Charlie Trotter
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Charlie Trotter is a Chicago chef and restaurant owner.
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[edit] Biography
Trotter started cooking professionally in 1982 after graduating with a degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin. For the next 5 years, he worked and studied in Chicago, San Francisco at the California Culinary Academy, Florida and Europe.
Charlie Trotter is 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 13 cookbooks, two 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 recently awarded for his work with the Foundation by President Bush and Colin Powell at the White House, and received the Humanitarian of the Year award in 2005 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He also 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.
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!" a parody of a stereotypical screaming angry chef.
[edit] Restaurants
Charlie Trotter's restaurant in Chicago, which opened in 1987, was named as the 26th-best restaurant in the world, and 6th-best in the USA in 2006 by the well-respected "Restaurant Magazine"[1]. It has received awards and praise from other publications and travel guides.
Trotter owns Trotter's To Go, a high-end delicatessen and catering store in Lincoln Park, Chicago. In 2006 he opened Trotter's To Go Express, a simplified delicatessen located in Chicago's downtown Equinox Fitness Club selling fast food to carry away.
In February 2004, C, a seafood restaurant, opened in Los Cabos, Mexico under the direction of Charlie Trotter.
Trotter announced in 2006 that he would open a new restaurant, as yet unnamed, in the new Elysian Hotel and Luxury Residences tower near Michigan Avenue in Chicago to open in October 2008.
[edit] Foie gras controversy
Trotter became the center of a political debate in Chicago, stating that he stopped serving foie gras because he believed its production to involve cruelty to animals (although he has since allowed guest chefs to prepare foie gras in his restaurant). After Rick Tramonto of Tru said he thought the anti-foie gras stance hypocritical for meat eaters, the two chefs carried on a very public debate over foie gras, which culminated when Alderman Joe Moore proposed an ordinance banning foie gras from Chicago restaurants.
The ban passed in April 2006, citing Charlie Trotter as its inspiration. Critics have pointed out that "the law prohibits restaurants from selling foie gras but not from giving it away," and as a result, several chefs have continued to serve foie gras but only charge for the other ingredients on the plate. As of September 2006, Alderman Bernard Stone has asked for the foie gras ordinance to be repealed, and Mayor Richard M. Daley, who called it the "the silliest law that they've ever passed," [2] is backing the repeal.
Hot Doug's had openly flouted the ban and regularly served a foie gras sausage special. On February 16, 2007, owner Doug Sohn was slapped with the city first foie gras citation.
[edit] Books by Charlie Trotter
- 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
[edit] Coauthored by Charlie Trotter
- Clarke, Paul and Charlie Trotter. Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter 1999 ISBN 0-89815-908-3
- Lawler, Edward 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
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- Charlie Trotter's – Charlie Trotter's site
- MyRefined Review: Charlie Trotter's
