culinary education. david burke was educated at the culinary institute of america. burke went on to perfect his skills with french chefs pierre troisgros, georges blanc and gaston lenotre. …

Source: http://henryv.blog-giant.com/2009/08/03/david-burke-chef/

Voiles NewsEditions Glénat – Quenn Mary 2, une croisière gastronomique par Jean Sébastien …Voiles NewsIl a travaillé plusieurs années aux fourneaux avec Joël Robuchon, Michel Rostang, Michel Kenever et Gaston Lenôtre

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.voilesnews.fr%2Ffr%2Finfo_21_22683.html&usg=AFQjCNHA0TBMUPUZsiFTpftoz6_cJuIhiA

Michel Richard is a rarity: a French chef in the United States who is as concerned about diet as he is about flavor. Of course, after working with Michel Guerard, the father of ‘cuisine minceur,’ at Eugenie-les-Bains, he’s convinced that the two concerns need not be mutually exclusive.

“There is definitely a French tradition that is based on fresh flavors,” says the chef-owner of the chic California-style Citronelle in Washington, D.C. “We use the term ‘pointu,’ meaning they have an edge that enlivens them. The minute you add butter and cream, that changes, and the honest flavors are dulled.”

Richard’s cuisine is vibrant with flavor, as anyone who has tasted his Muscovy duck with Pinot Noir and bacon sauce, his chicken ravioli with herb sauce, or his sauteed salmon with beet sauce and green beans, will attest. In fact, many body-conscious Californians would be surprised to know that Richard got his start, and still excels, not in carrot sticks but in French pastry.

Entranced by his first sight of a professional kitchen when he was only 8 (“The white hats and aprons and all of the food — I fell in love!”), Richard is a classically trained chef from Rheims in the Champagne district in France. Richard worked first with dessert master Gaston Lenotre. In 1975 he traveled to New York with Lenotre to open a pastry shop. Then he spent a decade in Los Angeles running his own pastry shop, making his signature light desserts. Eventually, he opened Citrus, where he serves the same sort of desserts, plus a complete menu to match. And then on to Citronelle, his signature restaurant in Washington, D.C. There have been more honors than you could count, including four AAA diamonds, four Mobil stars, listing by Gourmet as one of the top 20 restaurants in the U.S. — on top of his California awards which included “Best Chef, California,” from the James Beard Foundation. Central Michel Richard, also located in the Capital, is another incarnation of his aesthetic, encouraging conversation and relaxation over excellent food. He's also opened in Carmel.

“I was tired of hearing how French food is heavy,” he said. “And I was tired of seeing the French open the same restaurants here as they would in France.”

Richard wanted his restaurant to be classy but not stuffy, and the light, bright decor mirrors both the name of the place and the style of the cooking. His cooking is mostly done without using butter, cream, or flour, yet even the sauces are smooth and substantial, their consistency achieved with herb and vegetable purees. Guilt-free desserts are offered, although Richard also turns out more decadent pleasures. The idea is not one of deprivation, Richard insists, but of moderation. “You have to adapt to the lifestyle of your customer,” he says. “This is not Normandy.”
 

Selected by Food & Wine magazine as one of America’s “Best New Chefs” in and by Esquire magazine’s restaurant critic John Mariani as one of “America’s New Chefs to Watch in 1995, Pascal Oudin set new standards on the South Florida regional American culinary map.

Born in Moulin, France, Oudin perceived his training in the great kitchens of France, under the guidance of the three-star Michelin luminaries Roger Verge, Alain Ducasse, Gaston Lenotre, and Joseph Rostang.

Oudin modified the way Florida and the new world cuisine are perceived by combining his French cooking techniques with the tropical ingredients and ethnic influences of the region. Accolades have followed. The Wine Spectator said of Oudin’s cooking that it “has achieved a delicate balance of tastes and textures, one that many other Florida chefs might well copy.” The Grand Cafe was honored by South Florida magazine as one of the best restaurants in the region, and best in Dade County. Zagat survey listed The Grand Cafe in Miami’s “Top 20 Food Rankings,” calling it “a treat in all respects,” and saying that “the serious regional American restaurant offers some of Miami’s finest dining … with impeccable food.”

In 1989 Oudin won the prestigious Florida Chef of the Year award from Chefs of America while opening the Colonnade Hotel in Coral Gables. Prior to assuming his position at the Grand Bay Hotel, Oudin was part of the opening team of “Festival Disney” at Euro-Disney in Paris. In 2000 he opened his own place, Pascal’s on Ponce. Once again there has been applause from every quarter; in 2007 he was named Best Chef, Miami.
 

Darryl Mickler’s earliest memories center on the preparation of food, a Southern Sunday dinner at grandmother’s which usually meant mounds of garden-fresh vegetables, fresh shrimp and oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, game, beef, and chicken prepared in the finest Southern tradition. Following his Southern heritage into the culinary field was natural, and he started cooking at 14 in a small Italian-influenced seafood restaurant. Following high school he won scholarships and studied Food and Beverage Management at Pensacola Junior College. While at school he also ran the college’s banquet operation and opened a snack bar at the student center. A summer intern experience took him to Les Chefs de France at EPCOT Center, where he worked and learned under Chefs Bocuse and Verge and pastry chef Gaston LeNotre. Following college he returned to Chefs de France to work under Bruno Unignon and Denis Morange. Taking a position with Walt Disney Company, he joined the opening team of the Grand Floridian Hotel and developed the menus and recipes for Narcoosee’s Restaurant. After a stint operating a catering company, he returned to Walt Disney Company in the Parks/Studios division in the catering and banquets department, where he works with Reimund Pitz and Michael LeDuke.

Mickler is a founding Board member and has served as President of the local chapter of ACF, and is active in local charitable functions. He also keeps busy competing in culinary salons and training culinary apprentices.
 

Jean-Louis and Evelin Neichel welcome guests to their elegantly modern dining room, a setting which has won an award for its design. Located in the residential Pedralbes district, the restaurant looks out onto a garden.

With Jean-Louis in the kitchen and Evelin making guests comfortable, Neichel offers what the couple calls ‚“Mediterranean flavor.‚” Fresh local ingredients include virgin ‚“arbequina‚” olive oil, fish and shellfish, and herbs. Jean-Louis begins dinner every morning, drawing inspiration from the marketplace: only the best, only the freshest.

Neichel was drawn to the culinary field because it is an artistic profession, and he was already an accomplished watercolorist. Born in Alsace, – he trained at the Colmar Hotel School there, then completed his military service ‚Äî nearly all of it as a chef. Neichel worked in a number of restaurants in France and Germany, developing his craft. Then he went to work with three extraordinary chefs in a row ‚Äî Alain Chapel, then Georges Blanc, and finally at Gaston Lenotre´s school at Versaille, considered the best patisserie in Paris. He credits these chefs, and particularly Alain Chapelle, for opening him to new ideas and the creativity possible in fine cuisine.

Neichel worked at the Walliser Stube restaurant in Dusseldorf, then moved to Spain as chef of Restaurante Bulli for 9 years. Then it was time to open his own place, Neichel. Jean-Louis and Evelin opened the restaurant in 1981. The restaurant soon won fame, and for 20 years has been on the list of 10 top restaurants in Spain. They have won two Michelin stars, and the designation Relais & Chateau since 1990.

Chef Neichel and the restaurant have participated in culinary competitions. He has juried the finals for several hotel schools. But for the most part, Jean-Louis and Evelin have focused on their growing family — they have four children, including triplets — and their restaurant. Their favorite way to relax is to enjoy good friends and good wine.

http://www.fleurdelyssf.com

Chef Hubert Keller´s career has been a tour of the cooking of his native France, a tour whose souvenirs he is happy to share with diners at his San Francisco restaurant. it´s important to note here that in French, souvenirs are not mere trinkets from the road but profound memories.

Since opening Fleur de Lys with Maurice Rouas in 1986, Keller´s French cuisine has drawn wide praise as the best in San Francisco. Those who´ve shared this opinion have included John Mariani in Esquire, Bryan Miller in the New York Times, and Michael Bauer in Food & Wine.

If the student is, to some degree, a measure of the master, then both Keller and his teachers have much for which to be grateful. His training began at the Ecole Hoteliere in Strasbourg, then continued under the Haeberlin brothers at the Auberge de l´Ill in Alsace. After additional training with Paul Bocuse at Collonges, Keller spent time with pastry expert Gaston Lenotre in Paris and cooked aboard the Mermoz, one of the stars of the French Paquet Line. Experience at the Domaine de Chateauneuf in Nans les Pins led to an assignment with Provencal celebrity Roger Verge at Moulin de Mougins.

Famed restaurant followed famed restaurant for Keller, including stints at the Hotel Negresco in Nice and the Hotel Prieure in Saumur. Finally, though, Verge called the chef back into the family to open his La Cuisine du Soleil in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After two years in this very different world, Keller moved to San Francisco to manage the kitchen at Verge´s Sutter 500. When Keller opened Fleur de Lys with Rouas, it, too, was on Sutter Street. Now he also has a Fleur de Lys inside he Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and his own TV series.

Though he can thank a lifetime of great chefs for teaching him so many things, today Keller considers Verge his mentor. It was under his influence that Keller developed his own style of combining the classics of French cuisine with the sun-struck foods of Provence. And Keller passes it on, through his PBS series, Secrets of a Chef.

Pure passion has left its fingerprints all over Emmanuel Bassoleil´s career. Pure passion for fine food, for great wines, for life itself. Born in Dijon in France, son of a man who was a gourmet and appreciator of fine wine and a woman who was an artist in the home kitchen, Emmanuel Bassoleil studied at the hotel school in Dijon. He gained practical experience as well as formal lessons at the Hostellerie du Chateau de Bellecroix, then moved to the Hostellerie d´Or Val. Both places had a single Michelin star; there would be more stars in Bassoleil´s future.

Wanting to learn about nouvelle cuisine, he spent a year between Lameloise in Chagny and the Troisgros in Roanne: three Michelin stars. After a year of military service, spent as the chef for a General, Bassoleil moved to Paris, working at Au Pressoir. He had the opportunity to get to know celebrated patissier Gaston LeNotre, and lost no opportunities to learn his secrets. He moved to Pre-Catelan, then joined the team to work for a season on the Cote d´Azur, at Byblos. Still gaining knowledge, he returned to Paris to Ambassade d´Auvergne and La Langousterie.

Excited by the prospect of touring the world while still working at his art, Bassoleil became chef saucier on the cruise ship Mermoz. He left to open a resort in Israel, then returned to the Mermoz as sous chef. Heading a brigade of 50 cooks, confectioners, butchers, and bakers gave him confidence in his ability to manage. Having made stops in Brazil, he decided to stay and work. Bassoleil linked up with Claude Troisgros, son of the celebrated Troisgros family for whom he had worked years before. Bassoleil accepted a position in charge of the kitchen at Roanne in Sao Paulo. He had a lot to learn, starting with the language, and the local ingredients and tastes. He loved it, and in 1988 made Brazil his country of choice, Sao Paulo his city of choice.

Honors have followed. In 1993, Bassoleil was named Chef of the Year and Roanne was awarded three Michelin stars. Enthusiastic about his adopted home, he set out to both develop the local culinary scene and publicize what was happening. Bassoleil joined Laurent Suaudeau, Luciano Bossegia, and Christophe Besse in Euro-toques. – In 1995 they formed ABAGA, the Associaç√£o Brasileira da Alta Gastronomia. Fueled with excitement, the chefs began competing in the Bocuse d´Or and World´s Cup competitions, and in 1995 were the only South American representatives selected. In 1998 he became the first Brazilian chef to receive the Ordre de Academie Culinaire de France.

Emmanuel Bassoleil´s energy has carried him into producing a line of products under his own name for the French supermarket chain Carrefour. He has also released 5 books, and writes for Gula Magazine. And in his spare time consulted for the opening of O Leopolido and other properties. In April 1998 he introduced a newly remodeled Roanne. Larger, more contemporary, with more informal service, it is the perfect setting for this passionate, energetic chef.

Ingenious is the word for David Burke, one of today´s most outstanding chefs, blurring the lines between chef, executive, and artist.

Burke worked in restaurants during his teenaged years and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. He furthered his experience in restaurants in Burgundy and southwest France, and was the personal chef of a shipping tycoon in Norway. He served under such well-known chefs as Pierre Troisgros and Georges Blanc. He also studied pastry arts under the legendary Gaston Lenotre. Returning to the U.S., he spent three years as sous chef under Waldy Malouf at La Cremaillere. Burke was only 26 when he won both the French Meilleurs Ouvriers de France Diplome d´Honneur, and Japan´s Nippon Award of Excellence.

Later, Burke served for a time as sous-chef under Charles Palmer at Brooklyn´s seminal River Café, also the launching spot for Larry Forgione, then returned later to become executive chef. In 1991 Burke was named Chef of the Year by his peers in Chefs of America.

In 1992, Burke developed a menu of hearty American food for the Park Avenue Café, which he opened with Alan Stillman of Smith & Wollensky. So confident and relaxed was he that the restaurant had a glassed-in table (No. 88) in the middle of the kitchen, from which diners can watch the preparation of his dishes. Burke was one of the first chefs to use flavored oils such as basil oil, curry oil, and lemongrass oil. Spice mixes also intrigued him, and he correctly predicted that Americans would gradually use more and more diverse spices such as cumin and cardamom. Great Chefs taped him when he was the executive chef of New York´s Park Avenue Café.

In 1996 Burke took on the position of Vice President of Culinary Development for the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group. During his twelve years there he pioneered the Swordfish Chop, the Crackling Pork Shank, and Gourmet Pops (gourmetpops.com). Teaming with Donatella Arpaia in 1993, he and Arpaia opened davidburke & donatella. He runs the kitchen; Donatella handles the front of house operations. He describes his cuisine as ‚“David Burke unplugged.‚”

Among his newest ventures are David Burke at Bloomingdale´s, David Burke´s Primehouse in Chicago, David Burke Las Vegas at the Venetian, and his dream restaurant, the Fromagerie in Rumson, New Jersey ‚Äì he started working there as a teenager and always has dreamed of owning it. Now it is The David Burke Fromagerie. Burke is also deeply involved in ‚“culinology,‚” combining traditional culinary arts with food science. He is a board member of the Research Chefs Association, advisor for J. Manheimer, Inc. (one of the country´s oldest flavor developers), and consultant to well-known companies like Aramark. Among Burke´s innovative takes are flavor-transfer spice sheets and Flavorsprays ‚Äì eliminate the fat, keep the flavor.

The honors have continued ‚Äì nomination as James Beard Foundation ‚“Best Chef, New York City,‚” the CIA´s Escoffier Award, even ‚“Best Culinary Prankster‚” from Time Out New York.

David Burke lectures regularly, giving cooking demonstrations worldwide, and has written two cookbooks, Cooking with David Burke (1995), and David Burke´s New American Classics (2007), published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Donna Nordin, a major influence in contemporary Southwestern cuisine in Arizona, wa once mainly associated with French cuisine in the San Francisco area. Donna, who was born and raised in San Diego, caught the cooking bug at the age of 18 during a study abroad program in Rouen. After returning to the States, she longed to work with food. Surrendering to her fate, Nordin returned to France and enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. After a year of study she came to San Francisco to work, teaching cooking part time.

Little by little her fame spread throughout California. In 1976 Nordin opened her own cooking school, La Grande Bouffe, in San Francisco. Busy with students, demonstrations, trade shows, and television, she still returned to France several times, and took Gaston Lenotre´s professional pastry course.

In 1980 Donna Nordin closed her cooking school to put full time into teaching appearances around the U.S. She was featured in Bon Appetit in an article that celebrated her desserts, ‚“Fabulous and Easy Chocolate Desserts.‚” Criss-crossing the country, she stopped in Tucson in March, 1984. Falling in love with the region, she returned over and over. In the fall of that year she became head chef for Gourmet to Go, Inc., in Tucson, the city´s most successful catering company. Plans for a Southwestern restaurant evolved. In 1986, Cafe Terra Cotta opened to rave reviews. It is still Tucson´s most popular nationally-recognized restaurant.

Nordin made her first appearance on Great Chefs for Great Chefs of the West at the end of the decade, and was featured in the companion book, Southwest Tastes. In 1992, she and her husband opened Cafe Terra Cotta in nearby Scottsdale; Esquire magazine named it one of the 23 ‚“Best Restaurants of 1993.‚” Nordin has by now become accustomed to the title of ‚“Best Restaurant,‚” bestowed by many culinary critics over the years. Along with the responsibility of the restaurants and the publishing of her cookbook ‚“Contemporary Southwest: The Cafe Terra Cotta Cookbook‚” and the magazine features and television shows and the honors and all the other things competing for her time, Nordin continues to teach whenever possible.

Sadly, the 2009 economic slump took its toll on Terra Cotta as it has on so many other businesses. Michael Luria, step-son of Donna Nordin and spokesperson for the restaurant, issued an e-mail to friends announcing the closing. “While every story has an ending, this is not particularly the one our family would have chosen,” he wrote.