Veggie U Food and Wine Celebration
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Supplemental Chef Headliner Information About Chef Madison Cowan In his own words, Chef Madison says, “London born, I spent several formative years in Jamaica and Detroit during the height of the civil rights movement and among the incendiary fires of race riots. My cookery experience began shortly afterwards in my step-mum’s kitchen. Her southern heritage helped to shape my personal perspective and influenced my overall appreciation of good food. One of my first, albeit non-paying jobs, began at thirteen during summers spent in my father’s hometown of Mandeville, Jamaica, harvesting mangoes and slaughtering chickens and goats. “At nineteen and with little formal training, I conned my way into a position with The Savoy Hotel in London as a chef de partie. After a less than stimulating year I headed to New York and enlisted in the US Coast Guard. There I spent the better portion of four years dividing duties as a cook and member of the boarding patrol unit. By day I prepared meals for a crew of two hundred and searched and seized unsuspecting drug smuggling vessels under the cloak of darkness. My night work led to US Navy helicopter training and being recruited by the Drug Enforcement Administration. “After my service I returned to Europe and knocked around Paris for three years, landing at La Bastide Saint Antoine and Jacques Chibois in Grasse. The mass produced menu didn’t offer much of a challenge, and I quickly looked for a new restaurant while experiencing a bit of ‘chic’ homelessness where I bummed around with mates and slept outdoors. I bathed in fountains, ate only what was provided me and partied nightly without concern for anything other than daily survival. “Eventually I secured enough money for air travel and with only a rucksack of belongings to my name, I decided to resurrect my cooking career in New York. Through contacts from my previous time in the city I signed on with a few temporary chef agencies and carved a reputation as a reliable and capable cook. My skills and assignments ultimately evolved to stepping in as line chef for a Gracie Mansion event honoring former South African President Nelson Mandela. This, in turn, led to catering a power luncheon for former Mayor David Dinkins, Rep. Charles Rangel and former President Bill Clinton years later. “Between assignments I held assistant pastry chef positions at Café Beulah and the Monkey Bar and served as maitre`d for the newly reopened Nicholson. Throughout the nineties I catered to numerous personalities including jazz legends Lionel Hampton and Betty Carter, fashion icons Donna Karan and Pamela Hanson and actress Rosie Perez. “The end of the millennium brought ventures into club promotion, acting Off Broadway and voice-over work, another bout of homelessness and chance opportunities with prominent New York chefs Herb Wilson of Bambou, Marvin Woods and the late Patrick Clark of Tavern on the Green. In 2000 I returned to London via a six month stint as head chef of Café Haarlem in downtown Amsterdam. This was followed by a steady diet of film production catering for Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers and Pinewood Studios. I was able to offer the likes of Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson, Mos Def, Anthony Anderson, Frankie Muniz and Woody Allen more palatable options to standard British fare. Head chef appointments with The Capital Hotel’s Le Metro and Ashbell’s in Knotting Hill, along with a four star Times review led to establishing my own corporation. “In 2010 Food Network selected me as a contestant for their Primetime hit series Chopped where I competed and won three consecutive episodes to become the first ever “Chopped Grand Champion” and I am a recurring judge on the network’s Extreme Chef, which premiered June 2011. Following in 2012, I was victorious in an epic battle on the network classic Iron Chef America and currently star on BBC America’s exciting new series No Kitchen Required. I’ve completed my first cookbook titled, “Soul Voyage” which chronicles my philosophy of cooking from the soul as well as a few of my journeys. “Madison Cowan LLC is a global culinary production company that oversees operations in consulting, book development, cookery demonstration, television appearances and mobile clandestine dining that has reached throughout Africa, Europe, Japan and South America. My current client list has included the likes of the late greats, Odetta and playwright Lanford Wilson. This segment of my journey is quite fulfilling, to say the least, but what I enjoy most is spending time with my family.” About Chef Robert Irvine With more than 25 years in the culinary profession, Chef Robert Irvine has cooked his way through Europe, the Far East, the Caribbean and the Americas, in hotels and on the high seas. Robert brings his experience to Food Network as host of Restaurant: Impossible, and has been previously seen on Dinner: Impossible and Worst Cooks in America. In its fourth season, Restaurant: Impossible continues its successful run as one of the network’s most popular shows, where Robert attempts to save America’s most desperate restaurants from impending failure in just two days with only $10,000. Over the course of each extreme mission, Robert assesses all of the restaurant’s facets and then overhauls its weakest spots with updates to menus, retraining staff and implementing aesthetic changes with the help of his design team, before hitting the streets to tell the community about the improved restaurant. A native of England, Robert joined the British Royal Navy at the age of 15 and his skills in the kitchen soon came to the attention of his superiors. As part of his service for the Royal Navy, Robert was selected to work on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, where the royal family and their entourages regularly dined. During his time training U.S. Navy chefs as part of a guest chef program, Robert worked in the White House kitchens and his creations were served to high-ranking government officials. During his career, he has also had the opportunity to serve 6,000 servicemen and women on a U.S. aircraft carrier and plan the menu for a celebrity-studded after-party at the Academy Awards. Robert is the author of two cookbooks, Mission: Cook! and Impossible to Easy. Robert recently appeared on The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs, where he competed against an all-star caliber group of chefs, including Anne Burrell, Michael Chiarello, Elizabeth Falkner, Alex Guarnaschelli, Chuck Hughes, Beau MacMillan, Spike Mendelsohn, Marcus Samuelsson and Geoffrey Zakarian, for the title of The Next Iron Chef. About Chef Amanda Freitag Amanda Freitag has emerged as one of New York City’s most celebrated chefs. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, N.Y., Amanda's first position in a New York City kitchen was as rotissier and garde manger at Vong in 1993, under the guidance of Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It was there that she became proficient in French techniques, while being introduced to numerous Southeast Asian ingredients and flavors and how the two concepts could blend seamlessly in his dishes. In 1994, Amanda started working with her mentor and friend Diane Forley at Verbena, where she rose quickly through the ranks to become the restaurant’s chef de cuisine. Diane taught Amanda the importance of using local, organic ingredients and introduced her to the greenmarket in Union Square. It was while she was at Verbena that Amanda realized how much she had yet to learn about the culinary world, and so in 1999 she traveled extensively through France and Italy to explore markets and restaurants. While in Paris, she enjoyed a short stint working in the kitchen of the venerable Arpege restaurant under Chef Alain Passard. While her time there was short, the lessons she learned were life changing. Working in a restaurant where nothing was left overnight in the walk-in except for butter was an eye- opening experience, and further developed her love of fresh ingredients and the flavors of the Mediterranean region. Amanda came back to New York where she worked at some of the city's most popular restaurants including Cesca, where she cooked alongside Tom Valenti as his chef de cuisine and earned two stars from The New York Times. Next, Amanda was the executive chef at Gusto in the West Village, where she received both critical and popular acclaim. In late 2007, Amanda was looking for an opportunity to show her versatility as a chef. Jimmy Bradley's search for a new chef at The Harrison and Amanda's desire to try something new could not have been better timed, and the two chefs' shared passion for bold, straightforward cooking made this a natural fit. Since Freitag's arrival, The Harrison has received numerous accolades from local and national media, including a two-star review from The New York Times, as well as features in Time Out New York, New York Magazine and Forbes Life. Amanda battled Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, has a recurring role as a judge on the new Food Network series Chopped and most recently landed a recurring role on the new Cooking Channel series Unique Eats. About Chef Johnny Iuzzini Johnny Iuzzini, award winning pastry chef, hails from the Catskills in upstate New York. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America with twenty years of kitchen experience since the age of 15, he boasts a heavy list of experience at highly lauded dining locations such as The River Café in Brooklyn, NY, Daniel, Payard and Café Boulud in New York City.