Your Top 5 Favorite Chefs

Ed:
In my humble opinion, some celebrity chefs (mediocre cooks is a better word), are like night & day and 'a dime a dozen'...but they can 'project' themselves on TV and can be are more photogenic than say....real professional chefs.

My favorite Chefs (sorry, I don't have three [3] others)???

1) Jacques Pépin because he not only shows & teaches you to cook from raw product(s) to finished dishes; he also gives you the talk-through method of instruction.

2) Alain Ducasse because of his great career (training with the likes of Chefs Michel Guérard and Roger Vergé), and his cooking style and restaurants which has earned him a total of twenty-one (21) Michelin stars.

[FONT=&amp]"Cooking is the art of adjustment". Chef Jacques Pépin[/FONT]

The Frugal Gourmet
Julia Child
Justin Wilson
Chef Paul P. He died earlier this Fall.
My Grandmother Richardson the queen of cast iron.

In no particular order.

It's only right to include a local for me chef as I have eaten at his restaurant and he turns out great food.
Rex Morgan - Wellington Restaurant Boulcott Street Bistro.
He has been on TV here a few times but runs he restaurant in a old house with a passion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoNf3PEJFxQ


Al Brown. Another local for me chef, I have been to his restaurant Logan & Brown.
His shows are down to earth cooking. He cooks a lot of what we can get here, crawfish, oysters, lamb etc. Oh and he like cooking with fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIB-mJTES6w


Rachel Khoo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2zzshmjRls

Rick Stein - He is big on seafood, he does other shows and I enjoy those as well. His dog Chalky is a welcome guest, some say the star. LOL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJ3vRSnAZ8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYKqUGdc7rc

Only four, if I think of the number five I'll post later.

In no particular order

Martin Yan

Jaques Pepin

Rick Bayless

Gordon Ramsey

Wolfgang Puck

JaredB said:

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Now I'm hungryView attachment 618166

Robert Mancuso, certified master chef at Bohemian Club SF (who needs 3 Michelin stars when reservations booked 20+ years in advance)
Wolfgang Puck, (gave me a great recipe for chicken soup stock)
Daniel Boulud, like Wolfgang, always willing to assist and great meals from seasonal items.
Jacques Pèpin, need I say more
Laurent Tourondel (great cookbooks) steak and bone marrow hints make the meals priceless at home.

1. My Wife (she counts because she is a Chef)
2. Michael Smith (I use his recipes the most)
3. Jamie Oliver (Brussels with Hustle is a genius recipe. I use a lot of his recipes)
4. Rob Rainford (Finally a Canadian who knows how to BBQ)
5. Bob Blumer (his creativity puts him on the list)

maxman said:

3. Jamie Oliver (Brussels with Hustle is a genius recipe. I use a lot of his recipes)

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Illegal procedure- mentioning an interesting dish without recipe. Five yard penalty, repeat first down

Jacques Pèpin
Julia Child
Jose Garces
Rick Bayless
Marcella Hazan

Rick Bayless is my goto for Mexican recipes. His book, Authentic Mexican 20th Anniversary Ed: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, is the one I use the most. I only have 2 or 3 recipes left to do in that book as I tried all the sauces and dishes in there.

Steven Raichlen and Aaron Franklin are pretty much my goto for BBQ stuff. I have a Ted Reader book but I really don't use it. I also have the Big Bob Gibson book that I plan to use soonish

Masaharu Morimoto and Chen Kenichi (a.k.a the original Iron Chefs) are two of the chefs that I enjoyed the most on Iron Chef.

Finally, I can't go without mentioning an Australian chef... Two actually... Guy Grossi, really love his restaurant in Melbourne and the bill wasn't that much considering that I was in there for 4 hours... Matt Moran, great chef and a ninja to de-bone a chicken. His chicken soup is awesome.

I think that's it...

Being serious, and no particular order:

1. Sam the Cooking Guy. Not a trained chef at all, just a normal guy who likes cooking. Swears like a sailor, always one to forget words, and tends to go "Asian and/or wrap" far too often, but he makes fast and simple things that taste good and keeps it real.
2. Martin Yan. An absolute master of knife skills, can work a crowd, and made Chinese cooking approachable.
3. Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet. Down to earth, explained things simply, and who doesn't like someone who cooked with Elmo on-camera?
4. Jamie Oliver. His recipes are good, keeps things entertaining, really tries to keep things natural/fresh, and also showed how he got most of his ingredients; that was the the part of the show that made him stand out. Plus: he was willing to spend a lot of time in the USA to help people eat better and create a TV show about it.
5. Alton Brown. The scientist in me enjoys his shows.

Honorable mentions: Bourdain for being entertaining and not caring what others think; Giada and Nigella for reasons stated above.

oc_in_fw said:

Illegal procedure- mentioning an interesting dish without recipe. Five yard penalty, repeat first down

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Unfortunately his site is down right now but you can find it there.
I saw it on TV then found it on youtube but I can't find it there now.

Here is the Google Cached version of the page. I don't know if it will work for you.
If not, you'll have to google it and look at the cached version yourself.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca#ft9qh6b0T2uXd68E.97

maxman said:

Unfortunately his site is down right now but you can find it there.
I saw it on TV then found it on youtube but I can't find it there now.

Here is the Google Cached version of the page. I don't know if it will work for you.
If not, you'll have to google it and look at the cached version yourself.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca#ft9qh6b0T2uXd68E.97

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Ok, the league rules for no fine in this instance

I like this guy.

Certainly no chef, but I used to enjoy watching clunky The Urban Peasant bumble around with food. The guy's a mess in the kitchen, banging around pots and pans, struggling to turn on his stove, and once in a while cutting himself while hacking up veggies with brutal knife skills. I'm sure he's a nice fellow though.

Jacques Pèpin a real chef who cooks in real time and is one of the nicest people you could meet.
Julia Child another gem who started it all on TV
Jeff Smith. Sanity in the kitchen. Less is more and his 'cooking American' book is only one of a few I use.
Scotto. He keeps me interested and real. We will never agree so it's fun.

There is a four hour special on PBS tonight celebrating Jacques Pèpin and his 80th birthday.

Philippe Gardell (Chapeau! SF)
Oliver Ridgeway (Grange, Sacramento)
Mark Dommen (1 Market, SF)
Amy Murray (Revival, Berkeley)

1. Sara Moulton
2. Alton Brown (the Good Eats Guy, not the let four chefs stab each other in the back guy)
3. Julia Child
4. Jacques Pepin
5. Jeff Smith