Episode 120: Chef Wojciech Modest Amaro

Thanks for listening to and supporting Chef's Story over the years. As many of you know, on September 16, 2016 we lost our dear friend and host of Chef's Story, Dorothy Cann Hamilton. She, among many things, was one of the most respected culinary leaders in the world. Dorothy founded the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan in 1984, which later became the International Culinary Center. Ask anybody she knew or worked with – Dorothy was a beacon of light. Her uncontrollable smile, her infectious laugh, and her love of life is how we remember her at Heritage Radio Network. As we end the year, we want to reflect on Dorothy's work with us, and share some of her on-air personality with you. Thanks for listening, and Happy New Year.

This week on Chef's Story, host Dorothy Cann Hamilton sits down with Chef Michael Coury, executive chef of OTG Management, a hospitality group that operates more than 200 restaurants and retail concepts in 10 airports across North America. While its competitors often focus on attracting licensed and franchised restaurant brands, OTG maintains full control over almost all of its restaurant concepts, which allows its menus to quickly react to changes in consumer needs. As Concept Chef, Michael sets the culinary direction for the company. He has assembled some of the region’s hottest chefs to lend their talents to OTG’s restaurants. Coury is a graduate of The French Culinary Institute in New York City and attended the California Sushi Academy, working side by side with Master Sushi Chef Toshi Sugiura. Before joining OTG, he taught at Toscana Saporita in Tuscany and worked with celebrity chefs Mario Batali, Todd English, Charlie Trotter, Jacque Torres, and Alfred Portale.Through his creativity, passion, and unique understanding of food, he has earned two stars from The New York Times, published recipes in La Cucina Italiano and has been featured in Italian Cooking and Living magazine.

This week on Chef's Story, Dorothy Hamilton sits down with Chef Ignacio Mattos. The episode was recorded in front of a live studio audience at the International Culinary Center. Born in Uruguay and mentored by South American grilling master Francis Mallman as well as Slow Food legend Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, Ignacio has earned critical acclaim for his signature style of bold seasonal food. Bon Appetit named him a 2012 tastemaker. The same year, his work at Isa in Williamsburg yielded a James Beard Award nomination for Best New Restaurant of the Year. He was also the chef at New York’s beloved Il Buco.

This week on Chef's Story, ICC president Erik Murnighan interviews Chef Douglas Keane. Douglas Keane's interest in cooking developed as a young boy helping his mother in their Michigan kitchen. His desire to get a date in high-school, however, led him to enroll in a culinary class, where he scored the date, but also realized he wanted to cook. Close family friend and renowned hotelier, Stan Bromley, further influenced his desire, encouraging him to enroll at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, where his fascination for the culinary arts took over. After graduating with a degree that would allow him to work in any hotel of his choosing, he decided to follow his heart to the kitchen. Currently, Douglas operates the Healdsburg Bar & Grill, and earned the title of Top Chef Master in the show's season 5 finale.

This week on Chef’s Story, host Dorothy Cann Hamilton sits down with Ed Hardy, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and one of Washington D.C.'s top ten chefs to watch in 2016, according to UpOut. Ed tells us all about his upbringing in Richmond, Virginia and the path that lead him to food truck success in the nation's capital.

This week on Chef's Story, host Dorothy Cann Hamilton sits down with CJ Reycraft, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and Chef/Managing Partner of Amuse, where classic French cuisine gets a modern update. Westfield has become one of three American chefs -- and the first ever from New Jersey -- to be given the prestigious Prix au Chef de L’Avenir (Leading Chef of the Future) Award, by the International Academy of Gastronomy.

This week's very special episode of Chef's Story features an interview with the inimitable Eric Ripert! In addition to his tenure at the world-renowned Le Bernardin, Chef Ripert has recently published the memoir 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line, which Anthony Bourdain hailed as “heartbreaking, horrifying, poignant, and inspiring,” The episode was recorded at the International Culinary Center in front of a live studio audience, and also includes a Q&A session that followed the interview.

On this week's episode of Chef's Story, host Dorothy Cann Hamilton speaks with Jonathan Gushue. After making a name for himself with award-winning menus, renowned chef Jonathan Gushue traded in fine dining for a wood-fired grill. In December 2015, he opened his first restaurant, The Berlin in Kitchener, Ontario. The restaurant leverages the region’s farming roots and showcases a modern take on central European fare, cooked over a wood-fired hearth. It also serves as a chance to elevate the techniques and styles Gushue has learned throughout his travels in England, France and Japan.

This week on Chef's Story, Dorothy Cann Hamilton interviews Chef Wojciech Modest Amaro. In 2014, his Warsaw restaurant Atelier Amaro was awarded a Michelin Star for the second year in a row, thus becoming the only Polish restaurant to boast such an accomplishment. He is the author of two books: Nature of Polish and Polish Cuisine XXI Century, which in 2010 won the Grand Prix in the category of culinary literature at the International Academy of Gastronomy in Paris. In autumn of 2013 he became chairman of the jury of the TV reality show Top Chef, and in spring 2014 a host of the Polish edition of Hell's Kitchen.

Today's Chef's Story is broadcast from the International Culinary Center in downtown Manhattan! The executive chef of Pearl & Ash, Trae Basore, joins us to talk about his upbringing in the hometown of Walmart – "it still had a very much small town feel to it" – and the main inspiration for his career in food: his grandfather.