The Daily Meal's Year In Chefs And Personalities 2011 Slideshow
Pigging Out Texas-Style with Tim Love
The Daily Meal caught up with the famed Texas chef on a number of occasions this year. At the Barbados Food & Wine and Rum Festival Love opened up about his affinity of working with game meats, the secrets behind making the perfect burger, and his restaurant expansion plans.
Later in the year we tossed Love some questions about tips for whole animal cooking, the key elements of Southern cuisine, and got the scoop on his Fort Worth taqueria while attending the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival.
Favorite Quote:
"I've never worked with zebra, and I haven't worked with a lion's breast. I'd like to work with another part of that animal." — Tim Love on working working with exotic meats.
Brews, ‘Cue, and Guy Fieri's Plans for New York
The Food Network star took few moments off from his hosting duties at the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival to answer some questions about his plans for the future. While Fieri was pretty vague on the details, he did hint at the possibility of opening his first restaurant in New York City. He had a lot more to say when asked about his nonprofit organization, Cooking With Kids, which aims at supporting legislature crafted to improve school lunches.
Favorite Quote:
"We've been meeting with some partners to do something. I'm not going to do anything tame. You know, it has to be something a little bigger than life." — Guy Fieri on the rumors about him opening a restaurant in New York City.
Cindy Pawlcyn's Go Fish Goes Pan-Med as Brassica
Famed California wine country chef and restaurateur, Cindy Pawlcyn, invited The Daily Meal to check out her new restaurant, Brassica, located in the former space of Go Fish. Pawlcyn discussed her reasons for switching up the concept at her restaurant from a sushi to Mediterranean. From the burdening financial expenditures associated with maintaining a high-end sushi place to Pawlcyn's desire to return to the culinary roots of her original restaurant, Mustard's.
Favorite Quote:
"I can hardly keep them in-house. I have died and went to heaven. Oh my god, people are eating sardines!" — Cindy Pawlcyn on putting whole sardines on the appetizer menu at Brassica.
Food Writing Q&A with Francis Lam
Gilt City's Francis Lam took some time last November (while he was still a senior writer at Salon.com) to talk with The Daily Meal about the food he eat while spending his childhood summers in Hong Kong, his favorite sandwich in New York City, and how he began his career in food writing.
Favorite Quote:
"What's great about food-writing is that you can see so much of the world through food. You can talk about so much about the larger world through food. It's our job as food writers to take advantage of that." — Francis Lam on the profession of food writing.
Inside Daniel Boulud's Newest New York Venture
This spring Daniel Boulud opened his seventh venture in New York City, Boulud Sud. The acclaimed chef and industry mogul answered a few questions about the new space during a preview event.
Favorite Quote:
"I'm most excited that I'm going to put garlic in food here like I've never put it on my food before. I've been scared in the past. No need to be scared about that here. No pork, no cream, no butter." — Daniel Boulud on the the dishes he was most excited about debuting.
Eel, El Bulli, and Izakaya with Ken Oringer
You can't talk about Boston's dining scene and not mention Ken Oringer. The charming chef has more than five restaurants (Clio, Uni, Toro, Coppa, La Verdad and KO Prime), each with a well-executed different cuisine (French, Japanese, Tapas, Italian, Mexican and steak), all significant destinations. In this interview, one of the city's premier chefs talks about his mentors, food blogs, and culinary rites of passage.
Favorite Quote:
"I think every cook should learn how to kill and skin a live eel. Every cook should learn to fabricate whole animals. Every cook should learn how to make a foie gras torchon. For me, it was all of the above and then some." — Ken Oringer on culinary rites of passage.
Burger Q&A with George Motz
When it comes to discussing burger experts, there are few people as well-versed and respected on the subject of hamburgers, as George Motz, author and director of the book and the film, Hamburger America. The Daily Meal talked to him about which blend makes the best burger, preferred cooking methods, and the best patty in New York City.
Favorite Quote:
"My childhood burger memories mostly centered around McDonald's. We probably ate there twice a week and I loved them. But it was the Apple Pan in LA that really turned me around, when I was 21. It completely changed my perception of what a burger could be." — George Motz on childhood burger memories.
Discussing Veal Heart, and Bone Marrow with Fergus Henderson
After an offal demo at the 2010 Barbados Food & Wine and Rum Festival the Fergus Henderson took some time to talk about his favorite dance tunes, offal preparations from around the world, his upcoming new hotel, and his favorite sandwich in London.
Favorite Quote:
Which do you think is the British national dish, Fish 'n Chips or Curry?
Neither. Beef.
Grant Achatz on the Role of Food Media
During a trip to New York just before the release of their book, "Life on the Line" this winter, Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas sat down for a talk at the Institute of Culinary Education. During the Q&A following the event, The Daily Meal asked the duo about the role of media in the food industry.
Favorite Quote:
"So, imagine you come into Alinea and you have a terrible meal. Do you write a letter to the chef saying you had a horrible meal? Probably not. Will you post it anonymously on a food blog? More likely. Taking notice of these blogs gives me the chance to hear honest opinions about what is going on in my restaurant." — Grant Achatz on the popularity of user-driven review sites.
Jonathon Sawyer Discusses Noodlecat
While attending the Scottsdale Culinary Festival this past April, The Daily Meal caught up with rising star chef, Jonathon Sawyer about opening Noodlecat, a Japanese ramen shop in downtown Cleveland.
Favorite Quote:
"Like I say at the Tavern, 'This is the way they'd cook French food in Paris if they were in the Cayuga Valley.' Well, this is how they'd make noodles in Japan if they were in the Cayuga Valley." — Jonathon Sawyer on the menu at Noodlecat
Cocktail Q&A with Frank Bruni
Frank Bruni sat down with The Daily Meal this year to talk about his New York Times column, The Tipsy Diaries, his first cocktail, and the drink he orders most often at the bar.
Favorite Quote:
"What I know is that no matter what the trend of the moment, bars that have engaging, intelligent bartenders and carefully made drinks will always, always be popular, whether or not they have hidden doors or hollowed coconut shells." — Frank Bruni on cocktail trends.
Marc Forgione Talks Family Roots
Long before Marc Forgione became an Iron Chef and received two stars from The New York Times, he learned how to cook from his father, Larry Forgione, a culinary icon in his own right. The mohawk-sporting chef spoke with The Daily Meal about his relationship with his father, and how he's influenced his culinary philosophy.
Favorite Quote:
"My dad helped put America on the map, but I feel like my cuisine is more New York and more melting pot. My dad laid down the tracks, and now I feel like I'm riding where those tracks haven't been yet." — Marc Forgione on his culinary approach.
Cooking For Love, In and Out of the Kitchen
To celebrate the spirit of Valentine's Day, The Daily Meal interviewed three couples who own and run restaurants together — Mark (Executive Chef) and Marjorie Fuller, owners of Spring Hill in Seattle, Wash., Karen (Pastry Chef) and Quinn (Executive Chef) Hatfield of Hatfield's in Los Angeles, and High school sweethearts and owners of Recette in New York City Lindsay (Director of Operations) and Jesse Schenker (Executive Chef).
Favorite Quote:
"It was the best, most fulfilling day of our lives. We wouldn't have done it any other way." — Lindsay Schenker on returning to work at Recette on their wedding day.
Q&A: Mark Canlis
Now in its third generation of family ownership, Canlis' journey through the new economy is being shepherded by brothers Mark and Brian Canlis. At this year's Food & Wine Best New Chefs celebration in New York City, Mark sat down to discuss how to balance the expectations of long-standing customers with a restaurant's need to attract new ones.
Favorite Quote:
"We're the city's restaurant and have been for generations. That's really important. Bringing in a new generation of Canlises was scary, because we want people to feel like it's the old Canlis. But there has to be an evolution. Some of our customers tell us never to change. But we change every day, and that's why they still love us." — Mark Canlis on the future of the restaurant.
Looking for Tomatoes with Michael White
This past March, chef Michael White launched a two-day pop-up dining experience at The Setai Hotel in conjunction with Tupperware, which he aptly-named TupperClub. On one of the evenings, White spoke with The Daily Meal about his dream of opening a restaurant in Italy, what he does in his parents' kitchen, and if you should expect to see him on his own TV show soon.
Favorite Quote:
"I see Japanese in the perfect piece of olive-oil poached John Dory with the perfect fava beans and a little picked basil. It's very Italian, but very Japanese at the same time." — Michael White on which cuisine fuses well with Italian.
Catching Up with Wolfgang Puck
It's quite a coup that the nascent Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival scored Wolfgang Puck as a headliner for the event's inaugural year. The Daily Meal caught up with the storied chef recently to get his take on the new festival.
Favorite Quote:
"I don't even know how to spell the word retirement — I do what I love to do — so if I were to retire, I would have to find a job." — Wolfgang Puck on his tireless work ethic.
Food-iverse Q&A with Dana Cowin
Dana Cowin needs little in the way of introduction — she has been Food & Wine's Editor-in-Chief since 1995. Among other things in the interview, The Daily Meal discovered Dana's pick for America's most underrated food city, which TV food competition was most fun to judge, and what question you should never ask a chef, or her.
Favorite Quote:
"Los Angeles is the most underrated food city in the country. People still don't take it seriously—they seem to think that all the locals are on juice fasts." — Dana Cowin on the most underrated food city in America.
Remembering Lost Icons of 2011
This year a number of significant members of the food industry passed away. The Daily Meal's editorial director, Colman Andrews, paid tribute to two icons by writing about their lives and accomplishments. In each of these cases Andrews recounted his favorite memories of them — from the first time he ate at Santi Santamaria's restaurant, El Racó de Can Fabes, to his lifelong friendship with Joan Luther.
Favorite Excerpt:
"Funnily enough, however much she loved the industry, I could never quite figure out whether she really enjoyed food or not. She didn't eat lunch, period, but would invite you to join her at noontime and then sit there perfectly happy ingesting nothing more than cup after cup of coffee." — Colman Andrews on Joan Luther's appetite.