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Accepting his first position as Chef at Daniel Boulud’s new Café Boulud in Palm Beach, Zach Bell has returned home to Florida, where he made his culinary start. Zach first joined the Chef at New York’s Café Boulud in January 1999, soon after the restaurant’s opening. “For four years Zach has been a great asset to us and has more than demonstrated the maturity, depth of culinary knowledge, organizational skills, and above all, great palate that will serve him well in this new challenge,” explains Daniel Boulud.
At Valencia College, Zach began to study physical therapy, but again found himself drawn to the kitchen. He worked as a cook for the Orlando Marriott, gradually moving up within the hierarchy.
With one year remaining in school, Zach transferred to the culinary program at Johnson & Wales where he finished his senior year. A kitchen externship led him to the William’s Island Yacht Club, introducing the young cook to Chef Charles Saunders' California style cuisine and giving him experience stoking the flames of a wood burning grill.
While still a student, Zach joined chefs Marc Poidevin and Sascha Lyon at Miami’s Biz Bistro, where he remained well after graduation. These first steps in a French kitchen established the direction for his future. Zach had been at Biz Bistro for barely two years when Chef Poidevin invited him to follow the team to Le Cirque 2000 in New York. Without hesitation Zach settled in an East Village apartment, barely ten days later. Clearly it was well aimed, as after only two months in New York, Le Cirque Chef Sottha Khun promoted Zach from the banquet kitchen to chef de partie tournant, and later to saucier.
At Le Cirque, Zach worked alongside then sous chef Andrew Carmellini went on to open Café Boulud with Daniel Boulud in October 1998. Just three months later Zach followed. He joined Andrew as saucier and became Café Boulud’s sous chef within the same year.
“Zach is an energetic and talented young chef who has absorbed the best of what French technique has to offer,” says Daniel Boulud. “I remember the first meal he cooked for me years ago in Miami and was convinced of his passion from that moment.” Zach and Daniel continue to collaborate on the Café’s Palm Beach menu, drawing upon the favorites they crafted together with Chef Andrew Carmellini in New York. |
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Clark began his career training at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario. After graduating in 1982, Robert spent ten years training in some of Toronto's finest kitchens: the King Edward Hotel, The Founders Club at the SkyDome, and the legendary Three Small Rooms at The Windsor Arms Hotel. During his early career, he apprenticed under and worked with some of Canada's "top toques": Jamie Kennedy, John Higgins, and Michael Bonacini to name a few. In the early nineties, after an eighteen month working and tasting journey through Southeast Asia and Australia, Clark and his wife decided to relocate to Vancouver. In 1992, with owners Adam Busby and Sam Lalji, Clark helped open Star Anise to critical acclaim. It remains the only restaurant to ever win the Vancouver Magazine awards for “restaurant of the year” and “best new restaurant” in the same year.
Harry Kambolis opened C Restaurant in 1997, but not before luring Clark back from another restaurant in the United States to join his team as Chef de Cuisine. Within one year, Clark was promoted to the position of Executive Chef. Since then, Clark's leadership at the helm has propelled C to become one of the prime dining destinations in North America. C's distinctive cuisine and wine lists have garnered innumerable awards, and won raves from critics across the continent.
Clark is a firm believer that, as a chef, he has to be conscience about the food choices he makes. More significantly, he embraces a responsibility to inspire change within the industry he has devoted his life to.
To that end, Clark was honoured at the 2006 Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Cooking for Solutions weekend May 20th as the years Canadian Seafood ambassador and recognized for his outstanding dedication to working with sustainably harvested seafoods. He was also the first and only chef to have been honoured by the BC Seafood Sensations and the BC Salmon Marketing Board with the SUPPORTER OF INNOVATION AWARD (2002). He regularly contributes his time, in tandem with Kambolis, to being a culinary ambassador: promoting British Columbia as a burgeoning seafood and agri-food producing region, and Vancouver as a world-class restaurant destination.
Clark also participates in exchange programs where he can promote local products and share his philosophies. He has traveled through Europe, China, and the United States, exchanging concepts, learning from others, and bringing back new ideas to enhance his ever-evolving menus at C. |
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For many Americans, Italy means Tuscany. And all it takes is one drive through a vineyard-covered valley, one walk along the hilltop streets of San Gimignano, or one hearty four-course meal in a friendly trattoria to know why. Wine flows like water. Fruits and vegetables burst with flavor. And glistening, golden extra-virgin olive oil lubricates a lifestyle that makes Americans crave la dolce vita.
Kevin Garcia, chef of ‘Cesca restaurant in Manhattan, and formerly of Lucca in the Boca Raton Resort & Club, studied cooking at Johnson & Wales and worked at the Italian-inflected Al Forno while in school. He was captivated by Tuscan food while working at Pino Luongo's Coco Pazzo in Manhattan. Within four years he was its chef de cuisine. After a brief catering career, he became personal chef to Ron Perelman, CEO of Revlon, and then left Manhattan to open Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Prime Steak House at Bellagio in Las Vegas. It was Drew Nieporent of the Myriad Restaurant Group who tapped Garcia to run the kitchens at Lucca; Myriad operates the restaurant for the resort.
From Lucca , Garcia went back to New York where he joined famed Mario Batali’s kitchen team as chef de cuisine at the hit restaurant Del Posto. Last year he was again sought out to take over as Executive Chef at ‘Cesca, replacing Chef Tom Valenti. |
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At the age of 35, Angela Hartnett is one of the most high-profile women in the restaurant world. During her childhood, Angela’s Italian grandmother and mother instilled in her an appreciation and love of good food, and after completing a degree in Modern History at Cambridge Polytechnic she secured her first job in Barbados at the Sandy Lane hotel.
On returning to the UK, Angela joined the young team at Aubergine, cooking under Gordon Ramsay. Working alongside a predominantly male brigade, who predicted she would last no more than a week, Angela soon proved her worth during a grueling year and saw the restaurant achieve its first Michelin star.
Six months followed in the kitchens of Zafferano before moving to L’Oranger where she worked under the watchful eye of Marcus Wareing climbing the ranks to become sous-chef before moving with Marcus to Pétrus. Within seven months of it opening she had become Head Chef and helped the restaurant achieve a Michelin star. After launching Amaryllis in Scotland in April 2001, Angela turned her attention to the launch of Gordon Ramsay’s Verre in Dubai.
In 2002 she returned to Britain to open ‘MENU’ and ‘The Grill Room’ at The Connaught, where she combines a modern European menu with an Italian influence, while continuing the classicism long enjoyed by Connaught diners.
In 2003 she won the Square Meal Guides' BMW Best New Restaurant award and in 2004 she won her first Michelin star.
In May 2004 Angela won a legion of new fans appearing alongside her mentor Gordon Ramsay in ITV's highly successful series 'Hell's Kitchen'. Further television appearances include a one hour program on 'Tonight with Trevor McDonald' advising children with poor diets on the benefits healthy of eating, presenting a Christmas series with GMTV and competing for Wales in the Great British Menu competition for BBC Two in 2006. And to add to an already impressive list of accomplishments, in the Spring of 2007, Angela will debut Cielo—a modern Italian masterpiece in the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida. |
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In an ever more cross-cultural world, it may come as no surprise that the ideal chef for Silks restaurant is a California-raised surfer who cites culinary experience in Europe, the Pacific Rim and his years as a sushi chef among his influences.
Born and raised in a third-generation farm family in Oxnard, Huff attended Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. On his way to becoming a fireman, a friend invited him to come along to Denmark and cook for a summer. The experience changed his life. Upon returning to California, he enrolled in the culinary arts program at Santa Barbara City College and then attended the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St.
Helena.
He continued to hone his education cooking at San Ysidro Ranch, then later moved to Los Angeles to work as chef de partie at restaurant L’Orangiere. In 1999, Huff moved back to the coast where he worked for four years as a sushi chef at Juro Cho in Ventura.
By now, fully immersed in the world of food and with fond memories of his time spent cooking in Denmark, Huff decided it was time to acquire first hand knowledge about cuisine in other countries. He bought a ticket around the world cooking in kitchens in Australia and Thailand.
Australia proved to make a big impression and he moved there working for two years at Restaurant VII, a French restaurant with Japanese influences. While in Australia he met his wife, and in 2003 decided it was time to return to the United States.
Huff then went to New York and joined the culinary team as sous chef at Asiate, the restaurant at Mandarin Oriental Hotel New York. A French restaurant with Japanese influences, Asiate proved to be the perfect place to refine his skills under the direction of his old friend and mentor, chef Nori Sugi.
When Huff heard about the search for chef de cuisine at Silks, he knew it would be an ideal fit and was determined to make his mark at the cook-through tasting, a chefs equivalent of an audition. The culinary team was impressed by his originality, creativity and enthusiasm and Huff started his new position in February 2005.
“San Francisco has always been a crossroads of the world, especially the Pacific Rim,” says Huff. “Travel has brought me in contact with flavors and techniques that I’m incorporating in the menus at Silks, to create something I hope people will find really exciting. With the sophisticated and well traveled clientele of Silks, I’m gratified at how those ideas have been received so far.” |
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