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Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Alice Waters, is generally credited with inventing California cuisine.

Biography

Jeremiah Tower was born in Stamford, Connecticut, son of an international film sound equipment salesman. A food lover, he had no formal culinary education before beginning his career as a chef. After earning a Masters Degree in Architecture from Harvard University, he had intended to pursue design of underwater structures in Hawaii. Out of money because his parents had cut him off, and inspired by a berry tart he had eaten there, he applied for a job in 1972 at the then-unknown Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. Alice Waters, the chef, hired him for his skills and his brazen confidence.

Tower left Chez Panisse in 1977, worked at the Ventana Inn at Big Sur beginning 1978, taught briefly at the California Culinary Academy, joined the Balboa Cafe in San Francisco in 1981, then in 1982 because head chef at Berkeley's Santa Fe Bar and Grill (a restaurant that later became the springboard for fellow Chez Panisse alum, Mark Miller, to open the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a string of Southwestern-themed restaurants throughout the United States).

In 1984, Tower opened his own restaurant, Stars (restaurant), in San Francisco, in partnership with the Sante Fe Bar and Grill investors. It was an overnight sensation. Numerous American chefs worked at Stars, among them Mark Franz (of Farallon), Mario Batali, Loretta Keller (of Bizou / Coco500), Joey Altman (Bay Cafe / Wild Hare), and pastry chefs Tim Grable, Emily Luchetti, and Jerry Traunfeld. The restaurant was among the top-grossing restaurants in the United States for close to a decade. Tower opened branches of Stars restaurant in Oakville (Napa Valley), Palo Alto, Manila, and Singapore. He opened The Peak Cafe in Hong Kong in the 1990s, as well as various related ventures in San Francisco including a more casual cafe, an upscale bistro, and a kitchenware shop. As his fame grew he licensed his name out, and began to earn celebrity endorsement contracts, including one for Dewar's Scotch. However, Tower spread himself thin, and had a series of famous disagreements with his investors and other chefs.. The side ventures all failed, and by the late 1990s the flagship restaurant was losing money rapidly, unable to attract enough diners to support its high operations cost. Stars closed for business in late 1999, after which a "bittersweet" Tower declared that he was done with California.. After a stint in Manila he moved to New York City, where he now lives and devotes his time to writing.

Publications and awards

Tower's first book, New American Classics, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 1986 for "Best American Regional Cookbook." He has published several other successful cookbooks. His 2003 memoir, What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution, is a colorful account of his side of the story surrounding the invention of California and New American cuisine and the rise and fall of his restaurant empire.

In 1996, Tower won the Foundation's Award for "Chef of the Year."

References

1. ^ Kim Severson (September 29, 1999). "The rise and fall of a star: How the king of California Cuisine lost an empire". {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
2. "Jeremiah Tower Sells Part Stake in Stars". San Francisco Chornicle. June 11, 1998.
3. Kim Severson (August 3, 2003). "Acquire taste: Jeremiah Tower's memoir of a turning point in American cuisine is hot and salty, sweet and sour". San Francisco Chronicle.

Bibliography

• Jeremiah Tower's New American Classics by Jeremiah Tower (published 1986)
• Jeremiah Tower Cooks : 250 Recipes from an American Master by Jeremiah Tower (published 2002)
• The Great Book of French Cuisine: Revised Edition by Henri-Paul Pellaprat and Jeremiah Tower (published 2003)
• America's Best Chefs Cook with Jeremiah Tower by Jeremiah Tower (published 2003)
• The Arrows Cookbook : Cooking and Gardening from Maine's Most Beautiful Farmhouse Restaurant by Clark Frasier, Mark Gaier, with Max Alexander. Foreword by Jeremiah Tower (published 2003)
• Stalking the Green Fairy : And Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink by James Villas and Jeremiah Tower (published 2004)
• California Dish : What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution by Jeremiah Tower (published 2004)

• American chefs
• Living people
• People from San Francisco, California
• Food and dining in the San Francisco Bay Area
• History of the San Francisco Bay Area