Jamie Oliver, a British chef, restaurateur, media personality, known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks. Oliver's speciality is Italian cuisine, although he has a broad international repertoire

 James Trevor "Jamie" Oliver, MBE (born 27 May 1975) is a British chef, restaurateur, media personality, known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks and more recently his campaign against the use of processed foods in national schools. He strives to improve unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits in the United Kingdom and the United States. Oliver's speciality is Italian cuisine, although he has a broad international repertoire.

His first job was a pastry chef at Antonio Carluccio's Neal's Yard restaurant, where he first gained experience with preparing Italian cuisine, and developed a relationship with his mentor Gennaro Contaldo.Oliver then moved to The River Café, Fulham, as a sous chef.
It was there that he was noticed by the BBC in 1997 after making an unscripted appearance in a documentary about the restaurant, "Christmas at the River Cafe". That year, his show The Naked Chef debuted and his cookbook became a number one best-seller in the^UK.
That same year, Oliver was invited to prepare lunch for the Prime Minister of that time, Tony Blair at No. 10 Downing Street.
In 2000, Oliver became the face of the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's through an endorsement deal worth $2 million a year.After 11 years the partnership between Oliver & Sainsbury's ended. The final television advertisement was for Christmas 2011.
Oliver created Fifteen in 2002. Each year, fifteen young adults who have a disadvantaged background, criminal record or history of drug abuse, are trained in the restaurant business.
In 2003, he was awarded an MBE.
In 2005, he initiated a campaign called "Feed Me Better" in order to move British schoolchildren towards eating healthy foods and cutting out junk food. As a result, the British government also pledged to address the issue. Delving into politics to push for changes in nutrition resulted in people voting him as the "Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005," according to a Channel 4 News annual viewer poll.
His emphasis on cooking healthily continued as he created Jamie's Ministry of Food, a television series where Oliver travelled to inspire everyday people in Rotherham, Yorkshire, to cook healthy meals. Another television series is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (2010–2011), where he travelled first to Huntington, West Virginia and then to Los Angeles to change the way Americans eat, and address their dependence on fast food.
Oliver's holding company, Sweet As Candy, has made enough profit for Oliver to have been listed on The Sunday Times list of richest Britons under 30.
In June 2008 he launched Jamie's Italian, his very first high-street business venture^{[clarification needed]} in Oxford, England.
It was reported in October 2009 that Oliver is in the process of raising US$22 million to help fund 30 of his Italian restaurants in Asia.
In December 2009, Oliver received the 2010 TED Prize^.

Success 2012: Richard "Rick" Stein, an English chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He was nominated among the best 20 chefs in the world

Christopher Richard "Rick" Stein OBE (born 4 January 1947) is an English chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He is currently the head chef and co-owner of "Rick Stein at Bannisters" at Mollymook, New South Wales, Australia, owns four restaurants in Padstow, a fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall and has written or presented a number cookery books and television programmes.
Stein opened his first business in Padstow in 1974, and now specialises in fish cookery. His business operates four restaurants, a bistro, a cafe, a seafood delicatessen, patisserie shop, a gift shop and a cookery school.His impact on the local economy of Padstow is such that it has been nicknamed "Padstein" despite the phrase being openly disputed by Rick himself.
In 2009 Stein made his first acquisition in the nearby trading village of St Merryn, which is 3.5 miles from Padstow. When taking over the Cornish Arms public house, which is located on the outskirts of St Merryn, Stein's stated aim was to 'keep it a traditional Cornish pub'.
On 1 October 2009, Stein opened with his fiancee publicist Sarah Burns, "Rick Stein at Bannisters" in Mollymook, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Rick said at the time of opening, “Ever since a memorable weekend eating Pambula oysters and flathead in Merimbula in the sixties, I’ve had the image of the clean blue sea and sweet seafood of the South Coast fixed in my head so when I was introduced to Mollymook about six years ago I knew that one day I would open up a restaurant celebrating local fish and shellfish but keeping it really simple. Bannisters was the relaxed seaside hotel that I was looking for, so when they asked me if I’d be interested in cooking there I jumped at the opportunity.”

As well as running his business, Stein has become a popular television presenter on food. Gaining early exposure after appearing on Keith Floyd's 1984 series Floyd On Fish as a guest chef, he was noticed by the show's producer and was later offered the chance to present his own series – similar in vein to the "travelogue" style of cookery show pioneered by Floyd – on BBC television including Rick Stein's Taste of the Sea, Fruits of the Sea, Seafood Odyssey, Fresh Food, Seafood Lovers' Guide, Food Heroes, and in 2005 French Odyssey about a memorable journey down the canals of South Western France to the Mediterranean, Mediterranean Escapes. This starts where French Odyssey left off, and explores the Mediterranean coastline and islands in search of the best in the region's foods. Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey, travelling around Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. His current television programme is about the cooking of Spain off the beaten track. Stein was often accompanied by his Jack Russell terrier, Chalky, who died in January 2007.
A book has accompanied each series, and his book English Seafood Cookery won the Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year in 1989. Stein was awarded the OBE in the 2003 New Year Honours list for services to tourism in Cornwall.

Succes 2011: Mario Batali, american chef, writer, restaurateur and media personality. Co-owner of restaurants in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Singapore

Mario Batali (born September 19, 1960) is an American chef, writer, restaurateur and media personality.

In addition to his classical culinary training, he is an expert on the history and culture of Italian cuisine, including regional and local variations. Batali co-owns restaurants in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Singapore. Batali's signature style includes shorts and orange Crocs.

Batali was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of Marilyn and Armandino Batali, owner of the restaurant Salumi in Seattle. His family moved to Yakima, Washington shortly thereafter. When Batali was about 8, his family moved back to Seattle when his father got a job as an engineer for Boeing. His father worked for Boeing for thirty years, then, after retirement, opened a meat-curing shop in Seattle.

He is of Italian ancestry on his father's side, and English and French Canadian ancestry on his mother's side.

According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America), his maternal great-great grandparents opened an Italian foods store in 1903. Batali's family roots are found almost entirely in the Western United States. Mario’s great-great-grandfather left Italy in 1899, going to Butte, Montana to work in the copper mines, but later moved west to settle in Seattle.

Mario moved to Spain with his family in 1975 and returned to the U.S. in 1978 to attend Rutgers University, where he majored in Spanish Language, Theatre and Economics, and graduated in 1982. He later went to attend Le Cordon Bleu, though he left because he found the pace too slow and that the best way for him to learn was in a professional kitchen. Mario currently lives in New York City with his wife Susi Cahn (of Coach Dairy Goat Farm) and two sons, Leo and Benno. He also owns homes in Northport, Michigan, and Red Hook, New York.

Batali is one of the principal subjects of Bill Buford's 2006 book, Heat.

During college Batali worked as a dishwasher at "Stuff Yer Face" restaurant in New Brunswick, New Jersey, quickly moving up to pizzaman.[citation needed] Batali went on to serve as an assistant in the kitchens at the "Six Bells" public house in the Kings Road, Chelsea, under Marco Pierre White, La Tour d'Argent in Paris, Moulin de Mougins in Provence, and the Waterside Inn, outside London. In 1985 he worked as a sous chef at the Four Seasons Clift in San Francisco before being promoted to helm the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel's La Marina restaurant in Santa Barbara. At twenty-seven, Batali was the highest paid young chef in the company. In 1989 he resigned and moved to the northern Italian village of Borgo Capanne to apprentice in the kitchen at La Volta, where he sought to master a traditional style of Italian cooking inspired by his grandmother, Leonetta Merlino.
In 1993 Batali opened "Po". In 1998, with business partner Joseph Bastianich (son of Lidia Bastianich), he went on to start "Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca".

The pair have since opened seven additional restaurants, Lupa (1999), Esca (2000), Otto Enoteca Pizzeria (2003), Casa Mono (2004), Bar Jamon (2004), Bistro Du Vent (2004, closed in 2006), Del Posto (2005), Enoteca San Marco (2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada), B&B Ristorante (2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada), Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, NY, CarneVino (2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada) and a shop named Italian Wine Merchants (1999) which is no longer under Batali's ownership.

The New York Post reported in September 2007 that Batali’s contract with the Food Network would not be renewed, and that he would no longer be featured on its Iron Chef America series. The article further reported that although Batali had not initially been dismissed from Iron Chef America, he decided not to make any further appearances on the show after the network made the decision to cancel his cooking show, Molto Mario, which had been airing on Food Network since 1997. A Food Network spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that Molto Mario would no longer be aired, but said that "Mario Batali is still part of the Food Network family. Sometimes family members go off and do other things. We completely blessed his decision to go to PBS ... He is still going to appear on Iron Chef America." No new episodes of Molto Mario have been filmed since 2004, but the network continued airing re-runs, with reruns currently airing first on Fine Living and currently on Fine Living's replacement channel Cooking. Batali was absent on the season finalé of The Next Iron Chef, but he appeared twice during Iron Chef America's 2008 season, and his likeness has been licensed to appear in the Nintendo game Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine. As of episodes airing in 2010, Batali's name and likeness do not appear in the show's opening credits.

Batali is featured in PBS’s show Spain... on the road Again with Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman (of The New York Times) and Claudia Bassols (a Spanish actress) featuring Spanish cuisine. The 13-episode series was filmed from October 2007 into early 2008. This will be the first of a series of shows that will be developed for PBS over the next several years. Batali is also in negotiations with Travel Channel to develop a series on Italian cuisine and culture with Anthony Bourdain that reportedly will be an "exhaustive, definitive Italy series with the kind of production values that Planet Earth had".
Batali teamed up with premium drum stick producer Vic Firth to create custom kitchen tools. Together they designed a line of wooden rolling pins, pepper grinders and salt grinders.

In 2009, Batali announced the creation of the Mario Batali Foundation "to educate, empower and encourage children". The foundation is an event-driven fundraiser for children’s disease research, children’s hunger relief, and literacy programs.

Batali has been critical of fellow international chef Gordon Ramsay, calling his cooking styles dated and boring. Although the New York Post reported, in 2009, of a feud between Ramsay and Batali, Batali has stated, "We really don't even know each other.... I'd love to hang out with him."

In 2009 Batali made his film debut in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Batali recently lost 45 pounds, hoping to shed about 80 pounds total. Batali said he decided to lose weight after he saw a picture of himself. He counts on light exercise and portion control to lose the weight. Batali said, "It’s really about calorie intake and calorie outtake. You just have to eat enough to get you to the next meal."

Mario is featured also in the MMORPG World of Warcraft: Cataclysm: in Stormwind City there is the NPC Bario Matalli (almost Mario Batali with the initial letters swapped) which is regarded as "Sous Chef" and feature the highest-level cooking recipes available.

Succes 2011: Sara Moulton

Sara Moulton is an American chef, cookbook author and television personality.
Moulton is a food editor for Good Morning America, a morning news and talk show broadcast on the ABC television network. For twenty years, she was the chef of the executive dining room at Gourmet until the magazine's publisher, Condé Nast Publications, announced on October 5, 2009, that the magazine was ceasing publication.
She is the host of Sara’s Weeknight Meals on PBS, a public-television network.
Between 1996 and 2005, Moulton hosted Cooking Live, Cooking Live Primetime and Sara's Secrets on the Food Network, becoming one of the original stars of that cable- and satellite-television channel during its first decade.
She is the author of several cookbooks and videos including Sara Moulton Cooks at Home (2002), Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals (2005) and Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners (2010).
Moulton was one of the founders, in 1982, of the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance.

Moulton began working in restaurants immediately, first in Boston, Massachusetts, and then in New York City, taking off time only for a postgraduate apprenticeship with Master Chef Maurice Cazalis of the Henri IV Restaurant in Chartres, France, in 1979. She also served as a chef tournant at La Tulipe, a restaurant in New York City in the early 1980s.
In 1982, Moulton co-founded the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance, a still-functioning "old girl’s network" designed to help women working in the culinary field.
In the interest of starting a family, Moulton left restaurant work and began devoting herself instead to recipe testing and development. She worked for two years as an instructor at Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School (now known as the Institute of Culinary Education), where she discovered her love of teaching.
In 1984, Moulton took a job in the test kitchen at Gourmet. Four years later she became chef of the magazine’s executive dining room.
Moulton’s television career began in 1979, when she was hired to work behind the scenes on Julia Child & More Company, a program on PBS. Her friendship with Child led eventually to Moulton’s job at Good Morning America, where what started as another behind-the-scenes position ripened in 1997 into on-camera work.
By then Moulton had begun hosting the Food Network’s Cooking Live. Six years and over 1,200 hour-long shows later, Cooking Live ended on March 31, 2002. Sara’s Secrets began the next day."Other TV chefs may own famous restaurants and perform with theatrical flair," said TV Guide'’s Herma Rosenthal, “But Moulton’s the one you can actually picture popping over to help you fix the lumpy gravy or the fallen soufflé."
Sara Moulton Cooks at Home was published by Broadway Books in October 2002, meant to counter America’s disastrous love affair with fast food by encouraging everyone to cook delicious and healthy food at home and to dine with family and friends.“While rooted in classic French technique, the book also accommodates the American hunger for convenience, novelty and freshness,” wrote Mike Dunne for The Sacramento Bee.
Moulton’s second cookbook, Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals, was published by Broadway Books in October 2005. It was reviewed by Michelle Green in People magazine, who wrote: "Sara has a gift for creating quick, accessible fine cuisine. Why suffer to make a gorgeous meal?"
In 2008, Sara’s Weeknight Meals, based on Moulton’s second book, débuted on public television.
Moulton's third cookbook, "Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners," was published by Simon & Schuster in April 2010.

Succes 2010: Gordon Ramsay, cel mai apreciat "chef" din lume

In luna martie am inceput un proiect referitor la cei mai apreciati 10 bucatari din lume la aceasta ora. Ineditul Top 10 - cu care sunt de acord mai toti specialistii in gastronomie -arata asa:

1. Gordon Ramsay - britanic, singurul chef caruia i s-au acordat 10 stele de catre ghidul Michelin


2. Paul Bocuse - parintele artei culinare franceze. Creatorul supei V.G.E (initialele fostului presedinte francez Valéry Giscard d'Estaing)

3. Bobby Flay - american, scriitor si personalitate TV


4. Anthony Bourdain - director executiv al renumitului restaurant Les Halles din New York City. Absolvent al Culinary Institute of America, titular a doua emisiuni TV faimoase: Travel Channel's cookery si Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

5. Rocco DiSpirito - la 16 ani, Rocco intra la prestigiosul Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park. A absolvit in 1986 , iar apoi a studiat la Jardin de Cygne in Franta. DiSpirito a devenit faimos datorita meniurilor sale italo-americane ca si pentru fusion cooking.

6. Thomas Keller - proprietar al The French Laundry din Napa Valley, Yountville, California, Bouchon din Las Vegas, Per Se si Bouchon Bakery. Perla coroanei este restaurantul sau The French Laundry

7. Wolfgang Puck - american de origine austriaca, stabilit in LA. S-a constatat recent ca e cel mai bine platit chef din lume. Printre restauantele sale se numara: Spago, Cut, Chinois,Postrio, Wolfgang Puck Express si Wolfgang Puck Café.

8. Todd English - traieste in Boston, Massachusetts si este, printre altele, gazda emisiunii TV Cooking with Todd English. Proprietar al faimosului restaurant Olives, din Charlestown


9. Emeril John Lagasse - proprietarul a multe restaurante de top mondial, toate in USA, foarte apreciate de critica de specialitate

10. Charlie Trotter - licentiat in stiinte politice, s-a aventurat in lumea gastronomiei in 1982, la Chicago



Azi e o zi mare pentru acest proiect, pentru ca tocmai am primit fotografia purtand autograful lui
Gordon Ramsay, nimeni altul decat locul 1 in Top 10 al expertilor gastronomi. S-a completat astfel podiumul topului, Bocuse si Flay fiind prezentati deja in postarile anterioare.

Succes 2010: Wolfgang Puck, chef de top mondial

Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian-American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and businessman based in Los Angeles. Wolfgang Puck restaurants, catering services, cookbooks and licensed products are run by Wolfgang Puck Companies, with three divisions.

Following the 1981 publication of his first cookbook, Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen based on his Ma Maison recipes, Puck opened the restaurant Spago on the Sunset Strip in 1982. Fifteen years later, in 1997, Puck opened the award-winning Spago in Beverly Hills, which has been recognized as one of the Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. since 2004. His success enabled him to launch the Wolfgang Puck Companies which includes the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. and Wolfgang Puck Catering. The Wolfgang Puck Companies encompasses over 20 fine dining restaurants, premium catering services, more than 80 Wolfgang Puck Express operations, and kitchen and food merchandise, including cookbooks and canned foods.

Puck is The Honorary Chair Chef for the "Five Star Sensation" Benefit in Cleveland, Ohio every two years helping to bring $10 Million Dollars to support The Ireland Cancer Foundation of University Hospitals.

Wolfgang Puck's favorite food is macaroons. :)