Famous Foodies Posters: Chefs, Cooks & Gourmets “T...-Y...-”
for classrooms, kitchens and restaurants.

Notable chefs and cooks ~

Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford
b. 3-26-1753; Woburn, Massachusetts
d. 8-21-1814; Paris

Inventor Benjamin Thompson concocted the cheapest possible ration that was still a high-calorie, nutritious food for the poor and prisoners, that was still a basis for modern military nutrition into the 20th century. It's known as Rumford's Soup and is only one of many accomplishments that earned him the title of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. (He chose the name Rumford from the original name of Concord, New Hampshire, where he had been a schoolmaster.)

Rumford's Soup, low-fat with high protein and carbohydrate content - 1 part pearl barley; 1 part dried (yellow) peas; 4 parts potato; salt according to need; old sour beer.... boil slowly until thick. Eat with bread. Reportedly it was not particularly tasty and the diet has to be supplemented with corn or herring for Vitamin C and D.

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As a physicist he challenged established physical theory in thermodynamics and in practice created an efficient fireplace design that Jane Austen even mentioned (Northanger Abbey).

Thompson was also a Loyalist Colonel in the American Revolution who moved on to London after the war eventually being knighted by King George III for his service. Thompson was perhaps a bit of a scoundrel - he abandoned his colonial wife (a wealthy widow in her own right that he met in NH) and family when he fled to Europe; as a widower he then married Marie-Anne Lavoisier, a marriage that lasted only a year.

A crater on the Moon is also named after him, as is a baking powder that was patented in 1859.

• The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace

Guillaume Tirel
aka Taillevent
fl. 1310-1395; France

Beginning as an enfent de cuisine (kitchen boy) Guillaume Tirel, also known as Taillevent, became queux, or head chef, for the Court in medieval France. He is remembered for writing a famous book on cookery called Le Viandier.

Francois Vatel
b. 1631; Paris, France
d. 4-24-1671; Chantilly

Francois Vatel is remembered for invented the sweet, vanilla-flavored whipped cream called Chantilly cream, and supposedly commiting suicide because the fish was late in arriving for preparation for a extravagant banquet that was to be held on a Friday at the Château de Chantilly. A 2000 film starring Gérard Depardieu as Vatel was nominated for Best Art Direction Academy Award.

Alice Waters
b. 4-28-1944; Chatham, New Jersey

Chef and restaurateur Alice Waters was trained as a Montessori teacher.

From the back cover of Edible Schoolyard: More than a decade ago, Alice Waters, a small group of teachers and volunteers, and a school principal, turned over long abondoned soil at an urban public middle school in Berkeley, California, and planted the Edible Schoolyard. ...

Alice Waters quote ~
• “Kids come into the classroom and it's very hands-on, ... Kids like this. After phys ed, it's their favorite class.”

• Sharing Food Lesson Ideas

Martin Yan
b. December 1948; China

Chef Martin Yan is the host of the award-winning US national cooking show Yan Can Cook and cookboik author.