Celebrity Chefs

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Everyday With Rachael Ray

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If there is one celebrity chef who is getting major media exposure, it is Rachael Ray. This non-traditional (read not a professional chef or trained in a culinary school) cook went from teaching shoppers a few basic recipes in a cooking demo class to having multiple shows on the Food Network, books and Magazine. You can literally spend everyday with Rachael Ray though it isn’t likely to be in person through these sources.

Her magazine, Everyday With Rachael Ray, is a very useful resource. The recipes included aren’t just a list of ingredients and instructions. Each one has pictures as well so that you know what your finished product is supposed to look like. There are recipes for kids, 30 minute meals, meals for cooking once a month with friends and easy to prepare meals. Just a little something for everybody.

The magazine and its contents are just like Ray herself. It is fun, easy to read and understand. The recipes are easy to follow and result in delicious meals that don’t take forever to make or any major cooking skills.

Originally posted on March 10, 2007 @ 8:04 pm

Chef Rob Feenie cuts off ties from restaurants

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Rob Feenie

Celebrity chef, and 2005 winner of the Iron Chef America competition, has resigned from his restaurants in Vancouver — Lumiere and Feenie’s.

Rob Feenie’s troubles with the restuarant owners have spanned over two years, ever since he was forced by bankruptcy to sign over majority stakeholdership. (He’d spent over a million dolars upgrading the kitchen and paying off his original business partner.)

However, new management has been easing him off, finally minimizing his say over the menu, marketing, and the kitchen operations. Feenie had enough. After a goodbye drink and shaking hands with his staff, he’s cut off all ties with the two restaurants.

You just don’t treat chefs that way. Feenie, a culinary giant in Canada, has authored several cookbooks, hosted cooking shows, and won several awards. Shame on them all.

Originally posted on November 3, 2007 @ 9:45 pm

Carrying on Traditions with Chef Cesare Casella

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Taking his cue from the family business Chef Cesare Casella enrolled at the Culinary Institute Ferdinando at the age of fourteen. After graduation, he applied his knowledge to their family restaurant which eventually became a famous regional destination spot. After some time, all of Chef Casella�s work had paid dividends, attracting various personalities who have acknowledged his fascinating dishes that have become a signature trademark for him.

Chef Cesare Casella

His rise to stardom started to accumulate by the year as he was eventually named the Executive Chef of Coco Pazzo that produced sister restaurants Il Toscanaccio. But seeing that he should also find security for his talent, he opened his own New York Restaurant in 2001, Beppe and in Maremma in 2005.

He has also written three books, Diary of a Tuscan Chef, Italian Cooking for Dummies and True Tuscan. He has also appeared in various food networks where he showcases his unique style of cooking that has been acknowledged worldwide.

[tags]celebrity chefs, italian dishes, italian food[/tags]

Originally posted on March 18, 2007 @ 1:25 am

Kitchen Confidential

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If you are looking for something light to read, check out Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Written by New York Chef Anthony Bourdain, the book was a bestseller when it first came out in 2000 and it is still an interesting read now. Originally written as an expose of what really goes on in the restaurant business, the book is funny and entertaining. If you’re expecting a cookbook, this isn’t the book to read.

There are some fascinating and quite important tips included in the book. For example, do not order the fish on Mondays since this usually isn’t fresh but 4 day old stock. He also mentions that some establishments do recycle their unused bread.

Kitchen Confidential though also talks about something that most people forget. Professional cooking isn’t an easy task. It is work, and sometimes hard work at that. The book talks about what the life of a cook is really like – not the glamorized version we see on TV. This book reminds us that there are many people behind the scenes who put together the meals we all love.

This book is better than any reality TV cooking show if you want entertainment and learn something about the restaurant business. It is now available in paperback in stores.

Originally posted on February 8, 2007 @ 11:08 pm

The Barefoot Contessa

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I never did get to visit Ina Garten‘s hotbed of gastronomic delights, the Barefoot Contessa in the Hamptons, but judging from her show, her cookbooks and now online shop of foodie goodies, Ina is a celeb chef a head above the rest whose been sung praises by giants like Martha and Oprah.

But more than that, what I like best about Ina is her genteel, graceful manner, her flair for effortlessly stylish eating and simple, country-chic food.

Unlike a lot of celeb chefs, Ina was not formally schooled in the culinary sense, did not start her career as a lowly dishwasher, nor did she apprentice under some sullen uber-chef of the 80’s. In fact, she first got truly inspired during a 3-month long camping trip in France in the 70’s, when she was exposed to the country’s love for the elegantly fresh food. The rest she learned from cookbooks like you and me.

While working in the White House on nuclear energy policy, Ina decided to make a drastic change. She bought a small store in the Hamptons (a place that was completely alien to her) called the Barefoot Contessa.

Twenty years later, the humble food specialty store grew into a 3,000 sq.feet veritable food emporium where people came from far and wide to buy Ina’s fabulous home-cooked meals, baked goods, condiments, salads and breads.

She sold the business to her employees in 2001 (which numbered to nearly 50), who sold it themselves in 2003. Good news though – you can now buy Ina’s goodies online at the Barefoot Contessa Pantry, put together in conjunction with the Stonewall Kitchen.

[tags]Ina Garten,Barefoot Contessa,Entertaining,Recipes,Food[/tags]

Originally posted on October 14, 2006 @ 8:07 pm