As Chef-Owner of some of the country's finest restaurants, author of numerous cookbooks and creator of kitchenware and gourmet products, Daniel Boulud's beginnings on his family’s farm near Lyon may seem a distant past. Yet that past, rooted in the rhythms of the seasons, produce fresh from the fields and fine home cooking have paved the road to Boulud's becoming one of America's leading culinary authorities. 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 opened his much-heralded restaurant DANIEL on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Here, the foundation on which he has built his career, his inspiration has been the seasonal ingredients supplied by dedicated local 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” at the James Beard Awards in 1994. After five successful years, the chef-restaurateur relocated DANIEL restaurant to its Venetian renaissance inspired setting in the former Mayfair Hotel on Park Avenue and 65th Street. Since the restaurant’s re-opening, Daniel Boulud has 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, the most casual and fast-paced of Boulud's Manhattan restaurants, is in the City Club Hotel on West 44th Street, just steps from Times Square. Most recently, Boulud created Daniel Boulud Brasserie. “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 new 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. The chef’s as yet un-named causal wine bar and restaurant is due to open late in the Spring of 2007on Broadway at 64th Street, directly across from Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. 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. Daniel was one of the founding partners of Payard Patisserie & Bistro and sold his interest in the business to François Payard in September 2000. Daniel was named “Outstanding Restaurateur” in May 2006 by the James Beard Foundation. The creativity, energy and personal attention apparent in each of Daniel’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. 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