Cat Cora Restaurant

You can read her bio on wikipedia, as far as I can read she has no restaurant or any reviews of any sort linking her to any kitchen except for post TV career stuff. I wonder what the big deal is about her. Not much of a chef IMO.

Another culinary talking head. Yawn.

She was the chef de cuisine @ Bistro Don Giovanni in St Helena for a few years, and I've eaten her food there numerous times. Her food is quite good - in fact, Bistro DG was one of our favorite restaurants in the area - more enjoyable than Chiarello's Tra Vigne just a few miles up the road. In addition, there were a few of her dishes that opened my mind to thinking "outside the box" and freeing me to experiment more with food.

If you read her complete bio you'll find that she was mentored by Julia Child who influenced her to move to NYC where she worked with Anne Rozenweig at Arcadia and worked at the Beekman Tavern under chef Larry Forgione of An American Place.

I understand that she's cooked for many celebrities including Jacque Pepin, Robert Mondavi, Wolfgang Puck, and Bill Gates. A number of chefs are impressed with and have enjoyed her food.

She's involved in numerous philanthropies, founder of Chefs for Humanity, and is currently Executive Chef of Bon Appetit Magazine.

Midtown Lunch

Cat Cora Joins Bon Appetit

She's a lot more than a "talking head" and has done much more than many better known chefs.

shel

Why does a magazine need an executive chef? Chef editor in chief maybe?

Because it's a cooking magazine, Kuan, one of the few that actually field tests its recipes. And somebody has to be in charge of the kitchen. Just like in a restaurant.

Do the magazines develop their own recipes or just use submitted recipes that they test before publication?
shel

It depends on the magazine, Shel, and on the department/section within the magazine.

A feature article could be the author's or staff writer's own recipes, for instance. Or they could be that of a chef who's being profiled, or a collection of ethnic or otherwise bound-together recipes, etc.

For instance, in the September Food & Wine, Marcella Hazan has a short article detailing her latest take on Marinated Fish with Salmoriglio Sauce. Obviously, that's her own recipe. However, Marcella could just as easily have done an article about the foods of Sicily, which would have included traditional recipes, recipes from restaurants, and maybe her own take on some dishes. Or I could do a piece in which I interview Marcella about, say, her ten top favorite Italian dishes. Those ten recipes may, or may not, be original to her. They certainly wouldn't be original to me.

The reputable, high end magazines (Bon Appetite, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Saveur, Food Arts, etc.) have test kitchens, where every recipe is rigorously tested before it runs in the magazine. Gourmet's test kitchen, in fact, is the envy of every chef in New York because it is incredibly well stocked, and because it's operating budget is, for all practical purposes, unlimited.

Problems with printed recipes can arise from several directions, however.

1. Not all cooking magazines maintain those standards. Very often they have just lifted a recipe from another source---warts and all---and run it as original. If there's an error in the original, it gets reprinted. While you do see this more often on the Web, it's common enough in print media as well.

2. Those involved in proofreading can fall down on the job. Often enough you see recipes, even in the high-end pubs, that have egregious errors. Ingredients left out of the ingredients list, or steps left out of the directions, etc. In the top magazines such errors creep in after the recipe leaves the kitchen.

4. When errors are discovered the high end books take immediate steps to correct it in the very next issue. However, if you don't see the correction, your copy of the recipe will still be wrong.

Somebody once said the amazing thing about a dancing bear isn't that he's so graceful, but that he can even dance at all. So it is with recipes. When you consider the thousands of recipes that are printed every year, it's amazing how few actually do contain errors.

I had read somewhere that she was working on opening at least one restaurant. That's what made me wonder if she was leaving Iron Chef America. Speaking of that show, I saw her in the Milk and Cream Battle last night and was impressed. (She won the battle.)

I believe she'll have her own place soon enough. I missed ICA last night - glad FN will show it a few more times this week. I always enjoy when Cat Cora cooks - her signature shot of Ouzo with her sous chefs when they're done cooking always gives me a smile.

Shel

Shel,

Just an addendum to my last post, re: proofreading.

I just sent a recipe to a friend. This one happened to come out of a cookbook rather than a magazine, but still.....

In the ingredients list it calls for 1 serrano chile. But in the directions it says to add the serrano chili.

In this case it doesn't change anything. But kind of proves my point, as I'd be willing to bet good money that the chef who developed the recipe did not spell it two different ways.

I saw the rebroadcast of the show last night, and I too was impressed with some ofher dishes. The last couple of times I saw her, I was taken with the humor and whimsy of some of her dishes, especially the platings.

Her competitor in the battle put out some nice dishes as well.

Overall, it was fun to watch, and some very creative ideas were put forth by both chefs.

shel

Scroll down the page for news about Cat's restaurant

Cat Cora's White Cheddar Corn Bread with Scallions

"[Cat Cora] is on the Macy's Culinary Council which includes 16 star chefs. The Macy's Culinary Council is also involved in opening branded food concepts for customers with quick service and sit down food options. Cat Cora's Backyard "CCQ" is a barbecue concept that will open in 2008 in South Coast Plaza in Orange County, California"

Shel

she is about about to open the Cora Lounge in SFO's new terminal 2