- Charlie Trotter
-
Charlie Trotter Born September 8, 1959
Chicago, IllinoisCooking style Degustation Education California Culinary Academy Rating(s)- Michelin Guide One Star (Restaurant Charlie), Two Stars (Charlie Trotter's)
Current restaurant(s)- Charlie Trotter's – Chicago, Illinois
Television show(s)- 1999 – PBS – The Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter
Award(s) won- James Beard Foundation – Outstanding Chef
1999
Official website http://www.charlietrotters.com/ Charlie Trotter (born September 8, 1959[citation needed] in Chicago, Illinois) is a chef and restaurateur.
Contents
Biography
A graduate of New Trier High School, Trotter started cooking professionally in 1982 after earning a degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. For the next 5 years, he worked and studied in Chicago, San Francisco at the California Culinary Academy, Florida and Europe. In February 2010, Trotter married longtime girlfriend Rochelle Smith.[1] who is now also his publicist.
Charlie Trotter was the host of the 1999 PBS cooking show The Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter in which he details his recipes and cooking techniques. He likens cooking to an improvisational jazz session in that as two riffs will never be the same, so too with food. He has also written 14 cookbooks, three management books and has a line of organic and all natural gourmet foods distributed nationally.
Trotter is involved with his philanthropic Charlie Trotter Culinary Education Foundation and other causes. He was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year award in 2005 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He invites groups of public high school students into his restaurant as part of his Excellence Program 2 to 3 times per week: they eat a meal and are told how the food was prepared and the motivations of those preparing it.
Trotter also is unusual among celebrity chefs for his outspokenness in matters of ethics, most famously when he took foie gras off the menu in 2002 for ethical reasons.
Charlie Trotter made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film My Best Friend's Wedding, screaming at an assistant "I will kill your whole family if you don't get this right! I need this perfect!" a parody of a stereotypical screaming angry chef.
Restaurants
Charlie Trotter's poularde dish
- Current
- Charlie Trotter's restaurant in Chicago opened in 1987, and as of March 2011 is the only currently-operating restaurant of Trotter.[2]
It was named as the 30th-best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine, and 5th-best in the United States in 2007.[3] In 2010 Charlie Trotter's was one of three restaurants in Chicago to be awarded two stars by the Michelin Guide.[4] It has also been recognized as one of The Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. by GAYOT.com.[5] T
- Trotter also owns Trotter's To Go, a high-end delicatessen and catering store in Lincoln Park, Chicago.[6]
- Former
- In 2008, Trotter opened his second namesake restaurant in Las Vegas known as Restaurant Charlie. The restaurant garnered extraordinary praise from critics and received the Michelin Guide One Star award in 2009.[7] The restaurant also received the 2009 James Beard Award for "Best New Restaurant". Within the restaurant was a smaller, private bar known as Bar Charlie in which diners were seated overlooking the kitchen preparation and receive a hands-on experience. It closed in March 2010.[8]
- In 2004, Trotter opened C, a seafood restaurant in Los Cabos, Mexico. It closed in November 2008.[8]
- Trotter had planned to open a restaurant in New York City in a new building being built at One Madison Park,[9] but a foreclosure crisis prevented it.[8]
Published works
- Charlie Trotter's 1994 ISBN 0-89815-628-9
- Charlie Trotter's Vegetables 1996 ISBN 0-89815-838-9
- Charlie Trotter's Seafood 1997 ISBN 0-89815-898-2
- Gourmet Cooking for Dummies 1997 ISBN 0-7645-5029-2
- Charlie Trotter's Desserts 1998 ISBN 0-89815-815-X
- The Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter 1999 ISBN 0-89815-997-0
- Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home 2000 ISBN 1-58008-250-5
- Charlie Trotter's Meat and Game 2001 ISBN 1-58008-238-6
- Workin' More Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter 2004 ISBN 1-58008-613-6
- Homecooking with Charlie Trotter 2009[10]
- Coauthored
- Clarke, Paul and Charlie Trotter. Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter 1999 ISBN 0-89815-908-3
- Lawler, Edmund and Charlie Trotter. Lessons in Service from Charlie Trotter 2001 ISBN 1-58008-315-3
- Trotter, Charlie and Roxanne Klein. Raw 2003 ISBN 1-58008-470-2
References
- ^ Leach, Robin (February 26, 2010). "Strip Scribbles: Chef Charlie Trotter weds in the Maldives". Las Vegas Sun. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb/26/strip-scribbles-chef-charlie-trotter-weds-maldives/.
- ^ KAMP, DAVID (2011/03/30). "Charlie Trotter, a Leader Left Behind". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/dining/30trotter.html?pagewanted=all.
- ^ World's Top 50 Restaurants 2007
- ^ Chicago 2011 Michelin Guide
- ^ Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. GAYOT.com
- ^ Trotter's To Go
- ^ 2009 Michelin Guide
- ^ a b c Rausa Fuller, Janet (March 19, 2010). "Charlie Trotter closes Las Vegas restaurant". Chicago Sun-Times. http://blogs.suntimes.com/food/2010/03/charlie_trotter_closes_las_veg.html. Retrieved 2011.
- ^ The Butler Could Do It
- ^ Homecooking with Charlie Trotter review published by thefoodpaper.com
External links
Categories:- American chefs
- New Trier High School alumni
- University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
- Michelin Guide starred chefs
- People from Chicago, Illinois
- American restaurateurs
- 1959 births
- Living people
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
