Taking inspiration from the surrealist painters, and adding a strong dose of twenty-first-century technology and a love of great cooking, Dutch photographer Jan Bartelsman turned his lens on the esteemed chefs of the United States.Coast to coast, he photographed, interviewed, and collected recipes from dozens of luminaries of the food world.Amid four-star meals and dreamworld images, he reveals the very essence of each personality in this witty-and admittedly bizarre-portrait gallery.

  With photographic sleight of hand and great humor,Bartelsman plays off the personalities of one great American cook (Julia Child) and thirty-nine great chefs to create images that are spirited, insightful, and always unique: Rotund geese appear at Daniel Boulud's feet;the French Laundry's Thomas Keller hangs out garlic on a clothesline; Suzanne Goin strikes a graceful pose with a Martha Graham-inspired carrot!

From a young age onward, I have been driven to eat good food.Not because my grandmother was a great cook and took me out looking for berries, nuts, and mushrooms in the woods, as is the case with some of the great chefs in this book, but because my mother was a lousy cook. I used to hang around outside the few restaurants near my house, just to catch the smell of good food being prepared arid make plans for the day that I would actually go inside and taste it. Then, when I was nine, my attentions shifted from food to photography-my great-aunt Jopie had given me a camera and a developing set to process film. I was hooked, but I didn't abandon my first love altogether. When I got older, my two passions merged. Not only did I achieve my goal of eating in great restaurants, I got to meet and photograph the best food artists in the world.This project had a great start. On our first trip from Amsterdam to New York to begin the photo shoots, my colleague, Cees, and I took a taxi from Kennedy airport directly to Times Square where the James Beard Awards (the prestigious awards ceremony for chefs) were being held. Our publisher had invited us so we would get an immediate feel for the culinary world we were entering.As we approached the venue, we noticed that all the men were wearing suits or tuxedos, which we hadn't thought of bringing.Luckily, a few paces farther up the sidewalk we heard a man yelling, "Men's designer suits for sale!" We reappeared a bit later,dressed to the nines.

PREFACE BY JAN BARTELSMAN

INTRODUCTION BY STEPHANIE LYNESS

JULIA CHILD

BEN AND KAREN BARKER

LIDIA BASTIANICH

RICK BAYLESS

DANIEL BOULUD

JEFFREY BUBEN

TOM COLICCHIO

GARY DANKO

ROBERT DEL GRANDE

TRACI DES JARDINS

ROCCO DISPIRITO

TOM DOUGLAS

WYLIE DUFRESNE

TODD ENGLISH

BOBBY FLAY

CLAUDIA FLEMING

SUZANNE GOIN

CHRISTINE KEFF

THOMAS KELLER

BOB KINKEAD

JEAN-MARIE LACROIX

NOBUYUKI MATSUHISA

NANCY OAKES

PATRICK O'CONNELL

TADASHI ONO

MICHEL RICHARD

ERIC RIPERT

MARCUS SAMUELSSON

LYDIA SHIRE

KATY SPARKS

SUSAN SPICER

JOACHIM SPLICHAL

ALLEN SUSSER

RICK TRAMONTO

CHARLIE TROTTER

MING TSAI

NORMAN VAN AKEN

MARC VETRI

JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN

BOB WAGGONER

ABOUT THE CHEFS

THE RESTAURANTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INDEX