Who is the best chef/cook/food innovator?
 

Poll to be posted ASAP.

None of the above.

The correct answer is Ferran Adria.

weak poll is weak...

Gordon Ramsay

Where's the choice for Ollie Gates???

I'm looking for well-known chefs, etc.. I can take you to a KC restaurant that kills it with an award winning chef. Not the point.

The title of your thread is: Who is the best chef/cook/food innovator?

And by all accounts the answer is Ferran Adria. It's not about awards. This man reinvented food. His restaurant El Bulli (until it closed this past year) was universally considered the best restaurant in the world.

If you want to talk about who the most well-known chef/cook is, or who is your favorite celebrity chef, we can do that too.

the guy who made the first cheeseburger
or smoked the first butt

The best chefs are well known. I don't know Ferran Adria. He might have been great, but his restaurant closed?

Food innovation is all about chefs and cooks. New combinations, flavors, textures. One day it's sauerkraut and bread and the next day it's a Reuben.

I heard that Rachel Ray has no formal training in the kitchen and that critics have demonized her because she never does the prep work or even knows how to cook anything that you and I couldn't do. Her only claim to the food industry is that her family owned restaurants.

If those rumors are true, I don't think Ms. Perky should be included in the poll. It's like adding Milli Vanilli to the list of the greatest singer-songwriters ever.

Exactly!

I highly suggest doing some research on Ferran Adria. He is THE food innovator. He made just about every chef on the planet look at food in a completely different way.

You may never have heard of him. But all those people listed in your poll have sure as shit heard of him. And they all probably worship the guy. Believe me.

Pop culture celebrity status has nothing to do with being "the best" anything.

And Ferran closed El Bulli himself. He was tired of the format and he's currently working on changing things around. He's constantly challenging himself. El Bulli didn't close because it wasn't any good. People literally cried when Ferran decided to close up shop.

I don't see Chef Boyardee on the list.

A dubious error, indeed. This thread becomes more and more suspicious by the minute!

That dude is ridiculous. Bourdain's visit there for No Reservations is one of the best episodes ever.

Thomas Keller also belongs on the list.

DaKCMan gets it!

Further evidence that DaKCMan is (as we've all suspected for a long time) in fact awesome.

I've heard mixed reviews, but there is an El Bulli documentary that I'm really dying to see. Seriously, one of the biggest regrets of my life is that I never got to eat at El Bulli.

And, yes, absolutely Thomas Keller belongs on the list! Of course, he doesn't have his own Food Network show where he cooks off against regular people, nor does he travel around investigating diners, so... we should probably stop talking about him.

Giada... for two reasons....

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9...tiispictur.jpg

Of those listed, Julia Child.

I would tend to agree. Of those listed, it has to be her. She changed the game.

Fixed!!

http://www.freebiespot.net/wp-conten...f-boyardee.jpg

I'm not sure how innovative she was. Her gig was learning how to do French cooking in France and coming back to the US and getting American women to cook that way. I probably call her one of the most inspiring cooks, not innovative.

:clap:

Awesome.

Maybe not innovative in terms of her cooking or her recipe designs. But the way we cook in the kitchen and eat today was largely influenced by her. And things like the Food Network may not exist (or at least may not be as successful) had it not been for Julia Child.

Food culture today owes a lot to her.

This is a perfect example of someone stacking the deck.

If they don't butcher their own meat
****em

Agree on all counts. She was awesome. Especially in her early b&w shows. Later doing the 'Cooking with Jacque' or 'Cooking with Julia' shows not so much, in fact she was down right scary at the end. Loveable but scary.

Absolutely!

Just like grandma!

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I'd characterize her as more of an amateur evangelical than an innovator.

Kind of like whether Bob Ross was the most innovative painter.

Oh, I agree. But I think she did more to affect food culture today than anyone else on that list. I'm not sure which among them is really a "food innovator."

I second that.

Ang

If by "her" you meant McDonald's you're spot on.

If by "her" you meant Julia Child, you're grossly misinformed either about food or about art. If you wanted to compare Julia Child to an art museum hosting a retrospective of Van Gogh, then the comparison would be better.

Agreed he is the second as well as Joel Robuchon.

Ang

Dude! Yes! Maybe the only person mentioned so far that can rival Adria in terms of talent/respect.

While we're adding names to the pot, I think Grant Achatz deserves a mention as well. That guy doesn't even know that there is a box to think outside of.

Paula Dean

Probably either Fernand Point or Rachel ray. Def one of those two.

Sounds like a new poll to me. Blame it on the rain.

Be sure to add a stick of butter.

I can't watch her with that BIG FREAKING HEAD of hers...


just imagine if she and Dave Navarro had a kid.... :eek:

YES!!

http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/x...laurentiis.jpg

I was so focused on the blatant absentees on the list that I overlooked her presence.

Absurd.

She's not in even in the same league with the other people in the poll. Unless we're talking purely about most recognizable. Rachel Ray is an untalented, annoying, disaster.

In order of importance:

1) Guy who first decided to put mammoth steaks on the fire.

2) Inventor of bacon

3/4) Tie between the first man who looked at a lobster and thought it might be tasty / first man to cook and eat a shrimp.

5) Ollie Gates

6) Earl of Sandwich

7) Grandma

Tie 8/9) Giada

10) The Chairman

Honorable Mention: Alton Brown - I just enjoy the way he breaks down the 'why' ingredients act the way they do.

Alton Brown belongs on this list before Rachel Ray. Just saying. LOVE that guy!

I have to agree since Alton taught me how to make no fail gravy.

There is no appropriate answer other than Ferran Adria.

I'd vote for him. Dude knows his stuff. Super smart.

Padma ftw

She has a head?

You know how we all know you are gay?

No one on that list is truly innovative. They all do what they do very well, and are easy to look at and easy to listen to, but "innovative", not so much.

Probably the most innovative guy--who rarely even cooks any more--is Anthony Bourdain, who has gone everywhere and tried everything and seems to appreciate it all, from the easiest cheapest meal to the most gourmet bizarre concoction. He seems to have the best background that, if he chose to re-open a restaurant, would come up with some innovative stuff.

They wonder why I am not serious......

Ramsey.
Posted via Mobile Device

Gordon Ramsey isn't an option?

fail

Ramsey.

Because he reminds me of what Todd Haley would be like as a chef.

Ferran Adria is the only one I'd call an innovator. He revolutionized the food scene with El Bulli. The rest of the people on that list don't even compare. There are other chefs out there currently doing similar pushing of the boundaries to what was done at El Bulli in the past but none are on this list.

I see that Red Brooklyn already posted and was the reason Adria got added. Anyway, if you want to mix innovative with pop, I'd say David Chang might go on the list.

One of my former students (pretty much a friend now) sells truffles to Thomas Keller. He went to the Per Se thanksgiving staff meal this year. Lucky bastard.

The guy who invented spam

Guy Fieri's (sp) doppleganger.

This post is not good.

Chef Boyardee Beefaroni was a highlight of my childhood.

**** that guy.

Seriously, jealous.

I love Anthony Bourdain but not because he's an innovator, nor because he used to be a cook. The man deserves tremendous respect but not because he's an innovator. And he'd be the first to admit it.

David Chang is a good addition as well. Batali and Wolfgang Puck also belong ahead of some of the others already present - especially if Bobby Flay gets a nod.

There's something mutually horrifying and charming about the fact that Ferran Adria and Chef Boyardee are tied in this poll.

LMAO

Close race between Ferran Adria and Chef Boyardee. :rockon:

:toast:

Go Ferran!!

Also, did we mention Jose Andres at all in this thread? Probably should if we haven't.

He's a fascinating kid. Here's an article about him.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/04...-truffles.html

He used to use my computer between classes to track his FedEx shipments of truffles. And he was like 16.

Wow. That's outstanding. Good for him. Really inspiring story.

Shit yeah. Thanks for that link.

I was actually out at the land where the truffiere is last weekend for a Christmas party and will be spending NYE out there as well. Sweet place.

It's funny because Ian was just this sort of goofy kid in my creative writing class. He didn't really show that much interest in writing, so I started talking with him about his interests. We figured out we were both into food, then he started talking about his truffle business and he transformed before my eyes from a goofy teenager to a business savvy entrepreneur. Was crazy. I sponsored the food club mentioned in the article.

Rachel Ray isn't an innovator or anything, but she's probably made more money than the rest of that list combined.

chef boyardee kept me alive through college, he gets my vote

You forgot...Adam Rich. Just sayin'... ;)

I posted about this former student of mine previously, but I thought you all might enjoy a "new" video done by yahoo news.:

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That's a great story NewChief. It's nice to see a young kid with energy go out and make something happen. I bet he didn't sit at home playing video games in his spare time.

Yes! I actually saw on the History Channel that the hamburger was invented in Wichita in the early 1900s when a guy was mad that his meatball was cooking too slow so he got mad and smacked it with his spatula. He then noticed it was the size of the rolls they served and the rest is history.

None of the above, its gotta be Pasquale Carpino, he was awesome looong before food network & most of these other guys, his food always looked incredible & he was always fun to watch...

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