Test your design IQ
Who is the American celebrity chef whose Manresa Restaurant in California has been awarded two Michelin Stars for the past two years, and has been named one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants?
MANILA, Philippines - He began his culinary career in 1981 when he graduated with honors from Johnson Wales Culinary Academy in Rhode Island. He then worked in New York City for several years with a stint under Marc Chevillot at the Hotel de la Poste in Beaune, France in between.
The young chef spent two formative years of training at the Quilted Giraffe when the restaurant was at its peak, introducing Americans to a new style of intricate modern cooking. He then opened a restaurant in Fukuoka, Japan and helmed the kitchens of San Francisco’s Silks Restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel
The next step in his continuing culinary education was a two year solo tripmaround the world during which he held positions at the Michelin two-star Schweizer Stuben in Wertheim, Germany, then at the renowned three- star L’Esperance in St. Pere-sous-Vezeley, France with chef Marc Meneu. He completed his international training at Pedro Subijana’s two-star Akelare in San Sebastian, Spain
Upon his return to San Francisco in 1993, he began work as executive chef at the famous landmark Ernie’s Restaurant, where he combined great food with charity, spearheading events like Toys for Tots and Meals on Wheels.
In 2002, he opened Manresa restaurant tucked away on a residential street in the small Silicon Valley town of Los Gatos. Here, he works his magic with handpicked ingredients, coaxing out flavor and texture in things at in other hands would be merely ordinary.
His focus in finding the most flavorful, pristine ingredients from his surroundings with a philosophy fostered by the terror or sense of place of the California coast, and the kind of ingredient driven cooking and modern technique he studied in the US and Europe.
In 2006, he formed an exclusive partnership with Love Apple Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which supplies Manresa with biodynamic grown vegetables and provisions all year round.
Since he opened Manresa in 2002, he has developed a singular style of American cooking that has won over critics, gourmands, and renowned chefs alike. In 2010 Manresa was awarded two Michelin stars for the fourth consecutive year and he won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Pacific. The restaurant has been named one of the world’s “50 Best Restaurants†by Gourmet agazine, and has received four stars
from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Anthony Bourdain once attended a meal he prepared and stated it was “wildly creative but a well-thought-out meal. Beautifully presented — surprisingly minimalistic, very, very tasty.
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Last week’s question: Who is the 19th century American architect who is so renowned that he has a Romanesque-style named for him?
Answer: Henry Hobson Richardson
Winner: Ma. Antonieta M. Fabricante of Mandaluyong City
