We are very excited to announce the launch of the Book of Cooks Ambassadors program. Book of Cooks Ambassadors are outstanding personal chefs, cooks, caterers, or foodies who are passionately committed to causes such as educating the public about personal chefs and other alternatives to home cooking, restaurants or delis; mentoring foodies and culinary students to start their own independent business as caterers, food artisans, or personal chefs;  promoting values such as local cooking, and the use of locally grown and indigenous ingredients; making food more broadly available and affordable; and promoting food/cuisine diversity across all its dimensions. By coordinating or participating in local events, Ambassadors will help advance these causes and take the Book of Cooks message to the local communities. I’d like to welcome and thank the first group of Ambassadors, for the cities of Birmingham (AL), Minneapolis (MN), San Francisco, (CA), New York (NY), Santa Monica (CA), and Netherland Antilles.

Chef Tom Herndon – San Francisco (CA)

“Proud to be on the frontline of Ambassadors for Book of Cooks.  Been a Personal Chef in San Francisco for four years now, and a foodie….forever. Been taking people on culinary adventures to Italy, France, etc. as well.  Life is rich.  Looking forward to seeing how our community will grow and grow.”

More about Tom:

www.fullfridge.com

http://beta.bookofcooks.com/cook/profile/58/

Chef Will Crutchley – New York City (NY)

“I have worked in the restaurant industry for over 21 years. Presently, I work as a private chef in NYC, Hamptons & Palm Beach. On my off time, I cater, travel and consult with restaurants.  I love being a chef -cooking professionally has allowed me the ability to see the world and encounter wonderful experiences”

More about Wil:

www.wilcrutchley.com

http://beta.bookofcooks.com/cook/profile/108/

Chef Brad Peters – Birmingham (AL)

“…Currently Chef Brad is an Executive Chef for Diamond Clubs Management that owns and/or operates three country clubs in the Birmingham, Alabama area – Pine Tree, Inverness and Heatherwood. Chef Brad also serves on a number of Advisory Boards, Committees, Charity Events and has received various awards.”
More about Chef Brad:

http://www.chefbradonline.com/

(don’t miss Chef Brad’s excellent podcast!)

http://beta.bookofcooks.com/general/profile/213/

Tim Bates – Minneapolis (MN)

“…Italian was my first love. Spanish and Turkish food quickly took over. One by one I studied the cuisines of the world, and the current chefs making new trends in this business. I have lived all over the world as a Soldier in The U.S Army mainly Germany, Bosnia, Croatia, and Turkey. I made good use of travel in my off time In Europe. Food has always been a dominant theme in my life from My Grandmother and her fresh baked bread/cookies/pot roasts, her 2 acre garden, our homemade cheese, our own beef, chickens…. Now that I am formally a chef I see Book of Cooks as being my portal towards establishing a name for myself. I simply adore food and entertaining. It is my life’s calling. I look forward to the day when I can open my own restaurant, yet with Book of Cooks I can do it one step better”

More about Tim:

http://beta.bookofcooks.com/general/profile/87/

Adriano Rosa – Santa Monica (CA)

“Ciao, I’m Adriano. I was born in the beautiful city of Rome (Italy) from Italian father and Argentinean mother. So my background is quite an interesting mix, from the culture, history, and art of Italy to the wonderful natural landscapes, and passionate Argentina. Since I was a child I used to make homemade fettuccine and ravioli with my father, and empanadas with my mother. I love cooking. It is surely the greatest of my passions and even if I’m busy or tired after a long day, I’m never tired for cooking. In fact, cooking relaxes me, and makes me always feel happy! Now I live in Los Angeles, but this doesn’t stop me to keep my Italian and Argentinean traditions, especially when it comes to cook! Buon Appetito!”

More about Adriano:

http://beta.bookofcooks.com/general/profile/121/

Karan Amarnaney – Netherland Antilles

“I am still just 18 years old, loved food all my life. I started working in restaurants 4 years ago, and since then, I have been working most weekends and vacations in various restaurants, picking up valuable skills such as Sushi, Baking, pastry, cake decorating,banquet and large party cooking, as well as some Molecular Gastronomy. I am currently the assistant sous chef at one of the best restaurants in the Caribbean, Rare (www.daretoberare.com). And will be continuing my Culinary Education in the Culinary Institute of American starting September.”

More about Karan:

http://beta.bookofcooks.com/general/profile/56/

I just returned from the Fancy Food Show, and wanted to share with you some photos and impressions.

First off, I would like to say that I was quite impressed with the high turn out. I wasn’t able to attend last year’s show as to have a point of comparison, but it sure looked pretty good to me. I must admit that I hesitated a bit before registering, after hearing from friends and colleagues who have traveled long distances to attend trade shows recently, to sadly find that half of the booths were vacant and the show was reduced to only a fraction of what it had been in previous years. Not at all the case here. Looks like Jim Spencer, Bill Lynch, and the rest of the team at NASFT pulled it off, and did an excellent job navigating the challenging economy.

We spotted a few very savory items and stumbled upon cool new trends. While the smartest people formed a line at the Spanish pavilion to taste the finest Jamon Iberico Alimentado a Bellotas, we were having a feast at the Pig’s Nic booth, all for ourselves (Gaston spent some time tasting and talking with the owner, as he thought the product line up was pretty good and original). I personally have a fascination for all things ethnic and so walking around the halls and finding some of the most exotic meals you can imagine (care to try some olive oil chocolates and candies? so good) and the finest brands from all across the world kinda made me feel like a kid in a candy store. I really enjoyed the diversity and wealth of international options. This, along with the vision and hope of encouraging experimentation, driving costs of food down, and making it more available and affordable were the major forces that motivated us to create Book Of Cooks.

Gaston and I were both born and raised in Argentina, so we were happy and proud to see the Guayaki’s booth actually being pretty solicited. Although I am not completely sure I buy all of the rep’s talking points about Yerba Mate. As the sales pitch goes, it is almost being described as a miracle tonic. Believe me, if it was a miraclous drink, Argentinians, Paraguayans, Uruguayans and Brazilians should live for hundreds of years since the mate is drank so heavily that it is sometimes even used as a meal substitute when there is no food to put on the table. But there is no question that it has lots of very good properties, and I am happy to see that Guayaki is getting the word out, while helping local economies in Paraguay.

At the cooking contest, we watched some excellent performances by students of Columbus Culinary Institute’s Chef Daineal Donovan and Professional Culinary Institute’s Mial Parker. And one of the highlights was the TweetUp at the InterContinental after the show, organized by Nicole and Ken from Vermont based People Making Good (the Ben & Jerry’s of sustainable and healthy food promotion). They were able to bring together a group of talented entrepreneurs in the areas of social media, like Lisa Adams Walter!, food blogs, and food manufacturing, such as Melanie’s Fine Foods, Awaken Savor, Nirmala’s Kitchen, Sweet Riot, Catalyst Tea.

I posted more photos from the show on our Facebook Page.

It’s been a long journey since we first brainstormed the idea of creating a food marketplace of the people, by the people, and for the people. Book Of Cooks (The People’s Restaurant) is almost a reality now, and I wanted to take a moment to thank every one of you who contributed with ideas, suggestions, all nighters thinking, researching, writing, designing or coding. A lot of work by developers, designers, copywriters and media producers went behind this first release, and a lot more work lays ahead. I want to thank particularly, Nikos, Manish, Vipin, Adri, Kat, Daniel, Satyam, Nicki, Neha, Ramphool, Jeff, Lee, Ryan, Josh, Steuart, the Lantern team, Christian, Les, Adam, and everyone who contributed in any way, shape or form to the Book Of Cooks’ beta. Thank you for your support!

Hey there! We’ll be writing posts here on occasion to keep you guys up on new developments and announcements as we approach our launch date (can’t believe we are so close!). We would also like to use this blog to share some links and articles that we stumble on from time to time, and that we think you might like. If you are not yet familiar with Book of Cooks please visit the About Us section on our website. If you have a couple of minutes, you can also watch our Video Tour, which we are posting below – hope you enjoy it. If you’d like to stay in touch with us as much as we want to stay in touch with you (a lot), you can follow us on Twitter of visit our Facebook Page. And of course, feel free to email me directly if you have any questions or comments. This is our website beta (first) release, and everything pretty much is under revision. Your problem reports, ideas, and questions are very welcome and will help us provide you guys with a better user experience. In fact, we have set up a section of our user forum where you can leave us Feed Back. Thank you for stopping by!! We look forward to staying in touch.