It sure ain't the 90's anymore.

When I dedicated myself to the culinary arts as a profession there was a lot of buzz about cooking, chefs, restaurants, and nutrition that gave birth to the celebrity chef. You had to seek out a cooking show on television back then. Liquid Nitrogen and agar-agar where things I saw more of in chemistry labs than kitchens. The last decade of the past millennium completely turned professional cooking upside down. The champion of the guys I started cooking with was Charlie Trotter. We shared his cookbooks, watched him on PBS, and shared little bits of news about him and this Chef’s Garden place. I still look through a few Trotter books I have. While they do seem a bit dated to me since I’ve looked through them 100 times over the past 12 years, there is always a source of inspiration to be found.

David Kamp writes a piece in the New York Times this week about the rise, but mostly the lack of what we all wanted 22 years ago, a Charlie Trotter Restaurant Empire! It is a good read especially for those of us who can wax poetic about the one chef, for a time and especially to us was the only Chef we were interested in.