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Charlie Trotter (born (1959-09-08)September 8, 1959) is a Chicago chef and restaurateur.

Biography

A graduate of New Trier High School, Trotter started cooking professionally in 1982 after earning a degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For the next 5 years, he worked and studied in Chicago, San Francisco at the California Culinary Academy, Florida and Europe.

Charlie Trotter is the host of the 1999 PBS cooking show The Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter in which he details his recipes and cooking techniques. He likens cooking to an improvisational jazz session in that as two riffs will never be the same, so too with food. He has also written 14 cookbooks, three management books and has a line of organic and all natural gourmet foods distributed nationally.

Trotter is involved with his philanthropic Charlie Trotter Culinary Education Foundation and other causes. He was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year award in 2005 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He invites groups of public high school students into his restaurant as part of his Excellence Program 2 to 3 times per week: they eat a meal and are told how the food was prepared and the motivations of those preparing it.

Charlie Trotter made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film My Best Friend's Wedding, screaming at an assistant "I will kill your whole family if you don't get this right!" a parody of a stereotypical screaming angry chef.

Restaurants

Charlie Trotter's restaurant in Chicago, which opened in 1987, was named as the 30-best restaurant in the world, and 5-best in the United States in 2007 by the well-respected "Restaurant Magazine". It has received awards and praise from other publications and travel guides.

Trotter owns Trotter's To Go, a high-end delicatessen and catering store in Lincoln Park, Chicago. In 2006 he opened Trotter's To Go Express, a simplified delicatessen located in Chicago's downtown Equinox Fitness Club selling fast food to carry away.

In February 2004, C, a seafood restaurant, opened in Los Cabos, Mexico under the direction of Charlie Trotter.

Trotter announced in 2006 that he would open a new restaurant, as yet unnamed, in the new Elysian tower near Michigan Avenue in Chicago to open in late 2008.

Trotter is an investor and brand name behind a seafood restaurant at the Palazzo casino in Las Vegas called Restaurant Charlie.

Trotter is also opening a restaurant in New York City in a new building being built at One Madison Park.

Books by Charlie Trotter

• Charlie Trotter's 1994 ISBN 0-89815-628-9
• Charlie Trotter's Vegetables 1996 ISBN 0-89815-838-9
• Charlie Trotter's Seafood 1997 ISBN 0-89815-898-2
• Gourmet Cooking for Dummies 1997 ISBN 0-7645-5029-2
• Charlie Trotter's Desserts 1998 ISBN 0-89815-815-X
• The Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter 1999 ISBN 0-89815-997-0
• Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home 2000 ISBN 1-58008-250-5
• Charlie Trotter's Meat and Game 2001 ISBN 1-58008-238-6
• Workin' More Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter 2004 ISBN 1-58008-613-6

Coauthored by Charlie Trotter

• Clarke, Paul and Charlie Trotter. Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter 1999 ISBN 0-89815-908-3
• Lawler, Edward and Charlie Trotter. Lessons in Service from Charlie Trotter 2001 ISBN 1-58008-315-3
• Trotter, Charlie and Roxanne Klein. Raw 2003 ISBN 1-58008-470-2

References

1. Charlie H Trotter
2. World's Top 50 Restaurants 2007
3. The Butler Could Do It

External links

• Charlie Trotter's Website
• Charlie Trotter cooks with the TurboChef Speedcook Oven
• Interview with Charlie Trotter

• American chefs
• New Trier High School alumni
• University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni
• Restaurants in Chicago
• People from Chicago
• Restaurateurs
• 1959 births