rufuspaul
11-05-2013, 04:50 PM
You guys have probably never heard of him but he was huge in the culinary world. I never got to eat at his Chicago restaurant but I bet Rezznor has.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-charlie-trotter-dead-20131105,0,3424072.story
Charlie Trotter, whose eponymous Chicago restaurant was considered one of the finest in the world, has died.
The 54-year-old chef was found unconscious and not breathing in his Lincoln Park home this morning and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Trotter was found by his son Dylan at the home in the 1800 block of North Dayton Street and an ambulance was called at 10:45 a.m., according to a family friend and fire officials.
"My baby's gone," Trotter's wife Rochelle told the friend, Carrie Nahabedian.
Steve Kolinski, a neighbor who lives several houses down, said he came outside late this morning and saw six police cars and an ambulance pulled up at Trotter’s home. Kolinski then saw Trotter’s wife, who ran outside and was “yelling hysterically.’’
Trotter was wheeled out on a stretcher and taken away, he said. Trotter’s wife and son then left.
Trotter was pronounced dead at 11:48 a.m. at Northwestern. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday, but a source said there was no preliminary indications of foul play.
Trotter burst on the scene in 1987, when the self-taught chef opened Charlie Trotter’s restaurant on Armitage Avenue. In short order, the chef’s intense creativity and never-repeat-a-dish dictum made Trotter’s the most talked-about restaurant in Chicago, and his fame quickly spread throughout the country and beyond.
He was named the country’s Outstanding Chef by James Beard Foundation in 1999; in 2000, Wine Spectator magazine called Trotter’s the best restaurant in the nation. More awards and accolades followed, including a 2002 Beard Award for Outstanding Service; at the time, Trotter called it the award he was most proud to receive, as it represented “a team award.”
The mercurial chef was a stern taskmaster who demanded the absolute best from everyone who worked for him. He was also a man of uncommon generosity, creating the Charlie Trotter Education Foundation to provide scholarships for culinary students. He received the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year award in 2012.
“Charlie was an extreme father figure to me when it came to not just cooking, but life, and seeing things in a different way,” said chef Graham Elliot Bowles, one of many famous chefs who worked for Trotter. “I just can’t put into words how saddened I am by all of this. It’s a huge loss, not just personally, but for the culinary world.”
The news shocked many in the restaurant world, including L.A. chef David LeFevre, owner at MB Post and Fishing With Dynamite in Manhattan Beach, who worked for Trotter for 10 years, dating back to his externship from the Culinary Institute of America.
"He’s probably the most important guy in my career," LeFevre told the Los Angeles Times while waiting to board a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles after a brief vacation. “It’s funny because I’ve been talking a lot about Charlie this weekend because I was back in Chicago and seeing friends from that period.
"I think I can attribute the majority of my attention to detail and the majority of my awareness of what it takes to run a fine dining restaurant to him. He had a very acute sense of attention to detail and he saw things that most people didn’t see. All of us who worked for him are better chefs because we came out of that kitchen.
"He may not have been the best people person sometimes when he was trying to achieve a very difficult goal, but there’s no arguing that he made us all better chefs.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-charlie-trotter-dead-20131105,0,3424072.story
Charlie Trotter, whose eponymous Chicago restaurant was considered one of the finest in the world, has died.
The 54-year-old chef was found unconscious and not breathing in his Lincoln Park home this morning and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Trotter was found by his son Dylan at the home in the 1800 block of North Dayton Street and an ambulance was called at 10:45 a.m., according to a family friend and fire officials.
"My baby's gone," Trotter's wife Rochelle told the friend, Carrie Nahabedian.
Steve Kolinski, a neighbor who lives several houses down, said he came outside late this morning and saw six police cars and an ambulance pulled up at Trotter’s home. Kolinski then saw Trotter’s wife, who ran outside and was “yelling hysterically.’’
Trotter was wheeled out on a stretcher and taken away, he said. Trotter’s wife and son then left.
Trotter was pronounced dead at 11:48 a.m. at Northwestern. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday, but a source said there was no preliminary indications of foul play.
Trotter burst on the scene in 1987, when the self-taught chef opened Charlie Trotter’s restaurant on Armitage Avenue. In short order, the chef’s intense creativity and never-repeat-a-dish dictum made Trotter’s the most talked-about restaurant in Chicago, and his fame quickly spread throughout the country and beyond.
He was named the country’s Outstanding Chef by James Beard Foundation in 1999; in 2000, Wine Spectator magazine called Trotter’s the best restaurant in the nation. More awards and accolades followed, including a 2002 Beard Award for Outstanding Service; at the time, Trotter called it the award he was most proud to receive, as it represented “a team award.”
The mercurial chef was a stern taskmaster who demanded the absolute best from everyone who worked for him. He was also a man of uncommon generosity, creating the Charlie Trotter Education Foundation to provide scholarships for culinary students. He received the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year award in 2012.
“Charlie was an extreme father figure to me when it came to not just cooking, but life, and seeing things in a different way,” said chef Graham Elliot Bowles, one of many famous chefs who worked for Trotter. “I just can’t put into words how saddened I am by all of this. It’s a huge loss, not just personally, but for the culinary world.”
The news shocked many in the restaurant world, including L.A. chef David LeFevre, owner at MB Post and Fishing With Dynamite in Manhattan Beach, who worked for Trotter for 10 years, dating back to his externship from the Culinary Institute of America.
"He’s probably the most important guy in my career," LeFevre told the Los Angeles Times while waiting to board a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles after a brief vacation. “It’s funny because I’ve been talking a lot about Charlie this weekend because I was back in Chicago and seeing friends from that period.
"I think I can attribute the majority of my attention to detail and the majority of my awareness of what it takes to run a fine dining restaurant to him. He had a very acute sense of attention to detail and he saw things that most people didn’t see. All of us who worked for him are better chefs because we came out of that kitchen.
"He may not have been the best people person sometimes when he was trying to achieve a very difficult goal, but there’s no arguing that he made us all better chefs.