Test your design IQ
MANILA, Philippines - Who is the American celebrity chef who, along with Wolfgang Puck and Alice Waters, is generally credited with the development of what has become known as California cuisine?
He was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1942. A born food lover, he had no formal culinary education before beginning his career as a chef.
After earning a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University, he thought of designing underwater structures in Hawaii because of his obsession with finding the lost city of Atlantis. His grandfather’s death, however, had him changing his plans. After he was inspired by a berry tart he ate in the then unknown Chez Panisse in Barkley, California, he applied in the restaurant for a job.
Alice Waters and her partners hired him at Chez Panisse for his skills and his brazen confidence in recreating the greatness of past French traditional food.
Within a year, he became equal partners with Waters and the rest, and was in full charge of the kitchen, writing the menus, and promoting the restaurant.
Offering unique and daily changing menus at Chez Panisse and later at his own San Francsico restaurant, Stars, he became a crusader for California regional cuisine, which emphasizes the use of locally grown ingredients to elevate simple dishes to fine delicacies. He began his rise to culinary stardom without any formal training, instead relying on his basic common sense, appreciation for good food, and unshakable confidence.
He opened the instantly successful San Francisco restaurant Stars in 1984, moving across the Bay with his simple philosophy of cooking with the best ingredients. Shortly thereafter, he had a virtual constellation of Stars restaurants, cafes, and bakeries around the globe known for their emphasis on freshness and quality.
His first book, New American Classics, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 1986 for the Best American Cookbook. He has published several other successful cookbooks like The Great Book of French Cuisine, America’s Best Chefs Cook, The Arrows Cookbook— Cooking and Gardening from Maine’s Most Beautiful Farmhouse Restaurant, Stalking the Green Fairy: And Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink.
His 2003 memoir, What I Saw (And Cooked) in the American Culinary Revolution, is a colorful account of his side of the story surrounding the invention of California and New American cuisine, and the rise and fall of his restaurant empire.
He sold the Stars group in June 1998 and moved to Manila to open another outlet. After a year in Manila, he moved to New York City for four years, after which he moved to Italy and Mexico, where he now lives and devotes his time to restoring old colonial houses, scuba diving, writing a novel, and looking for un-oxidized champagne.
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Last week’s question: Who was the French-American architect who was both a gifted designer for landmark buildings like Breakers, the Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion on Rhode Island and the Cathedral of Saint Paul?
Answer: Emmanuel Louis Masqueray
Winner: Leilani F. Alipio of Montalban
Text your answer to 0927-9148817 with your name and address. One winner will be chosen through a raffle of texts with the correct answer. The winner will receive P2,000 worth of SM gift certificates for use at Our Home, SM Department Store, or SM Supermarket. They can claim their prize at Our Home in SM Megamall. Call the store manager at 634-1950, 634-1943. Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.
