Bio...
Millions
of fans around the country recognize Dave Martin as the inimitable and
beloved chef from Bravo TV's "Top Chef” Season One. Undeniably the
most popular chef on the show, he won viewer’s hearts and palates with
his intense layering of flavors and vivid descriptions of his dishes.
His approachable yet sophisticated take on old classics, like his
signature Black Truffle Mac ‘n’ Cheese, made him a hit from the streets
of NYC to the shores of St. Tropez. And, of course, Dave has forever
secured a place in pop culture and Wikipedia with his hit line: “I’m
not your bitch, bitch.” His line of t-shirts bearing the phrase has
been the top seller on the bravotv.com website and sold out several
times over.It’s
not just viewers and celebs who love Dave, his passionate and
infectious personality also endeared him to judges and guests on “Top
Chef”. After winning a multi-faceted challenge that showed off his
outstanding recipes and people skills, Dave was hand-picked by
restaurant mogul Jeffrey Chodorow’s (Social) to cook with his team at
the Cannes Film Festival.
It’s been a couple of
years now since Dave’s memorable participation on the inaugural season of
Bravo’s ‘Top Chef’ and he has been working hard to keep his name and most
importantly his food out there for the public. Since his last restaurant
adventure as Executive Chef , ‘Crave on 42’ and his consulting for Chow Down, Inc. (VYNL
Restaurants-UES & Chelsea locations), Dave has been focused on promoting
his book and working on lots of exciting projects across the board. He teaches
classes at ‘The Culinary Loft’ in SoHo for Execs from MTV, Oracle, Lloyds of
London and more. He works with and trains culinary teams at the University of
Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) and has helped them launched one of their new
on-campus dining programs. Dave’s road into the culinary world was far from
traditional. After leaving a successful career and company in the technology
industry behind, Dave chose to pursue his real love and passion-cooking and
making people smile through his food. He headed back to school and graduated
with honors from the Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, California. Halfway through
the program, he formed his own catering company, ‘As You Wish Catering’, and
took on the Executive Chef role at ‘XO Wine Bistro’ in Manhattan Beach,
California. He soon built a strong local following of customers that enjoyed
his multi-regional cuisine that ranged from Southern Barbecue to Southeast
Asian and beyond. Dave’s unique layering of flavors have continued to keep
people interested as his ‘Black Truffle Mac ‘n’ Cheese” remains a top
seller at the ‘VYNL’ Restaurants in the city. Dave enjoys modernizing and
revitalizing old school comfort foods, sometimes even with a lighter and
healthier approach thanks to his many years of Southern California coastal living.
Dave’s first cookbook, ‘Flavor Quest’ was released in
October 2009 and is available via chefdavemartin.com as well as Amazon and
barnesandnoble.com. Dave is also working on his latest project- a healthy food
line for kids along with consulting, catering and doing guest chef/book
promotion events across the country. Since its inception in February 2010, Dave
has been the Host for Ronald McDonald House (NYC) and 4Good Productions newly
launched ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ Celebrity Chef Series. He also works
with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and American Heart Association on various
charity events and fundraisers across the country.
Current
Projects:
Dave was recently featured in Palm Springs
for Villagefest and a Special Event at Movie Colony Hotel (
http://www.moviecolonyhotel.com). He will be teaching at The French Culinary Institute in
NYC (
http://www.frenchculinary.com) July of 2010 spearheading the launch of their new American
Regional Cuisine Program (for their Recreational Division). Dave’s Wine
Country- Guest Chef/Book Tour kicks off Spring 2010 at Santa Barbara Winery in
May (
http://www.sbwinery.com), then later in Sonoma and Carmel Valley, California along
with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April (
http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks). See him in Oregon Wine Country this Summer with events
being organized at Bergstrom, The Four Graces in July & Brooks Winery along
with Brookside Inn in June and August (
http://brooksideinn-oregon.com) doing additional boutique winemaker dinners. Catch his
classes at ‘In Good Taste’ in Portland in June, July & August (
http://ingoodtastestore.com). He will be
in Washington State in June and August at Desert Wind Winery (
http://www.desertwindwinery.com) doing winemaker dinners and cooking demos. You can also
catch him at Culinary Vegetable Institute in July helping raise money to help
Veggie U (and the rest of our country for that matter) in our fight against
childhood obesity
http://www.veggieufoodandwine.com/2010/.
In August, you can catch him at the Newport Wine Fest in Rhode Island,
http://newportwinefest.com/ and at the
Bite of Oregon in Portland
http://www.biteoforegon.com/ where he will be doing cooking demos
& book signings. This Fall, he will be headlining at Martha’s Vineyard Food
& Wine Festival (
http://www.mvfoodandwine.com) signing books,
cooking and teaching a fun and informative food & wine seminar with Joseph
Carr of
http://www.josephcarrwine.com.Then watch for his second book in the Flavor Quest Series October 1, 2010.
