Favorite Chef

Sunday, July 13, 2008

I came across this blog, Food Ideas For Today, which posed a question that made me think Who is my favorite chef?

Until recently, well actually the last few years now this question would not have even warranted thought. It would have passed into my mind and then right back out again simply because I did not cook nor did I feel the need to take the time to learn to cook. Then came two things a guy that truly explained his cooking in a way that I both found fun and informational and the invention of the traveling/food show. That led me to two people who I could watch all day: Alton Brown and Anthony Bourdain.

Alton Brown explains the science behind the cooking and the history behind the food. For a non cook like me these are the things I need to know in order to become interested in making a good meal not even to mention the fact that the science behind the meal is nearly as important as the actual food itself. If you do not know why you have to boil it for 5 minutes you are apt to cut corners and only boil for 3 minutes. Alton Brown tells you why you need to follow the recipe to a 'T' and I love him for it.

Anthony Bourdain is wonderful. I working in restaurants for a while, it is really hard work much harder than anyone who has not working in restaurants would guess but it is a family where you are on and off stage just like in a theater people either love you or hate you but you have to go back out there in font of them every night no matter what. Anthony Bourdain gets that and he has never let go of it. Something draws him back to the kitchen. The fact that he has gotten this opportunity to travel around the world makes no difference he is still in the kitchen. Lots of people criticized his visit to New Orleans post Katrina but I loved it also the man gets caught in Lebanon when Israel bombed them in 2006 and to help himself cope he took over the kitchen. I can't explain how happy that made me. He is funny and for all the "fixing" that must go into his show it is still realistic, Hell he is actually living it whether he ran into the guy on the street by accident or by producer.

Check these guys out.