Chef Emeril Lagasse’s bio is an interesting one.  He began his gastronomic education long before attending culinary school, working in a local Portuguese bakery in his hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts.  He continued working in food service to put himself through the Johnson and Wales University culinary program, which earned him a doctorate.  Lagasse’s life is filled with many important career highlights.  He quickly realized he wanted to focus on French food after he finished school, working in fine dining restaurants in New York, Boston and Philadelphia before moving to New Orleans.  There, he was head chef at the renowned Commander’s Palace for eight years before opening his own restaurant.

The chef opened Emeril Lagasse Restaurant in 1990, which drew rave reviews from local critics in New Orleans as well as prestigious food writers and culinary magazines from around the world.  After the success of his first restaurant, Lagasse went on to open NOLA and Emeril’s Delmonico in New Orleans, Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House and Delmonico Steakhouse in Las Vegas, Emeril’s Orlando and Emeril’s Tchoup Chop in Orlando, and Emeril’s Miami Beach.  He has also written a slew of successful cookbooks, hosts a show on Fine Living Network, and regularly appears on the Food Network.

Getting a culinary arts degree is the first step to a rewarding career like this.  Not every chef will go on to open ten restaurants and become a famous television personality, but every chef can have success in their own right.  Having role models like Emeril has helped numerous students go on to pursue their dreams in the culinary world.

Institutions offering quality Culinary Arts Programs include The International Culinary Institute at the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Blue Schools, The French Culinary Institute, The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.

Find the perfect Culinary School or Culinary Arts Program today and start your path to a rewarding career.

Since Paula has made her zeal as TV personality, she could conduct cookery shows which people love and admire. She has authored five famous cookery books. Her program ‘Paula’s Home Cooking’ had bagged her two Daytime Emmy Awards in 2007.

Paula started her culinary career by starting a catering service where she made sandwiches and other meals. She is being helped by her two sons, Jammy and Bobby in her professional endeavors. In 1996, she opened her own restaurant, ‘The Lady & Sons’ in downtown Savannah, on West Congress Street and within a few years, the restaurant moved to a larger building in Savannah’s historic district.

This restaurant won national reputation and it was named the “International Meal of the Year” by USA Today, a prominent American daily in 1999. Here, the main specialty is the buffet, which may include sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, deep-fried Twinkies, fried chicken, cheesy meatloaf, greens, beans as well as creamed corn. The meal comes with a garlic cheese biscuit and one of Paula’s famous hoecakes. The professional dedication of Paula Deen helped her start another restaurant called “Paula Deen Buffet” at Harrah’s Tunica Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.

Paula is equally good an author too. Her books, “The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking” and “The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking 2” were self published in 1997. These books earned much appreciation as she focused on traditional Southern recipes such as ‘Gooey Butter Cake” or “Chess Cake”. Paula’s personal life is featured in “Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success”. In 2007, Simon & Schuster published Paula’s memoir, “It Ain’t All about the Cooking”. She did not stop here and went on to launch a lifestyle magazine called “Cooking with Paula Deen” in November 2005.

The association with Food Network helped her start the famed TV show ‘Paula’s Home Cooking’ in 2002. Paula’s televised biography was aired on an episode of the Food Network’s ‘Chefography’ program, in March 2006. In December 2007, she teamed with Cat Cora and faced Chefs Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine in battle Sugar on the holiday special of ‘Iron Chef America’ and at the end Paula and Cora won.
No one can stop a skilled and successful chef from trying out new ventures. This was proved when Paula announced in September 2009 that she planned to unveil her own dessert line at ‘Walmart’ featuring signature pies such as Apple Crunch Top, Dark Rum Pecan, Old Fashioned Fudge and Gooey Butter Cake bars. These recipes had earned her much reputation. She also proved that a Chef can be an actor too when she made her film debut in ‘Elizabethtown’ by playing the role of the aunt of Orlando Bloom’s character. The film also gave her the chance of exhibiting her culinary skills. No wonder, such multi faceted Chefs like Paula Deen can really change the way in which Chefs and other Culinary experts are looked upon.

Follow in Paula’s footsteps and find the perfect Culinary School for you.

Guy Fieri never limited himself to just cooking and he is lot more than this. He is a TV personality and an author of many recipe books. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality Management from University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1990, Fieri could develop his own innovative world of food science coupled with creativity. No wonder, his Chef personality is well acknowledged in US and abroad through his cookery shows alone!

Since awards and recognitions have always been on his favor, he could shape his own good will and reputation among the masses. Through his shows, Guy Fieri has been able to successfully broadcast his style of cooking. ‘Guy’s Big Bite’, ‘Diners, Drive ins and Dives’, ‘Ultimate Recipe Showdown’ which he co-hosted with Mark Summers are some of his popular TV shows. His way of presentation, bleached bond spiky hair have added much color to a Chef’s physique and in this way, he has proved that Chef’s personal zeal is equally important as his cooking excellence.

With restaurants being the very stage of food experiments, Guy has been able to advertise his very concept of restaurants. Guy’s restaurants are located in Santa Rosa, Windsor and Sacramento. His restaurant service mix is so broad a concept where customers can buy many fun products from T-shirts, squeeze bottles and aprons to hats and more. This depicts the uniqueness and style of his restaurants as well as his efficiency and experience in Restaurant Management. Chefs are those who would make others follow them at least in diet. A good chef has no problem in prescribing a balanced and nutritious diet to his ‘disciples’. Guy has been able to convince his admirers who watch his TV shows that his cooking shows are worth seeing and trying. His restaurant management has made him grow into a good recruiter and trainer for the growing chain too.

Apart from these, Guy has been able to lead many aspiring chefs and give them timely training. Guy Fieri has been a three-term President of the Restaurant Association of the Redwood Empire and serves on the Board of Directors for the Educational Foundation of the California Restaurant Association and most recently was he was Grand Marshall for NASCAR in Sonoma. Another milestone in his life occurred when he was flown by the American Navy all the way to Persian Gulf to entertain and cook for the troops.

Thus, Guy Fieri has been able to project himself as a celebrity-chef and a brand ambassador of food all around the world. His professional life a master chef is an inspiration to many who aspire to pursue a career in Hospitality Management.

Giada de Laurentis is one of the most renowned Italian American chefs who wrote various cookery books and hosted different food preparation shows on television. Presently she is hosting some of the famous television cookery programs such as Weekend Getaways, Everyday Italian, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, Giada at Home and Giada in Paradise.

Career

Giada was born in Rome, Italy in 1970 and at the age of seven moved to southern California with her family. Being the granddaughter of the popular personality and film producer Dino de Laurentiis, she belonged from the family who had entertainment business, but she never had the interest to be the part of the family business. Her obsession for food was sparked as a child as she learned to prepare different and famous family recipes for frequent family gatherings. Subsequently, she acquired a social anthropology degree after attending UCLA. Her culinary career actually started and got recognized when she attended LeCordon Bleu situated in Paris, with an ambition of making herself as popular as a pastry chef. With her intention to work in some of the famous restaurants, she returned back to Los Angeles. After returning to Los Angeles she worked in the several restaurants including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago. Soon after working and showing her talent in different restaurants, she started up a catering company named GDL Foods. Later, Giada started to work as a food stylist.

Achievements

The historic day in Giada’s career came in 2002 when Food Network noticed her styling piece in the journal called Food & Wine. She hosted her own television food show, "Everyday Italian" in 2003. Thereafter, she never looked back and kept on moving. Soon,Giada teamed up with Mario Batali in 2004 to hostanother TV special show named as An Italian Christmas with Mario and Giada. Adding to this, other shows that she hosted were Giada at Home and Giada’s Weekend Getaways. Apart from all these, her first cookbook was published named, Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes¸ in 2005. Presently, Giada owns four products: Balsamic Vinegar, Extra-virgin Olive Oil, Sea Salt with Fresh Lemon Zest and Tuscan Herb Mix.

Personal Life

Today Giada is one of the well known personalities in culinary industry and happily married to fashion designer Todd Thompson in 2003. She also has a daughter named Jade Marie De Laurentiis Thompson, born in March 29, 2008. Giada’s work, books and shows have always impressed and inspired people to taste and make Italian food right at home. This pretty women has managed to steal millions of American hearts with her easy to make cook books and made a significant position in culinary industry with a smooth pace.

Bobby Flay is a NYC native who has become one of the most successful chefs today. He had a passion for cooking since he was just 17 years old. From then on his career seemed to nothing but rise.

Bobby Flay was cooking in the Joe Allen Restaurant when Allen noticed his culinary talent and was so much impressed that he paid for Bobby’s training at French Culinary Institute. He graduated in 1993 and started working for Jonathan Waxman in NYC. With him he learned to love the flavors of American South-western cooking. He was later on hired by Jerome Kretchmer and made Bobby his partner and executive chef of Mesa Grill.

With his talents and passion for cooking Bobby has gained a celebrity status. He is praised not only for his cooking or culinary abilities but also for other various reasons. In addition to cooking bobby started hosting a television show. He has starred in six cooking TV shows on Food Network and three of them – Boy meets Grill, Iron Chef America and Throwdown!, are still on air. His great time managing skills and expertise at cooking has made him own and design six top-notch restaurants too. If you think this is it then think again as Bobby Flay is not done yet. He has written eight well acclaimed cookbooks too. The guy has earned an Emmy award for his shows and also became a food correspondent for CBS on The Early Show. Phew!!

At present he owns five very renowned restaurants, Bar Americain in NYC – serving regional American delicacies; Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City, New Jersey – is a classic steakhouse; Mesa Grill Bahamas of Paradise Island- offers American Southwestern; Mesa Grill Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace- serves American Southwestern and Mesa Grill NYC- also serves American Southwestern.

Bobby has earned a lot in his career and has become an icon for many of the aspiring individuals who are aiming for a career in cooking. When he was asked about his food philosophy, he said, “It’s gotta be bold, zesty, and always fun".

His work, books and shows have always impressed and inspired people. When asked what or who inspired him, he replied, it was Wolfgang Puck who made savory food but his preparations were whimsical and fun too, and Jonathan Waxman was the first chef who defined and explained him what was meant by good food. His latest career move is an upcoming show called as Grill It, which will air on Food Network, showcasing newbies who will come on the show to share their grilling recipes.

When we look at the various movies about chefs we can never forget some of the very few that marked an impression on our minds. One of those is ‘Ratatouille’ where a chef who is a rat named ‘Remy’ overlooks his rat heritage.

To understand what people felt about great movies about chefs, a random poll was conducted. Some of the chef movies that took a front position as one of the best liked chef movies includes ‘No Reservations’, with Catherine Zeta-Jones playing the no nonsense chef Kate Armstrong. Then there was Adam Sandler’s ‘Spanglish’ where he played the part of John Clansky. In the movie ‘Babette’s Feast’, Stephane Audran played the role of Babette. One other movie, a romantic comedy called ‘Women on Top’, presented Penelope Cruz as Isabella Oliveira, who was struggling with motion sickness and turns to cooking.

Movies area a great way to play with human emotions and senses, and the greatness or so to say the success of the movie depends on how deeply you touch those emotions and senses. Mostly the senses that play part are hearing and sight but, movies like ‘Julie & Julia’ take an extra leap and inspire us to create, imagine and even savor the rich flavors of the food we happen to see.

With the world booming with food lovers, people automatically compare them to the great chefs in real-life like Emeril Lagasse, Gordon Ramsey, Paula Deen, Bobby Flay and of course the famous chef of all time, Julia Child. With a number of television cooking shows that air today, the idea of cooking as a passionate art form has now taken hold in the minds of people.

These great chef movies no doubt inspire us to look at cooking as not just something which one does in order to have food, but as something more alive and full of life. These movies present to us an aspect of cooking which has long since been ignored – the passion, the zest for life and the ultimate pandering to one’s senses of touch, smell and taste – all of which come together when one cooks even a simple dish.

Altogether, cooking has thus become transformed into a form of self expression, which was previously very ignored. These great chef movies are also a great source of inspiration for many among us who aspire to work professionally as chefs and cooks.

No matter how much one lives to eat, unless one combines it with the passion for life that food embodies, one cannot completely understand the magic that cooking is all about.

Bon Appetit!

Anthony Bourdain was born on the 25th of June, 1956 in New York City. However, he grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. He attended Vassar College and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. At present, Anthony Bourdain is the honorary Chef-at-Large of the Brasserie Les Halles, where he worked as an executive chef for over a decade.

On his show, Anthony Bourdain was shown touring different countries, cities and places all round the world and the places that are within US too. He was shown savoring the regional culture of the place and the delightful cuisine. The show was premiered in the year 2005 on the travel channel.

A special episode of his show which aired in between Season 2 and Season 3 and which was shot in Beirut, was nominated for the Emmy Award for the most ‘Outstanding Informational Programming’, in the year 2007. 

Anthony Bourdain, a man who had the ability and knack to make people understand the special relation between eating and traveling, and the way he puts all that and more together to create an amazing show is worth taking notice.

His great expertise and wild and exciting eating instincts yet apparently inoffensive presence on the show was the first thing that made him such huge success. It was his travel experiences and great sense and expertise with mixing cuisine that highlighted the show the most. He created the perfect balance and equilibrium with travel and food that produced such amazing documentaries for the Travel Channel.

In one of his shows that were shot in New Zealand he confessed that writing one book has turned him from a simple cook to a legend. His ability to get completely involved in experiencing the extravagant culinary experiences trespassing every border and entering and falling into the lap of every tradition and culture is beyond explanation.

Each show depicted a different life at a different place, not just explaining it from a tourist point of view but instead giving the wide scope depiction of life at each place.
And finally the way he used to say that eating is the experience which helps to get people together at the same table. It is the way to create new bonds and to understand different cultures better.