If you have to ask who Ted Allen is, then I think you may not be following your celebrity chef world as much as you should! Or maybe you’re new to this world…in any case, take a quick look at that photo and you should instantly recognize the face behind the name. I suppose the most common association would be Iron Chef America, for Ted Allen has been appearing as a judge regularly on that show.

So who is Ted Allen? How did he become famous? What does he do?

As I mentioned, he is a regular in Iron Chef America, but he actually started out as one of the guys in Queer Eye for a Straight Guy. He’s also made regular appearances in Top Chef. His career has skyrocketed like a firecracker on the 4th of July and he has now two shows on The Food Network: Food Detective and Chopped.

More than his busy schedule on the boob tube, Ted Allen also has his hands full with writing gigs. He has been contributing to the magazine Esquire. He used to be a food critic and editor.

He does have a lot on his plate, and he has degrees to back everything up too! He has a Bachelors in Psychology (Purdue University) PLUS a Masters in Journalism (New York University). Ted Allen is not just your run-of-the-mill food critic or cooking show judge – he adds a plus factor to everything he touches. For more of Ted Allen, watch out for those shows I mentioned above.

Born on March 29, 1964, Ming Tsai was never a stranger to great food. His family owned a restaurant called the Mandarin Kitchen in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Ming Tsai worked alongside his parents gaining valuable experience.

Ming Tsai has a degree in mechanical engineering from Yale. He also holds a masters degree from Cornell University where he studied Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing. He studied under renowned Pastry Chef Pierre Herme in Paris and he later studied with Sushi Master Kobayashi in Osaka between earning his two degrees.

Ming Tsai had been exposed to East West cooking when he was in Paris. He gained more exposure to it when he worked at Silks, the Mandarin Oriental San Francisco’s east west restaurant, as a sous chef. Later he moved to Palo Alto, California where he served as the executive chef of the Ginger Club before moving again. This time he moved to Santa Fe to serve as executive chef of the Santacafe where he was honored as best chef.

Ming Tsai and his wife Polly now own their own restaurant, the Blue Ginger in Wellesley Massachusetts. It has earned many awards including three stars from the Boston Globe and Ming Tsai was honored 2002 Best Chef Northeast by the James Beard Foundation.

Ming Tsai has written three cookbooks. Blue Ginger East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai made it to the Food and Wine Magazine top 25 best cookbooks of 1999. His second book Simply Ming was published in 2003 and his third book Ming’s Master Recipes was released in 2004.

Ming Tsai first appeared on TV via the Food Network where he hosted the show East Meets West. The show won him an Emmy in 1998. Currently he hosts and produces the TV cooking show Simply Ming which was awarded the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award in 2005. You can also watch him on his other show, Ming’s Quest.

Ming Tsai is also a founding member of Chefs for Humanity, a charity organization created in response to the needs of those devastated by the tsunami in 2005. They organize fund raising and relief activities for those in need around the world.

Back in the 90’s, I remember flopping down on the sofa at my flat after a day of college classes, ready to be entertained by Ready Steady Cook and Ainsley Harriot.

I have to admit that the recipes didnt look as tasty as the ones you see today whipped up by Nigella or Jamie, but the sheer entertainment factor – perhaps also the silly concept of two teams (one ordinary person each, unless it was a Celeb episode) called the Red Tomatoes vs the Green Peppers racing against the clock to cook in 20 minutes, with limited ingredients and one “famous chef” each to help (Aisley being one of them), it was television at its most couch-potato enducing.

In those days, Ready Steady Cook was hosted by the rotund Fern Britton, who was replaced by Ainsley (who stole all the attention anyway – Fern just sort of waddled from one cooking station to another) in 2000. As I moved from the UK in 1997, I was quite surprised that the show was still alive and kicking on BBC 2 in the same timeslot.

And after a bit more research, I found out that some changes had been made, in addition to Ainsley’s move from chef to presenter. One was that the food budget had been raised from the �5 if a Bistro bag (�7) or Gourmet bag (�10) was used. Sensible, as I dont think 5 quid can buy you much in London these days. Also, the show’s length had been upped to a lengthy 45 minutes!

What hasn’t changed is the studio audience voting with those giant flashcards with either a red tomato or a green pepper, or the grand prize, which remains at 100 quid TWELVE years later.

Technorati Tags: Ready Steady Cook, Ainsley Harriott, BBC2, Cooking show UK

When I first saw Alton Brown’s show, “Good Eats” some years ago, he didn’t strike me as a chef, and had as much “celeb” in him as that fish you see on the picture above. Bespectacled and always clad in those Florida-esque loose short-sleeved shirts, Alton may not have the silkiness of Wolfgang or the pukka charm of Jamie, but his shows are by far the most interesting and well-informed.

In fact, Alton Brown won’t just give you the recipes to the typical yummy-looking dishes, you’ll learn about the ingredients, the alchemy and the cookware used too. Top that off with a little history, more trivia and Alton’s dry sense of humour, and you’ve got one great show, uniquely Alton Brown’s.

Alton started off as a cinematographer and video director (which you can see through the unique way his shows are shot and edited), but decided to pursue his real passion (food!), when he saw the lack of “good” cooking shows on television at the time. Remember the video of REM’s “The One I Love“? Alton was the director of photography.

He enrolled at the New England Culinary Institute to learn the fundamentals of cooking, finishing in 1997. In July of 1998, the pilot of Good Eats made its debut, and has been going steadily strong to this day, most popularly known for its quirky references to pop culture, where Alton dresses up and makes us giggle, while making some very good points on food and cookware too.

Technorati Tags: Alton Brown, Chef, Good Eats, Recipes

Bam! Kick it up a notch and Pork fat Rules! are just a few of the catch phrases of Emeril Lagasse. His light and fun style of hosting his TV shows has made him a very popular chef/host. He began with then new cable station, Food Network, in 1993 with the show “How to Boil Water”. Now he has two shows, “The Essence of Emeril” and “Emeril Live!” plus he is the food correspondent of “Good Morning America”.
Emeril Lagasse received a full scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music but his heart was in a different medium – Food. Not surprising since he began learning about cooking at a very young age from his mother. In his teens he worked in a Portuguese bakery till he went off to College at the Johnson and Wales University to earn his degree in the culinary arts. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate degree by his alma matter.

Emeril Lagasse traveled to France and polished his skills in French cuisine before coming home. He worked in fine restaurants in New York, Boston and Philadelphia before he moved to New Orleans to become the executive chef of the Commander’s Palace for eight years.

In 1990 he opened his first restaurant, Emeril’s, in New Orleans. The following year he was awarded the James Beard Award for Best Southeast chef. In 19920 he opened his second restaurant, Nola. He currently has nine restaurants in the United States situated in New Orleans, Miami, Orlando and Atlanta.

Aside from being a chef, restaurateur and TV personality and host Emeril Lagasse has authored 11 Cookbooks. The first was “New” New Orleans Cooking and the latest is Emerils Delmonico.

He also has a line of high quality stoneware with Wedgweood, a line of seasonal produce, lettuces and herbs with Pride fo San Juan and a line of clogs with Sanita clogs of Denmark.

He also established the Emeril Lagasse Foundation in 2002. Its mission is “inspire, mentor and enable all young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential as productive and creative individuals” . It is another dream fulfilled for him since he has always wanted to enrich children’s lives. Truly he kicks things up more than a notch.

The thing I like best about The Too Hot Tamales is that they are both so darn likeable. Their show, The Too Hot Tamales, was one of the first cooking shows I ever saw on television, and they just seemed more entertaining to me than say, Jacques Pepin or the Frugal Gourmet, whom I also fondly remember from that era before the Celeb Chef was born.

Both women first met in at Chicago’s distinguished kitchen of Le Perroquet, the first women ever to work in the reknowned restaurant. Feniger then went on to L.A at Wolfgan Puck’s Ma Maison, and Milliken in Paris at the Restaurant d’Olympe in Paris. Feniger later moved to France as well, working at L’Oasis, a three star restaurant on the French Riviera.

In 1981 they finally joined forces by opening the humble City Cafe on L.A’s Melrose Avenue. The city grew to become CITY, a large operation inspired by the world’s exotic flavours, which made a huge impact on the Los Angeles dining scene.

In 1994, Border Grill opened, which was quickly touted as one of the forty best restaurants by the LA Times, won the prestigious IVY Award 1997, and was called of the best restaurants in America by Gourmet Magazine.

Technorati Tags: Too Hot Tamales, Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger, Border Grill

Last year over 400,000 people asked from reservations at El Bulli, Ferr�n Adri�’s restaurant just outside Barcelona. I’m not sure how many actually got a table, but as the famous restaurant is only open 6 months of the year, it couldn’t have been all of them.

And its not surprising, because in 2006 it was awarded top position as the world’s best restaurant. “El Bulli” rose from 2nd to 1st postion this year in the “Restaurant Top 50″, booting The Fat Duck in England from the top of the prestigious list.

All this fuss is because of the “Salvador Dali of the kitchen”, culinary genius Ferr�n Adri� who has brought unexpected creativity to his food. His inventive use of “culinary foam” and “molecular gastronomy” and play on texture and flavour are what makes him an alchemist-chef (which is actually his goal), and one who definitely has a sense of humour and irony too.

Born in Spain in 1962, Ferran began as a dishwasher in the party isle of Ibiza, and laid his roots in traditional Spanish cooking. He joined El Bulli in 1982, and transformed it into an unknown eatery into what is now what gourmets call the best restaurant in the world with no less than 3 Michelin stars.

El Bulli opens from April to September each year, leaving Ferran to use the rest of his time to travel for inspiration, research and for experimenting and perfecting new ideas at his workshop in Barcelona, El Taller.

Art Smith — who has been Oprah’s personal chef for nearly a decade — may find himself working in the White House kitchen.

In this article, he said that he had been tapped by Barack Obama to do his catering.

So what’s Mr. Smith’s appeal? Well, he has won two James Beard Foundation awards, released two cookbooks (Back to the Table and Kitchen Life). Other clients include former Governors of Florida, Bob Graham and Jeb Bush as well as Brazilian artist Romero Britto.

Meet one of the contestants of Top Chef — Radhika Desai (right), executive chef of Between Boutique Café & Lounge.

Expect her to show her mastery of spices, which (she says) she combines with “grace and restraint.”

Chefs aren’t easily impressed, but hands down, many of them agree that Raymond Blanc is one of the best. The man behind Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons has proven his mettle as a restaurateur, hotelier and businessman. He is also one of the key influences in French cuisine and reinvented many of its classic dishes. “I just want to show the beauty of the flavour and texture… even when I peel a carrot, I think how to produce the flavour better,” he says.

His first foray into the kitchen wasn’t automatically successful, though. When he was 17 he tried to impress his mother by making a crêpe suzette. But he used a glass dish instead of a frying man, and ended up blowing up the glass and smearing the kitchen with caramel.

But despite that accident his love for cooking returned when he looked through a restaurant window and saw a chef flambé a sea bass.

From there he climbed up the ladder, starting as a dishwasher, then a waiter, training under chefs and working double time to save for his own restaurant. He opened Les Quat’ Saisons in Oxford when he was 28 years old. He also has his own show, The Restaurant.