Famous Chefs Who Didn't Attend Culinary School?

[johnsmith45678]

I was reading one of Mario Batali's posts where he gave advice to somebody to "attend college while cooking in high-end restaurants, after graduating you'll have enough experience you won't need to go to culinary school." What successful/famous chefs do you know of that didn't attend culinary school? All I know of off the top of my head is:

Mario Batali

Gordon Ramsay (if he did, I think he dropped out)

Scott Bryan (dropped out)

Japanese? chef in "A Cook's Tour - Down Under" who worked up from dishwasher

Any others?

[Silly Disciple]

off the top of my head:

Thomas Keller

Santi Santamaria

Ferran Adria

Joan Roca (I think)

Edited September 28, 2005 by Silly Disciple (log)

[robert40]

Just off the top of my head.

David Waltuck 'Dropped out'

David Bouley

Thomas Keller

Patrick O'Connell

Edited September 28, 2005 by robert40 (log)

[Silly Disciple]

Michel Bras and Marc Veyrat I think too.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Chef Masaharu Morimoto received nearly eight years of culinary training in Hiroshima at a restaurant specializing in sushi and traditional Kaiseki cuisine.

biography no formal training but apparently his hands-on training was just terrific!

Michael Romano of Union Square Cafe.

Michael Chiarello

[johnsmith45678]

Appears Wolfgang Puck didn't either:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/wolfgang_p...1702053,00.html

Conversely, Emeril has a doctorate from J&W? Wow, didn't know there was such a thing.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/emeril_lag...OD_9823,00.html

[ludja]

Alice Waters

Charlie Trotter

[Gifted Gourmet]

Hélène Darroze

her bio

[chezcherie]

i'm pretty certain chiarello met his first wide at the cia...could be wrong.

[Sugarella]

I don't know if she attended later, but wasn't Julia Child self -taught through writing her first book?

[chezcherie]

julia went to le cordon bleu paris.

[Gifted Gourmet]

i'm pretty certain chiarello met his first wide at the cia...could be wrong.

←

As a young boy, Chiarello worked the land with his grandfather and at age 14 he apprenticed in local restaurant kitchens. He attended the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1982. Then he studied hospitality management at Florida International University, graduating with a B.A. in 1984. Chiarello spent time in Italy and then, in 1985, opened The Grand Bay Hotel, in Coconut Grove, Fla., in partnership with Italy’s CHIGA Group. He also opened, as Executive Chef, Toby’s Bar and Grill, which specialized in new American cuisine. That year, 23-year-old Chiarello was honored as Chef of the Year by Food and Wine magazine.

bio hereYou are so right! Thanks!

[Wolfert]

Paul Bertolli of Oliveto and David Tanis of Chez Panisse immediately come to mind.

[JayBassin]

I don't know if she attended later, but wasn't Julia Child self -taught through writing her first book?

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Julia Child went to Cordon Bleu in Paris right after WWII. I think that counts. Julia never worked in a professional kitchen, however (except after she was famous for photo-ops).

Others who did not go to cooking school: Paul Bocuse, Jacque Pepin (Columbia U), Jacques Torres, Andre Soltner, Michel Richard, Craig Clairborne (does he count?), Pierre Franey, Craig Shelton (Yale), Alice Watters (UC Berkeley)...

[Gifted Gourmet]

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall ...River Cottage in Dorset where an English cooking television series was filmed

Clarissa Dickson-Wright ... of The Two Fat Ladies and Jennifer Paterson!

Raymond Blanc ... chef and owner of Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons

Ainsley Harriott of BBC Two's Ready Steady Cook

Madhur Jaffrey

Graham Kerr

Delia Smith

[PassionateChefsDie]

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall ...River Cottage in Dorset  where an English cooking television series was filmed

Clarissa Dickson-Wright ... of The Two Fat Ladies and Jennifer Paterson!

Raymond Blanc ... chef and owner of Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons

Ainsley Harriott of BBC Two's Ready Steady Cook

Madhur Jaffrey

Graham Kerr

Delia Smith

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Pretty sure Ainsley Harriet did our equivalent of Westminster College same as Jamie Oliver maybe wrong!

All Missed though no longer cooking Nico Ladenis!

[Fat Guy]

Tom Colicchio

[Gifted Gourmet]

Ainsley Harriott's bio

[dvs]

Paul Bertolli of Oliveto and David Tanis of Chez Panisse immediately come to mind.

←

no longer at oliveto...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGFEES3F41.DTL

[Gifted Gourmet]

Chef Paul Prudhomme ... learned from his family

[PassionateChefsDie]

Ainsley Harriott's bio

←

Which says he did attend culinary college!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Westminster College is not a cooking school but a regular college, if memory serves me. I certainly could be wrong but that isn't how I understood it ... sorry if I am in error.

[PassionateChefsDie]

Westminster College is not a cooking school but a regular college, if memory serves me. I certainly could be wrong but that isn't how I understood it ... sorry if I am in error.

←

Its classed as the best college in this country for catering all catering in this country is at this level! But if you look at the competitions this college have won over the years and the placements its full time students get, they are at our better establishments(Also believe Gary Rhodes is also an ex-student)!

In this country less chefs take a PHD or such like in catering it is generally done at a vocational level seems there's a difference between countries! If a catering degree is done they rarely end up in the kitchen I could probably mention more chefs with irelavent degrees than I could catering degrees! I'm not sure I could mention a chef with a catering degree, I know Philip Howard at The Square has a molecular biology degree!

[cdh]

never mind... PCD has explained that the Westminster College I was thinking of is not the one that we're talking about.

Edited September 29, 2005 by cdh (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

A thousand pardons, effendi! I am wrong and fully admit the error .. but I live on the other side of the 'pond' and have to apologize profusely.

but I was right about the others, I'll bet ...

Best wishes,

The Groveling Gourmet