As Chef-Owner of some of the country’s finest restaurants, author of numerous cookbooks and creator of gourmet products, Daniel Boulud’s beginnings on his family’s farm may seem a distant past. While he hails from Lyon, it is in New York that he has truly mastered the culinary scene. Boulud’s style is marked for his unique use of time-honored French technique applied to the finest seasonal American ingredients. Yet his past, rooted in the rhythms of the seasons, produce fresh from the fields and fine home cooking have paved the road for Boulud to become one of America’s leading culinary authorities. Over the last two decades, Boulud has evolved from a chef to a chef-restaurateur, bringing his artistry to his New York City restaurants DANIEL, Café Boulud, DB Bistro Moderne and Bar Boulud, the newly opened bistro across from Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. In addition, he has created Café Boulud in Palm Beach and Daniel Boulud Brasserie at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort. After his nomination as best cooking apprentice in France, Daniel went on to train under the renowned Chefs who would become his mentors:Roger Vergé, Georges Blanc and Michel Guérard. Now Boulud himself serves as a mentor to the talented young cooks he has been working with here in the United States for almost twenty-five years. Before making his way to the U.S., Daniel spent two years in Copenhagen working as a Chef in some of the city’s finest kitchens. Eager to come to America, Boulud landed in Washington, DC as the private chef to The European Commission. Soon after, he moved to New York City, which he has called home ever since. During his first years in New York, Daniel opened the Polo Lounge at The Westbury Hotel and later Le Régence at the Hotel Plaza Athenée. From 1986 to 1992, Daniel was Executive Chef at Le Cirque. During his tenure there, the restaurant was regularly one of the most highly rated in the country. In 1992, Daniel earned the James Beard award for “Best Chef of New York City.” 1993 was an important turning point for Boulud, the year in which he set out on his own to open his much-heralded restaurant DANIEL on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.ÊHere, his inspiration and the foundation on which he has built his career, remain the seasonal ingredients supplied by dedicated American purveyors. Not long after opening,DANIEL was rated “one of the ten best restaurants in the world” by the International Herald Tribune. Daniel himself was declared “Outstanding Chef of the Year” in 1994 by the James Beard Foundation, with the latter having already named him “Best Chef: New York City” in 1992. After five successful years, the chef-restaurateur relocated DANIEL to a grand new home, a Venetian renaissance inspired setting at Park Avenue and 65th Street. Since the restaurant’s re-opening, Daniel Boulud has also been named “Chef of the Year” by Bon Appétit Magazine, and the restaurant has received Gourmet Magazine’s “Top Table” award, a coveted four star rating form The New York Times as well as Wine Spectator’s “Grand Award” and New York City’s top ratings for cuisine, service and decor in the Zagat Survey. In September 1998 Daniel Boulud opened Café Boulud, named for the gathering place his great grandparents tended on their farm outside Lyon at the turn of the century. The contemporary Café Boulud is a French-American restaurant with an international accent welcoming Manhattan’s café society to a spot with the cosmopolitan chic of a Parisian rendez-vous. The chef created his first restaurant outside of New York City when he launched another Café Boulud in 2003 at the legendary Brazilian Court Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. DB Bistro Moderne, which Daniel opened in 2001, serves his interpretation of updated bistro cooking rooted in French tradition. DB Bistro, a casual and fast-paced Manhattan restaurant, is in the City Club Hotel on West 44th Street, just steps from Times Square. In April 2005, Boulud created Daniel Boulud Brasserie in Las Vegas. “The restaurant is reminiscent of beautiful places you’ve seen, but is like no place you’ve ever been”, explains Chef Daniel Boulud of his restaurant at the Wynn Resort and Country Club. A splendid waterfront setting sets the tone, at times Alpine lakeside auberge and at others, Mediterranean seaside resort. The menu abounds with the kind of straightforward cooking that Boulud calls “French comfort food” adapted to this modern rendition of a bustling French brasserie to the Las Vegas Strip. Bar Boulud, Daniel’s causal bistro and wine bar opened January 2008 directly across from Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. In addition to a full bistro menu, it features the fine terrines and pâtés of famed Parisian charcutier, Gilles Verot. Much further a field in Beijing, will be Maison Boulud, a French fine dining restaurant coming to the “Legation Quarter” the stately former US embassy compound adjacent to Tiananmen Square. The latter is due open in late September 2008. The third season of the After Hours with DANIEL series launched in March 2008 on MOJO TV. After a first season made in eight different New York City restaurants, the second round unfolded on the Los Angeles culinary scene. The third, most recent season features restaurants in Miami and New Orleans. As the consummate chef, Daniel Boulud gives viewers a behind closed doors look at the late night dinners, by chefs and for chefs, that are a highlight of a city’s culinary life and introduces the colorful characters who make up this demimonde. The high definition TV series reveals where chefs go to unwind after a night behind the stove and uncovers the far out foods they crave and cook for each other. Airdates and station information available on mojohd.com Daniel’s other endeavors include Feast & Fêtes Catering and his Daniel Boulud CONNOISSEUR line of Caspian caviar and smoked Scottish salmon offered via direct mail on danielnyc.com While Daniel has received countless professional accolades, he is most proud of having been named “Outstanding Restaurateur” by the James Beard Foundation and Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur by the French government, both in 2006. The creativity, energy and personal attention apparent in Boulud’s restaurants and gourmet products are surpassed only by his generosity and sense of community. The Chef has served on the board of Citymeals-on-Wheels since 1999, tirelessly hosting galas and raising funds and awareness to support their efforts to prepare and deliver nutritious meals to homebound elderly New Yorkers. His efforts were recognized April 2007 when he received the “Culinary Humanitarian” award presented to him at the United Nations. AUTHOR Braise – A Journey through International Cuisine Photos by Thomas Schauer, Harper Collins November 2006 Daniel’s Dish – Entertaining at Home with a Four-Star Chef, Photos by Peter Medilek, Filipacchi Publishing, October 2003 Letters to a Young Chef, with Peter Kaminsky, Basic Books, September 2003 Chef Daniel Boulud: Cooking in New York City with Peter Kaminsky, Photos by M. Schreiber & H. Amiard, Assouline, November 2002 Daniel Boulud's Café Boulud Cookbook co-authored by Dorie Greenspan, Scribner, November 1999 Cooking with Daniel Boulud Random House, October 1993 Elle Décor magazine bi-monthly column: "Daniel's Dish" Celebrated monthly newsletter Easy Cooking with Great Chefs (1988-89) TELEVISION AND RADIO PERSONALITY CBS Sunday Morning CNBC Power Lunch CNN News night with Aaron Brown Cooking with Burt Wolf(CNN) Cuisine Rapide with Pierre Franey (PBS) David Letterman (CBS) Eat Out NY (NYCTV) Emeril Live (TVFN) Fox Magazine and Fox 5 Live (FOX) House Party (NBC) Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (WB) Live with Regis and Kathie Lee (ABC) Martha Stewart (CBS) NYC & Co. Radio with Leonard Lopate The Charlie Rose Show (WNET) The Main Ingredient (Lifetime) The Today Show (NBC) The TV Food Network CHARITY DONOR & ORGANIZER for many national and international organizations including: Alzheimer's Disease Foundation American Cancer Society American Heart Association Burden Center for the Aging C-CAP Careers Through Culinary Arts Program Children's Center for Therapy and Learning CityMeals-on-Wheels (Board Member) Community Servings Food Allergy Initiative Gracie Mansion Conservancy James Beard Foundation Jewish National Fund Jewish National Fund Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lycée Français de New York March of Dimes Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach PBS Channel 13 Share Our Strength Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Spinazzola Foundation Tourette Syndrome Fund Unicef GUEST INSTRUCTOR & LECTURER at several schools and organizations including: "Degustibus" at Macy's Alliance Française Bloomingdale's "The Main Course Cornell University Culinary Institute of America French Culinary Institute Institute of Culinary Education Syracuse University