Super Chef: The Making of the Great Modern Restaurant Empires [Hardcover]

Juliette Rossant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2004

Wolfgang Puck -- Charlie Palmer -- Todd English -- Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger -- Tom Colicchio: These are men and women who were not content merely to run a great restaurant; they wanted to create multinational food empires. And they did. In Super Chef, veteran journalist Juliette Rossant takes you on an unprecedented tour inside the business of the food business, one of the world's most glamorous -- and little-known -- industries.

You catch glimpses of them everywhere: on television, in tabloid gossip columns pictured at glitzy parties with Hollywood stars and power brokers, in national magazine stories about their latest business projects. You buy their products at your local supermarket or online, or maybe even stay at their hotels. Traditional chefs may have stayed in the kitchen and rarely ventured into the public eye, but a growing number of today's top chefs are utilizing skills seldom taught in cooking school -- trading anonymity for celebrity and rising to build culinary empires.

Juliette Rossant goes behind the scenes with these new moguls to reveal the key ingredients that go into making a Super Chef. Culinary talent remains the base component, but today's Super Chef must be a whole lot more -- equal parts entrepreneur, realtor, fundraiser, publicist, and media star.

In Super Chef, Rossant profiles six of the hottest names in the industry today. From Wolfgang Puck's Spago Beverly Hills to his pizza in your freezer, from Charlie Palmer's Microsoft-powered eWinebook to Todd English on the QM2, from Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger's appearing as the Food Network's Too Hot Tamales to New York's most recent contender Tom Colicchio of both Gramercy Tavern and Craft -- Rossant spins their tales of haute cuisine and corporate conquest. Each of these culinary magnates has taken a unique path to the top, and Rossant adds up the variations in their experiences to offer a gripping and astute look at what it takes to become the cream of the crop.

Juliette Rossant knows food, celebrity, and business. She has covered extensively the empire-building celebrity chefs for Forbes, and has been granted unfettered access to her subjects, their staffs, financiers, and families. The result is a rollicking culinary adventure that food lovers, celebrity watchers, and business fans cannot miss.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This plodding group biography traces the careers and personal lives of chefs Wolfgang Puck, Charlie Palmer, Todd English, Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger and Tom Colicchio. Rossant, who has covered chefs for Forbes, begins unevenly by failing to define in her introduction what a "super chef" is, merely stating, "Most chefs who reach Super Chef level are well liked, hardworking, and irrepressibly optimistic people." She dedicates a chapter to each subject-except for Milliken and Feniger, who work as a team and are covered together-before reaching the conclusion that the hot topic among chefs today is branding. A glossary with definitions of terms like "Fast Food Restaurant" and "Hoisin Sauce" provides a puzzling finish. Rossant's style is often awkward ( "It was the height of disco, and a few months after his divorce Wolfgang met Barbara Lazaroff at a discotheque"). Although she discusses the chefs' failures-e.g., Palmer recalls a partnership in a dairy that went poorly-she glosses over unpleasant events, dismissing Colicchio's dispute with his Gramercy Tavern employer, Danny Meyer, over the opening of Craft, a New York restaurant, in a couple of paragraphs. Rossant conveys coziness with her subjects by using their first names, even referring to Milliken and Feniger as "the Girls," and frequently resorts to "some" sourcing ("Some have said that the 1999 Grimes article in the New York Times marked a serious embarrassment if not decline for Charlie"), thus never appearing to pass negative judgment. Even the inclusion of a transcript of English's MTV appearance and romance gossip fail to sizzle. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Drew Nieporent Restaurateur, Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, Rubicon, Nobu Juliette Rossant has written an engaging and insightful account into what drives the Super Chefs to excellence. She captures their passion with riveting prose that entertains and enlightens. I couldn't put the book down. Juliette, get started on the sequel!

Rick Smilow President, The Institute of Culinary Education, NYC For the six chefs profiled in this book, cooking is a heady mix of art, business, and passion, skill and success. That is why the stories in this book are valuable, educational, and entertaining. We will recommend this book to our students, alumni, and chef-instructors.

André Soltner Former chef-owner, LUTÈCE Knowing all these superstar chefs, I usually ignore stories about them. But I read Super Chef with great interest and pleasure, and I'm happy the public can know and understand what it takes to arrive at their stardom.

Jeremiah Tower author of California Dish This is the book for anyone who ever even wondered what makes a famous chef tick. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1St Edition edition (April 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743241711
• ISBN-13: 978-0743241717
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,809,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, May 1, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Super Chef: The Making of the Great Modern Restaurant Empires (Hardcover)

having been around for awhile it was interesting to read and reminsce about well known chefs and how they started their careers. It was particularly interesting to explore how they chose to become a chef professionally and expanded their business across the country. Some chose to expand horizontally, some vertically. Ms Rossant goes into great detail with each of the 5 chefs both their assets and foibles. This is a very readable book especially from the business and corportate world. After all we all need to eat, but to go underneath the plate is terrific.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, May 1, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Super Chef: The Making of the Great Modern Restaurant Empires (Hardcover)

Having been around for a while it was facscinating to reminisce about these well known chefs and and how they got there. Particulary how they chose the culinary road. Some chefs became celebrities by going horizontal, and others chose the vertical route. She presents the business and corporate in a readable manner. Ms Rossant writes in great detail and is very serious about her subject. I started reading this book and found it difficult to put it down.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delightful!!, April 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Super Chef: The Making of the Great Modern Restaurant Empires (Hardcover)

An absolutely delightful romp through the culinary world! "Super Chef" also provides an insightful look at the people who have built these empires of gourmet. Veteran correspondent Juliette Rossant's prose is infinitely readable, subtly discerning. However those who are looking for tell-all, celebrity gossip will be disappointed. This is an informed and open-minded look at a new genre of American success. I want to know when Ms. Rossant will be writing "Super Chef Europe!"