Milan, Ohio on Saturday, raising funds to train for a contest that will take place in January 2015. Precision, talent, focus, skill, and cooperative spirit…the American team members brought it all. What contest are these culinary experts headed to? The Bocuse d’Or, held in the French city of Lyon every two years. It was named in honor of renowned French chef Paul Bocuse and it has become one of the most prestigious cooking contests on earth; so famous that it is often referred to as ‘The Culinary Olympics’. [...Read More]
The British American Business Council Orange County stated in an announcement that this year’s commemoration of BritWeek will kick off on May 1st with A Magical Mystery Culinary Tour – a non-profit gala with a theme that celebrates half a century since the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th 1964. The gala will take place at the Hilton Hotel Anaheim and promises to be a sensory delight, with gourmet cuisine specially prepared and personally introduced by top-notch Orange County chefs from some of the most distinguished restaurants in the county. [...Read More]
With Women’s Day just behind us, it might be apt to celebrate some of the great women of our time who have changed the way we think about food forever. [...Read More]