VENUE:
CHAYA Brasserie
8741 Alden Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90048
310-859-8833

DATE:
October, 20 2011

Time:
7:30 PM

Chef Marc "Forge" Forgione began his career at the age of 16, joining his father, Larry Forgione (a culinary legend who revolutionized American-style cooking in the '70s and '80s), in the kitchen at An American Place. Marc fully embraced his father's livelihood and has built on his unique culinary foundation to carve out an identity of his own.

Marc opted for a traditional four-year education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he graduated from the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. He spent his summers working the line at restaurants such as Above in New York, with acclaimed chef Kazuto Matsusaka. These stints would lay the groundwork for Marc's post-collegiate toils, again alongside his father at An American Place and later under Patricia Yeo at AZ. When Yeo and celebrated chef Pino Maffeo opened Pazo, they took Marc along to serve as sous chef at the short-lived eatery. When Laurent Tourondel set out to develop his flagship, BLT Steak, he recruited Marc as his sous chef.

In an effort to diversify his experience, Marc left for France, where he secured a series of humble posts under Michel Guerard in Eugenie les Bains. Working at three of the region's finest restaurants, Le Pres D'Eugenie, Ferme aux Grives and Le Cuisine Minceur, Marc absorbed the nuances of classic French techniques and further developed what had already become a meaningful relationship with ingredients.

When he returned to New York, Marc promptly reunited with Tourondel, who invited the now seasoned chef to serve as chef de cuisine at BLT Prime. The restaurant would go on to earn sterling accolades from relevant publications nationwide, culminating in a 27 in the Zagat Guide, making it the highest-ranking steakhouse in the history of New York City. Following his role as chef de cuisine, Marc was named corporate chef for the BLT Restaurant Group, a position that enabled him to develop recipes and maintain the quality of the BLT brand as it went on to include more restaurants across the country. Marc has played a key role in the openings of BLT Fish and BLT Market, as well as the Washington, D.C., San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Dallas locations of BLT Steak.

With Marc Forgione, originally known as his nickname, he has created an approachable place with partner Christopher Blumlo "that people walk by and are compelled to enter and where the ingredients are the star." Marc was most recently coveted with a Michelin star in the 2010 guide, making him the youngest American-born chef/owner to receive the honor. The restaurant also earned the distinction of a two-star New York Times review, was named "Key Newcomer" by Zagat Guide 2009, "Top 25 Restaurants in NYC" by Modern Luxury magazine and "All Star Eatery" by Forbes magazine. Marc Forgione was awarded "Star Chefs Rising Star of the Year Award 2010"; named "Rising Star 2008" from Restaurant Hospitality magazine and mentioned "New Formalist" by Esquire magazine in 2008.In 2010 he was crowned the winner of the Next Iron Chef TV show on The Food Network. Read Chef Forgione's Iron Chef journal on the Food Network website by click here .

GUEST CELEBRITY CHEF - Larry Forgione
RESTAURANT - An American Place, St Louis, MO

Throughout a successful 27 year career, Forgione has focused mainly on our national cuisine and played an integral role in giving it international renown. His reputation and culinary influence landed him a place as one of LIFE magazine's "50 Most Influential Baby Boomers." Further more, no other individual from the restaurant industry was listed.

His contributions to his industry and those in it are innumerable. Leading the effort to support local farmers, he has helped ensure the success of farmer's markets, regional products and specialties, cottage industries and culinary artisans in America. To help showcase these products and the individuals producing them, along with Justin Rashid he co-founded American Spoon Foods, a catalogue and group of retail shops offering specialty food products from the same native sources that he uses. Continuing in his campaign to elevate American cuisine he published An An American Place Cookbook in 1996. His publication won a James Beard Foundation award for best American cookbook.

Forgione has also given much attention to national and local charities. He co-founded the annual American Chef's Tribute to James Beard, held in the Plaza of Rockefeller Center, benefiting New York's Meals on Wheels program. In the past twenty years, the event has raised half a million dollars annually.

He has catered to many celebrated figures including: Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, President and Mrs. Clinton, Rosie O'Donnell, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, Princess Grace of Monaco, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Kenny Rogers, Madonna and the Rolling Stones.

GUEST CELEBRITY CHEF - Bryan Forgione
RESTAURANT - Society Cafe at the Encore, Las Vegas

Bryan Forgione, second son to famed chef Larry Forgione, has been exposed to the cooking world his whole life. As a child, he helped in the kitchen at home with his mother Julie and would help out in his father's Manhattan restaurant, An American Place. In 1998, Bryan started working full time at An American Place where he learned the skills and knowledge of working in a professional kitchen and cooking three star American cuisine. From that point, Bryan has worked in a number of respectable kitchens fine tuning and expanding his knowledge such as, Above in Times Square, learning Japanese/American fusion, Cooking With Jazz, learning the art of Cajun and Creole food and his father's formerly owned restaurant Beekman Arm's Tavern in upstate Rhinebeck, NY cooking upscale country influenced fare while attending The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. For his externship Bryan worked under Michael Romano at his and Danny Meyer's Union Square Café in Manhattan. Bryan graduated with an associate's degree in February 2003. It was at school where Bryan discovered what would become his true passion with cooking, BBQ. He learned the basics from school and immediately began teaching himself his new found craft on his days off from work with smokers he built in his backyard. After graduating, Bryan worked with his father again as corporate Executive Sous Chef, opening up six Signature Cafés in Lord &: Taylors across the Northeast before taking off to Saint Louis, MO. As Executive Sous Chef, he and his father opened up An American Place in the downtown area, creating menus in collaboration with the local farmers. It was in St. Louis that Bryan befriended a local pitmaster who went by the name of "Bear" at Smokin Al's BBQ where he learned the tricks of the trade on his 250 gallon oil drum bbq pit. He took that knowledge and went back to New York where the BBQ scene was just starting to flourish and successfully opened up Swingbelly's Beach Side BBQ in Long Beach, Long Island as head Pitmaster/Executive Chef where he received rave reviews from local newspapers such as Newsday and LI Press as well as being named best LI BBQ by the well respected BBQ blog, Pigtrip.com. Bryan was also featured on Channel 11 News with Liveshot Larry working the pits and teaching Larry the art of smoking St. Louis style ribs. Branching out with this passion of his, he is a proud member of the Kansas City Barbecue Society where he is a certified BBQ judge and has been on the panel for events such as the Nugget's Best In The West Rib Cook Off in Sparks, NV.

Bryan is currently working in Las Vegas, NV at Steve Wynn's Encore as the Executive Chef in Café Society where they were just named Top 20 Best New Restaurants 2009 by Esquire Magazine.

HOST CHEF - Shigefumi Tachibe
RESTAURANT - CHAYA Brasserie

Chef Tachibe began training in formal French technique at the age of fifteen at the Hotel Ban Show Row in Nagasaki, Japan. He then served as an exchange chef at the restaurant Gannino in Milan, Italy, at the age of 21. Upon returning to Japan, he was named Executive Chef at La Marée de Chaya in Hayama, Japan. His experience with French and Italian cooking coupled with Japanese cuisine became the fusion that is now synonymous with Chaya Restaurants.

In 1981, Yuji Tsunoda, whose family has owned restaurants in Japan for over three hundred and ninety years, invited Chef Tachibe to accompany him and his family to Los Angeles to open the acclaimed La Petite Chaya, bringing a new style of "la nouvelle cuisine, which is now referred to as Franco-Japonaise", to the attention of Angeleno's. Twenty-seven years later, Chef Tachibe continues to command the menus and kitchens of the four California eateries, including Chaya Brasserie Los Angeles, Chaya Venice, Chaya Brasserie San Francisco and Chaya Downtown Los Angeles that opened in March 2009.

Chef Tachibe's latest undertaking has been creating and overseeing the launch and expansion of M Café. This new venture offers a café and deli-style restaurant, featuring contemporary macrobiotic cuisine. Chef Tachibe has been studying macrobiotic cuisine for the last fourteen years and is recognized and certified as a Kushi Macrobiotic Chef Premier at the Kushi Institute International. Chef Tachibe feels passionately that this is the most viable healthful lifestyle alternative. As Chef Tachibe had not been able to find a restaurant locally where he could enjoy both the flavorful foods that maintained these high standards and a lively, contemporary ambience, he decided to create it himself. Chef Tachibe opened the M Café on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles in June 2005, and M Café Beverly Hills in February 2009.

HOST CHEF - Haru Kishi
RESTAURANT - CHAYA Brasserie

CHAYA Brasserie's new Executive Chef Harutaka (Haru) Kishi brings with him over 15 years of international experience at some of the world's most renowned restaurants under celebrated chefs such as Joël Robuchon and Gordon Ramsay. Born to Japanese parents in Paris, Chef Haru's exposure to foods of all kinds came from a combination of the city's plethora of farmers' markets and restaurants. Chef Haru has held positions throughout Japan and Europe including the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, Robuchon's Chateau, and a family-owned restaurant, Tagawa. As executive chef at CHAYA Brasserie in Beverly Hills, Chef Haru brings to his position an innate understanding of both Japanese and French cuisines—which form the basis of the restaurant's award-winning cuisine—and a desire to surprise diners with his knowledge.