Chef Matsuhisa began as a Shinjuku Sushi Chef in Japan. A customer invited him to open a restaurant in Peru and the chef took the risk. He later decided to give up Peru and move to Alaska were misfortune caused his restaurant to burn after a mere 50 days. Not one to give up easily, Chef Matsuhisa opened another restaurant. California was his chosen venue this time and the first Matsuhisa was born.

Currently, Chef Matsuhisa has 17 restaurants spread out across the world. They can be found in California, Colorado, London, Milan, New York, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Greece and Hong Kong. Each Nobu and Matsuhisa restaurant has wonderful food made from the heart and excellent service – factors that are a requirement for this chef.

Chef Matsuhisa is a very unassuming person. He doesn’t grandstand but he is considered by many the master of Nouveau Nipponese food. If you love Japanese food, you will definitely want to go to the nearest Nobu or Matsuhisa. Be sure to make your reservations as early as possible.

Although today she has won numerous accolades for being a fabulous pastry chef, Gale’s first claim to fame was a photograph taken for Life magazine when she was 6 years old, as she was making mud pies.

She’s the executive pastry chef at Tru, a fancy Chigago restaurant popular with connoisseurs, and holds the same position at Cenitare restaurants, LLC, and is polularly known as the lady who makes the best desserts in the city.

Aside from her tv show, Gale has been writing cookbooks since 1997, her sixth and latest one, entitled “Chocolate and Vanilla” is due out in bookstores later this year. Her awards are many and too long to mention, but needless to say, the unassuming Gale has won the praise and respect in the culinary world for her simple talent – creating the most dreamy desserts.
Next time you’re in Chicago, drop into her casual and scrumptuous pastry/coffee bar, simply called “Gale’s Coffee Bar”, and you may bump into Gale herself in another role she loves, this time as Mom with her son Gio and 2-year-old fraternal twin girls, Ella Nora and Ruby Grace. Those lucky kids are bound to be the hit at their future school bake sales.

“Chris’s illness made me realize that floating on foie gras and bathing in butter might not be in the best interest of my customers.”

This was back in 1994, and since then, Nischan has revolutionized cooking, creating a cuisine where the dishes are not just good for you and taste fantastic, but more imporatntly, the ingredients used are purely organic products.

A farmer’s son, Nischan was raised on the land, which laid the foundations for his organic understanding about food:

“I was raised to understand that the soul of a vegetable comes from the soil, and the rain is its life-blood…The food we grow and eat in the place we call home defines who we are and what we care about.” He says.

His career flourished through several successful restaurants in the Mid-west, until he shot to stardom when he introduced his new concepts of organic eating at the Heartbeat restuarant at the W Hotel in New York City in 1997.

Since then, Nischan has authored two groundbreakingcookbooks on the subject of organic eating – Homegrown Pure and Simple: Great Healthy Food from Garden to Table (2005) and Taste Pure and Simple: Irresistible Recipes for Good Food and Good Health (2003), which went on the New York Times Bestseller lists as well as win James Beard Foundation awards.

His clear vision, talent and know-how on organic eating has caught the attention of people everywhere, and Nischan has been a busy man indeed, making numerous television appearances, writing for newspapers and magazines, serving as board member for Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and The Global Environment, is one of the key organizers of the New American Farmers Initiative (NAFI), and he takes part in helping major food companies work on their issues on sustainable food systems. He also served as host chef for a dinner for the Dalai Lama.

More recently, Nischan has opened a retaurant with another organic food advocate, Paul Newman, “The Dressing Room – A Homegrown Restaurant” in Westport, Connecticut.

If there ever was a celebrity chef to remember for the 21st century, it would be Michel Nischan.

There is nothing as important as feeding our children. Yet food for kids isn’t exactly something that you see on TV everyday. In fact there are only a few people writing about it.

Enter Annabel Karmel. She is a household name in the UK. She is an inspirig person. She is not just a cook, she is also a mother which is why each of her recipes have been carefully tested against the best possible guage: her own kids.

Annabel Karmel studied at the Cordon Bleu school. It was the loss of her first child, Natasha, that she began to write. She believes that the one element that any parent can control that will help determine their health is what they eat. She began to create recipes that her son would enjoy eating yet still meet his dietary needs. The result: her first published book in 1991 titled The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner.

By no means though is she a homely, matronly looking mom. She may have 3 kids but she has kept physically active. She is a fun person who enjoys skiing, tennis and roller blading. She is also a musician and singer. In fact she has performed with Liberace, Denis Waterman, Queen Elizabeth and Boy George. The instrument she has performed on is the harp, though she also plays violin. She has also had a recording career.

To date she has several books under her belt. Her recipes are all kid friendly and are fun to make. If you have a fussy eater, try some of her recipes.

She has also been seen on TV as the Foodie Godmother on the Richard and Judy Show, BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen and BBC2’s Working Lunch.

Gary Rhodes first discovered a love for cooking at the age of thirteen. The delight of his family over the Sunday roast and steamed lemon pudding he prepared was the spark that lit his passion for the culinary art.

He trained at the Thanet technical college. After graduation he decided that he needed to expand his knowledge and increase his culinary skills, and figured the best way to do this was by travelling. He went off to Amsterdam where he worked as a commis chef at the Amsterdam Hilton.

He has worked as a sous chef at the Reform Club, Pall Mall, at the Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge and later in the Castle Hotel, Taunton in Somerset as the head chef. The Castle Hotel is where he truly began to make his mark, earning his first Michelin Star.

He moved to the Greenhouse Restaurant in Mayfair in 1990 where he earned his second Michelin Star. By this time his reputation was well established. He was already considered a master of the culinary art. He continued to bring a personal modern touch to classic traditional British favorite dishes.

Finally in 1997 he opened his own restaurant, City Rhodes and a year later Rhodes in the Square. Both establishments were awarded Michelin Stars. He later opened brasseries called Rhodes and Co. in Manchester, Edinburgh and Crawley. The first two were awarded the Michelin Bib – the award given to good moderately priced food.

His first appearance on TV was on the show Hot Chefs while he was 27. He has had numerous shows including Rhodes Around Britain and Gary’s Perfect Christamas. He has even hosted a show for kids with recipes based on Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes.
He also has several cookbooks to his name including Gary Rhodes’ Cookery Year: Spring into Summer and Gary Rhodes’ Cookery Year: Autumn into Winter.

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.