CHEF HUBERT KELLER
Chef Keller resides in Las Vegas, where he operates Fleur by Hubert Keller, featuring his contemporary French cooking accented with cuisine around the world.
With his palate-attuned to America’s evolving tastes, Chef Keller launched his widely popular Burger Bar Restaurants in Las Vegas and San Francisco.
He has won numerous awards including the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef: California", and he has been elected to the Foundation’s prestigious Who’s Who in Food and Beverage. Food and Wine magazine tapped him as one of the Ten Best Chefs in America, and Restaurant & Institutions gave him its Ivy Award.
Chef Keller has cooked for several United States Presidents, and he was the first guest chef invited to the White House to personally prepare his sophisticated menu for President Clinton and his family. Chef Keller also is known for his performance as a judge on Top Chef, as well as for his grace-under-pressure performance as a contestant in the first season of Top Chef Masters on Bravo. Chef Keller also was a resident judge on Top Chef: Just Desserts on Bravo.
He appears frequently in the media including appearances on The Chew on ABC, Regis & Kelly on ABC, Rachel Ray, The Travel Channel, The Food Channel Network,” The Real House Wife’s from Orange CountyGood Morning America, and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.
Chef Keller’s own cooking show, Secrets of a Chef, airs on public television stations across the country, and it currently is in Season 4. Filming of Season 5 began in October 2015, with Chef Keller visiting cities like Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Honolulu, Cuba, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
Dubbed a “Rebel with a Cuisinart” in the New York Times for his early championing of original, multi-course vegetarian menu in a 4-star setting, Chef Keller consistently cooks with a light hand and an eye on health. This led to him developing recipes for Dr. Dean Ornish’s best-selling cookbook, Eat More, Weigh Less. Chef Keller’s own cookbooks include The Cuisine of Hubert Keller (Ten Speed Press) and Burger Bar, Build your Own Burgers (Wiley).His latest cookbook Souvenirs: Memories, Stories and Recipes from My Life, written with Penelope Wisner, (Andrews McMeel) was published in October 2012.
CHEF PEDRO ARTAGÃO
Pedro de Artagão, is a chef and entrepreneur from Rio de Janeiro known for his work at Irajá Gastrô, Formidable Bistrot and Cozinha Artagão. Curiosity and audacity are characteristics that describe him best. In 2015, Pedro opened two restaurants in Rio — Formidable Bistrot and Cozinha Artagão. His passion for gastronomy started in his teenage years. when he started selling pies. He graduated from Tourism and Hotel Management, and his first job as a chef was at Cordato, in Hotel Transamérica, Barra.
Chef Artagão's many awards include:
2015 - Best Contemporary Restaurant - Veja Rio/Comer & Beber; Chef of The Year - Veja Rio/Comer & Beber; Best Somméliére of the Year for Julieta Carrizo - Veja Rio/Comer & Beber
2014 - Best Dessert - Rio Show/O Globo; Best Contemporary Restaurant - Revista Gula; Best Tasting Menu - Veja rio/Comer & Beber; Chef of The Year - Veja Rio/Comer & Berber
2013 - Best Contemporary Restaurant - Veja Rio/Comer & Beber; Restaurant Breakthrough Award - Rio Show/O Globo
CHEF WILLIANS HALLES
Chef Willians Halles is the Executive Chef of Galani Restaurant at the Caesar Park Rio de Janeiro Ipanema, which is managed by Sofitel.
Chef Halles' career is a wonderful story. In 1998, he knew that French Chef Rolland Villard was moving to Rio to be in charge of the restaurant Le Pre Catelan. One day, Halles went and introduced himself to Chef Villard and asked him for a position in his kitchen. At the time, Villard only had a position as a cook — not a sous chef — available. It was the perfect opportunity for Halles to successfully demonstrate his talent.
Two years later, Chef Villard introduced Halles to a friend who used to work for a cruise company. The man gave Chef Halles six months to learn to speak English, a language he had never spoken. He took the challenge, and the resulting job gave him the opportunity to travel for eight years through five continents and become fluent in English and French. During this time, Chef Halles cooked for such notable people as Nelson Mandela and the Royal Family of Monaco.
Willians started to miss his hometown of Rio and the feeling of a real family. Chef Villard offered Chef Willians the position of sous-chef at Le Pre Catelan, where he met Stefanie, the woman who became his wife.
CHEF LETICIA MOREINOS SCHWARTZ
Chef and cookbook author Leticia Moreinos Schwartz was born and raised in Brazil. She has a BA in economics, and moved to the US to pursue a career in cooking.
She graduated from The French Culinary Institute with degrees in Culinary & Pastry Arts, and she worked in legendary restaurants in NYC. Chef Moreinos Schwartz then studied journalism, and she is the author of the award-winning book The Brazilian Kitchen and My Rio de Janeiro.
Her work has been featured extensively in The New York Times, Saveur, Fine Cooking, among others, and she is a frequent guest on The Today Show.
She is the spokesperson for Merck’s campaign promoting healthy Latin cuisine with interviews in English and Spanish. You can learn more about her work at www.chefleticia.com.
EAT RIO EDITOR TOM LE MESURIER
Tom Le Mesurier grew up in England, but from an early age developed a love of food and travel, regularly venturing to various locations across Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific Islands. After graduating with degrees in Zoology and Ecology, Tom spent the next 8 years living in London.
In 2009, he set out on a 4 month trip to Latin American what his father referred to as “The Unknown Continent”. After 4 months, he decided to rip up his return ticket and continue the adventure, relocating to Rio de Janeiro in 2010.
Today, Tom works as a food and travel writer and culinary guide based in Rio. And, since 2011, he has been blogging at Eat Rio.
CHEF CLAUDE TROISGROS
Claude Troisgros is chef of the acclaimed Olympe Restaurant in Rio de Janeiro and scion of the famed Troisgros family in Roanne, France.
Chef Troisgros has been following the lead of his celebrated French culinary ancestors who refused to be trapped by tradition. The Troisgros family has provided France with some of its most creative, adventurous and famous chefs.
Claude Troisgros´ grandfather, Jean-Baptiste, created a furor in gastronomic circles when he first paired fish with red wine, five decades ago. Claude´s father is Pierre Troisgros. Pierre and his late brother Jean turned their family’s modest restaurant located across the street from the railroad station in Roanne into the celebrated three-star Michelin restaurant, Troisgros.
The Troisgros brothers and their close friend and fellow chef, Paul Bocuse, revolutionized French cooking in the 1960 - 70’s by promoting a new gastronomic movement :The Nouvelle Cuisine. Today Claude’s brother Michel is adding new energy to the third generation family restaurant in Roanne.
Born into this family’s unique kitchen, Claude Troisgros could make a beurre blanc sauce while other children were playing with blocks. At age 16, he took on an apprenticeship with Paul Bocuse. From there, he took positions in some of the best kitchens of Europe, including Taillevent in Paris, the Connaught in London and Tantris in Munich.
In 1979, when Claude was still in his early twenties and back in Roanne, his father walked into the kitchen and asked, “does anyone want to go to Rio?” Claude jumped at the opportunity to work for famed pastry chef Gaston Lenôtre at his restaurant Le Pré Catelan in Rio de Janeiro.
Claude began to work with the fresh Brazilian native produce and developed a way of tropical French cooking that became his signature. He intended to stay in Brazil for an adventuresome two-year stint, but he became captivated by Brazil’s unique flavors and climate, and has been living there for almost thirty-five years.
He first opened a small restaurant in Rio called Roanne located right across the street from a local open-air market. Word spread rapidly of Claude´s imaginative flavor combinations and pristine presentations, leading to the opening of the lively and elegant eponymous restaurant, Claude Troisgros, in Rio de Janeiro. It immediately attracted trendsetters’ attention, has earnined accolades from ecstatic critics and still remains one of Rio’s premier dining destinations. Chef Troisgros also runs a prestigious catering business with a client list that includes ex-presidents of Brazil and celebrities.
In 1994, Claude´s desire for a new challenge coupled with the economic instability of the Brazilian economy led him, along with his Brazilian former wife and two children, to Manhattan to open the famed restaurant, C.T. It was the first culinary venture in the United States for a member of the Troisgros family.
While still new to the American restaurant scene, Claude Troisgros conquered the hearts of the nation’s toughest critics, including Ruth Reichl of the New York Times, who awarded C.T./Claude Troisgros Restaurant three stars.
With the sale of C.T. in 1996 he returned to Brazil, but was lured to Miami Beach to consult at the Blue Door Restaurant in the Delano Hotel.
In 2003, Claude Troisgros decided to change the name of his restaurant in Rio de Janeiro to Olympe in honour of his mother. In 2009 he opened the CT Brasserie also in Rio de Janeiro, and in 2010, the CT Boucherie. In May 2012, Chef Troisgros opened, with his son Thomas, an authentic Italian bistrô : CT Trattorie. And in 2014 a second CT Brasserie address in Barra da Tijuca.
The Olympe Restaurant was elected best French restaurant of Rio de Janeiro by O Globo Newspaper, Veja Magazine, Prazeres da Mesa Magazine and has been awarded 3 stars in Quatro Rodas Guide for the last 25 years. The restaurant is one of the few Brazilian restaurants to have a coveted one-star Michelin rating.
Troisgros has been elected best chef of Rio de Janeiro several times, as well as hors concours chef by Veja and Gula magazines. He was named best chef of Brazil in 2007 by Quatro Rodas Guide. He presents a TV program “Que Marravilha” on GNT, a cable channel in Brazil.
It was Claude´s grandfather who always insisted that “cooking is harmony among the treasures of the earth“. Chef Trosigros´ balanced menu is a fitting tribute to the third generation of Troisgros family.
GILSON VAL, JEFFREY BEER
Gilson Val is co-founder and co-owner of Jeffrey, which is a Rio brewery created with the Carioca lifestyle in mind that brews special/gourmet beers. Jeffery beers can be found in restaurants and gastropubs throughout Rio.
Jeffrey also has its own concept store located in Leblon, the first brewery concept store in Rio. Visitors can enjoy the art gallery and taste beers made in the Jeffrey Lab, a small-scale version of its main brewery.
In 2014, Jeffrey was named the Best Beer by people's choice at the Franco-Canadian beer festival in Mondial del La Beiere in Rio.
MARJORIE POORE, PRESIDENT, MARJORIE POORE PRODUCTIONS
Award-winning producer Marjorie Poore is one of the most prolific and well-known cooking show producers in all of public television, with a career spanning over three decades that includes the productions of thousands of national cooking shows.
She has launched many of public television's most successful celebrity chefs, including Hubert Keller, Jacques Pepin, and Martin Yan. Marjorie also has pioneered new formats with ground-breaking series such as Cooking Secrets of the CIA, featuring the Culinary Institute of America, and Cookoff America, which spotlighted food festivals both nationally and internationally.
Marjorie has produced prime-time cooking specials for public television, including a history of The Joy of Cooking and a Christmas special with Chef Hubert Keller filmed on location in Alsace in Eastern France. In 2000, Marjorie Poore Productions was the first television production company selected to produce a PBS special on the prestigious Culinary Olympics, a 100-year-old culinary competition.
With offices in Vancouver, Canada, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, Marjorie is president of Marjorie Poore Productions (MPP) which started in 1992, and she is responsible for all aspects of the television shows it produces, including development, financing, production and distribution. MPP has a publishing arm that produces and distributes companion cookbooks to the series it produces. The company operates its own studios in Vancouver and has worked closely with Canadian broadcasters.
Marjorie also partners with her husband, Alec Fatalevich, and together they run and operate Canadian Motion Picture Park (CMPP), one of the largest film production complexes in North America. CMPP provides stages for Hollywood features including Mission Impossible, Twilight, and Godzilla, in addition to numerous television series, such as Supernatural.
The company has enjoyed long-term, sponsor relationships with some of the most prestigious names in the food industry including Cuisinart, KitchenAid, Weber Grills, and others. Previously, Marjorie served as Vice President, Productions, at KQED/San Francisco, where she was responsible for the production of more than 200 programs a year.
Her credit list includes: Hubert Keller: Secrets of A Chef; The Holiday Table; Baking Magic with Rose Levy Beranbaum; Seasonings; Cooking for Gold:Culinary Olympics 2000; Master Class at Johnson & Wales; Grilling Maestros; Cookoff America; The Joy of Cooking (PBS special); Home Cooking; Look & Cook with Anne Willan; Today's Gourmet with Jacques Pepin; Yan Can Cook with Martin Yan; The de Medlci Kitchen with Lorenza de Medici; Cooking at The Academy with the California Culinary Academy; Wine: A User's Guide with Hugh Johnson; New York's Master Chefs; Dining in France with Pierre Salinger; Great Chefs of San Francisco; Great Chefs of New Orleans; and Microwave Master with Donovan Jon Fandre.