Wylie Dufresne is known in the culinary world for his unique approach to cooking (”molecular gastronomy”) that combinies the science and art of making a perfect meal. Fascinating factoid: he was actually a philosophy major!

He recently guested on Top Chef, and granted an excellent one on one interview with his comments on each Top Chef contestant.

The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine tackles a well-known case of a three-star French chef commiting suicide in 2003, just after finishing the daily lunch service.

This elegy to Bernard Loiseau of La Cote d’Or was capably written by food journalist Chelminski. It chronicles Loiseau’s total lack of social skills, his bipolar personality, and his obsession with the Michelin Red Guide. It also talks about the intense competition and politics in the culinary world.

James Beard, considered by many as the Father of American Style cooking, would frown on the calorie counting. “A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.”

This could largely stem from his own eating habits. “In a time when serious cooking meant French Cooking, Beard was quintessentially American, a westerner whose mother ran a boardinghouse, a man who grew up with hotcakes and salmon and meatloaf in his blood,” says one food writer.

It didn’t hurt him. He died at the ripe old age of 81 after a full life, and with a full tummy.

Most men won’t bother trying to be poetic. “She’s Yummy!” they say, of celebrity chef / supermodel / goddess Padma Lakshmi. But they also notice her scar — though the story behind it makes her more beautiful. She got it in a car accident she experienced when she was 14. The wreck was so severe that they had to use the “Jaws of Life” to get her out of the car. When she woke up, she had a 7-inch long scar on her arm.

She was very conscious of the scar and even practiced a pose in the mirror that would let her hide it under her hand and thumb. “But I also knew my scar was a symbol of my survival,” she said.

Many people thought the scar marred what otherwise would’ve been perfect beauty. “Such a shame,” said strangers, “she could have modeled.” When she starred in a college play, the director had the scar hidden under makeup. Later discovered by “Elle” magazine during a trip to Spain, she also hid the scar under makeup — or had it Photoshopped. Microdermabrasion was too painful.

However, photographer Helmut Lang taught her to see the scar as something beautiful. “When he caught a glimpse of my arm, he shrieked, “What have you done?” “Didn’t they tell you about my scar?” I began to panic. “Yes, yes,” he answered, “but why have you erased a part of it? You’ve ruined the beauty of it.”

Today, Padma says she “loves thes car, because it is part of me.”

Chef Tell — one of America’s first TV chefs — passed away from heart failure at the age of 63.

Born Friedman Paul Erhardt, Chef Tell was beloved for his quick wit and Santa-like disposition. He was friendly, fun, and “peppered” his recipe demonstrations with humor and lots of entertainment.

He was often invited to guest on shows like Regis and Kathie Lee and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and even did comedy segments for Saturday Night Live and The Muppet Show. He was given his own show with PBS. “He was the first of the great showman chefs,” former Inquirer restaurant critic Elaine Tait said. “Up until his era, chefs stayed in the kitchen.”

Tell also ran several successful restaurants, and had developed several cookbooks and product lines. His last cookbook was about cooking for diabetics, based on his own experience.

James Martin’s culinary career started very early — by 12 years old, he’d cooked for the Queen Mother. (Well, it helps that his dad catered for Castle Howard.)

He started training when he was 16, training at Scarborough before Antony Worrall Thompson became his mentor. The two then traveled around France, before opening the Hotel and Bistro du Vin in Winchester. He was 22. Pressure was high. Did he buckle? Never. In fact, he changed the menu every day.

He’s become a well known TV Chef, starring in popular shows like Delicious! and Jamies Martin Sweet. Now, he’s part of Saturday Kitchen which airs on BBC.

Known for his desserts, he published James Martin - Desserts in Spring 2007. Here he shares his recipe for spun sugar:

1. Place 125g/4½oz caster sugar in a pan
2. Pour in just enough cold water to cover.
3. Heat until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has turned light caramel in colour.
4. Using a fork, carefully pull out the sugar threads from the pan and shape over the back of a ladle or large spoon.
5. When hardened, gently ease off into ball shapes. Repeat with the remaining caramel.

How well do you think you know Martha Stewart? Find her unusual taste in wall decor, her two alternative careers, and the awards she received that had nothing to do with cooking.

1. Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray hate each other, thanks to a heated feud that started in 2006. Rumor has it that Rachael hung a sign on her door that says: “Martha doesn’t live here.”

2. Martha collects taxidermied animals.

3. Martha set the Guiness record for most number of people with the same name in the same room, thanks to an episode in her show when she invited hundreds of “other Marthas” .

4. Though she can perfectly pair her wine with her dish, her favorite drink is a vodka martini.

5. People magazine named Martha one of “50’s Most Beautiful Women” in 1996. Not her first magazine award: she was one of Glamour’s “Best Dressed College Girls of 1961.” (She begun modeling in high school to put herself through college.) She graduated from Barnard.

6. If she didn’t start her media empire, Martha would’ve made a fortune in Wall Sreet. She was one of the first female stock brokers, getting her license in 1968.

Before Food Network, before celebrity chefs were even a million-dollar brand, there was Julia Child. She was the food guru, and many a housewife made her cookbook their kitchen bible. (To the gratitude of their well-fed husbands.)

Now, her life will be made into a movie, starring no less than Meryl Streep. It will be directed by Nora Ephron, and will be based on Julie Powell’s book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.

Julie was a fan who made it her mission to try every single recipe Child ever made, but the renowned chef would have nothing to do with her and never returned her calls. “I’m just not interested,” she said in one of her final interviews.

Maybe having Oscar-winner Meryl Streep portray her will make her feel a little better.

A lot of cooks would agree that the use of wine in some meals have added a certain spice in making them sought after. Such can be attributed towards the contributions of Chef John Ash, an internationally recognized chef, educator and author. His continued work and application of wine towards cuisine and his evident mastery for winery has been his obvious trademark that has brought him towards world wide prominence.

John is known to hold various classes and teaches culinary schools and institutions with regards to the tricks of the proper use of wine for culinary meals. Majority of his known reliability has been attributed towards the wine industry and such has been something that has continued to push him up towards fame and fortune.

He has published two books, namely American Game Cooking in 1991 and From the Earth to the Table: John Ash�s Wine Country Cuisine in 1996. The latter book was awarded the Julia Child Award for Best Cookbook in 1996 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Technorati Tags: wine, cuisine, recipes, game, birds, culinary

Cooking is best practiced if it has been something that was experienced from the start especially during childhood. Such is the story of one of the glamorous personalities to grace TV cooking shows in the mold of Silvana Franco. Franco trained as a chef at High Peak College in Buxton and obtained a degree in Home Economy at South Bank University.

Silvana started out writing for BBC Worldwide in its Vegetarian Good Food Magazine. She made this her cup of tea until she was elevated to a senior writer. She soon graced the TV sets for such shows as Gourmet Express 2, Ready Steady to Cook and Two�s Saturday Kitchen. But despite her continuous rise to stardom, she never let go of her writing which include that of Can�t Cook, Won�t Cook, Ainsley�s Big Cook Out and Friends for Dinner.

She also runs a food media company called Fork, proof of her continued love and loyalty in the field of cooking.

Technorati Tags: cookbook, chefs, tv shows, vegetarian