RIP Charlie Trotter

Great chef; great loss for foodies.

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-tributes-late-chef-charlie-trotter-20131105,0,5076123.story

 

I assumed YF would start this thread.

 

Was out working. My wife sent me an email with a link to a Trib story headlined, "Famed Chef Found Dead." Before it loaded, I had assumed it was Trotter.

Trotter has acted erratically lately. There was either something wrong with his brain, or substance abuse issues.

The Trib seems to have gotten the answer:

Chicago restaurants are full of chefs who trained under Trotter. He was known to be very tough. Some, like Graham Elliott, love the guy, and consider him a mentor/father figure. Others hate his guts.

Either way, he left a mark on the culinary scene in Chicago, the Midwest, and the country.

 

He was a great cook and then chef. A loss for Chicago.

 

Wow that's a helluva story...he knew he would die suddenly? Yikes.

 

Memorial service is today.

From who I've already read is in attendance -- Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud, among others -- it might be the greatest assembly of American culinary talent ever.

 

On Monday, Trotter’s world — which stretches from Chicago to Australia and other continents — paid service to him, even as these guests once again were treated to the kind of hospitality for which the chef became renowned. The sanctuary, with a capacity of about 1,000, was almost filled and boasted a large contingent wearing chef’s whites bearing Charlie Trotter’s insignia.

The Trotter’s alumni present spanned the restaurant’s 25-year history, including the two chefs who oversaw Trotter’s kitchen for many of its earlier and later years, respectively — Guillermo Tellez (now in Philadelphia) and Matthias Merges (Chicago’s Yusho and the new A10) — and other key figures who went on to success elsewhere: Giuseppe Tentori (GT Fish & Oyster, Boka), Bill Kim (BellyQ, Urban Belly), Della Gossett (Spago in Beverly Hills), Graham Elliot (Graham Elliot, TV’s “MasterChef”), Homaro Cantu (Moto, iNG), Michelle Gayer (the Salty Tart in Minneapolis), Rick Tramonto (R’evolution in New Orleans) and Gale Gand (formerly of Tru).

Acclaimed chefs Norman Van Aken (Norman’s Restaurant in Orlando) and Carrie Nahabedian (Naha, Brindille), who oversaw his work at Sinclair’s in Lake Forest in the early 1980s and remained close friends, were there (“He let me be his older brother,” Van Aken said before entering the church), as were Gordon Sinclair himself and Bradley Ogden, for whom Trotter worked in San Francisco in 1983-’84.

Prominent Chicago chefs such as Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill, Topolobampo) and Art Smith (Table 52), attended, as did some of the world’s most renowned chefs, including Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Tetsuya Wakuda, Alain Ducasse, Todd English and longtime Trotter friend Emeril Lagasse.

http://trib.in/HOyZe5

 

Former home for sale: http://www.natashamotev.idxco.com/idx/7846/details.php?idxID=403&listingID=08528554