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Clark Frasier - Chef/Owner - Arrows Restaurant (shown left)
Clark Frasier grew up in fresh produce heaven.  His family lived in Carmel, California, where vegetables and fruit were available all year round.  He remembers picnics in the Napa Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains, and fresh fried artichoke stands along the road.  It wasn’t until he went to China to study Chinese that he learned about the seasons and the wonder of produce in its season.  During the harsh winters in Beijing, the people dried, salted and pickled cabbage, which became the only vegetable available during three months of the year.  “So that by the end of the winter, we students were ravenous for vegetables, and would go anywhere and pay anything to get them.  I learned from that what the seasons meant and why food tastes SO GOOD when it is in season.  Today, you can have anything anytime, but even now, vegetables and fruits have to be picked before they are ripe so they ripen on the way from Chile to Maine.  “It’s not the same.”

It was while living in Beijing, China, that Clark developed expertise in the great cuisine of China.  Clark learned that Chinese culinary traditions represent a vast treasure of possibilities.

When Clark came back from China, he moved to San Francisco to set up an import-export business.  As it turned out, he wound up instead working his way up to chef tournant in the famous kitchen of Stars Restaurant where he developed his unique cooking style working “on the culinary edge” with Jeremiah Tower.  And it was there that he began to build a repertoire of Asian-influenced combinations.  There, too, he met Mark Gaier, and the two decided to strike out on their own.

In the spring of 1988, Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier formed a business partnership that acquired Arrows Restaurant.  Utilizing their extensive travel and training, they have created a classic country restaurant which has continually garnered national and international accolades for its outstanding cuisine, flawless service, beautiful setting and award-winning wine list.  In 1992, the chefs began, out of necessity, to develop a kitchen garden, which today has grown to almost two acres in size and provides the restaurant with 80% of the menu each evening in season.

In June 2003,  “The Arrows Cookbook; Cooking and Gardening from Maine’s Most Beautiful Farmhouse Restaurant,” was published by Scribner.  The chefs made their first appearance on “The Today Show” in July, and have been back numerous times since then.  Last summer, Arrows Restaurant received the coveted “Best of Award of Excellence” from Wine Spectator Magazine, and this spring, the James Beard Foundation nominated the chefs as Best Chefs of the Northeast.  They will participate in the Gala Award Ceremonies in New York this May.

Mark Gaier - Owner/Chef - Arrows Restaurant (shown right)
Mark Gaier grew up in a big family near Dayton, Ohio.  His mother, a homemaker, was a wonderful cook who inspired Mark to begin cooking and even baking bread by the time he was fourteen.  Later as a young man working in publishing in Blue Hill, Maine, his favorite work was putting on the dinner parties for the staff and advertisers at the magazine.  So he decided to go back to school and study culinary arts under Jean Wallach in Boston.  Later, he was given the opportunity to work at the Whistling Oyster under Michael Allen who had been chef for Madeleine Kamman at her cooking school in Boston.  Many of his basic skills as a chef were developed during this period.

In the mid-eighties, feeling he needed exposure to more innovative cooking, Mark went to San Francisco and joined the staff at Stars Restaurant as chef tournant, under Jeremiah Tower.  According to Gaier, this was a fabulous experience ‘because the staff at Stars was so talented and because Jeremiah is such an accomplished chef.”

About Arrows, Mark says, “We started with one vision.  The place needed lots of work. It was funky, with mismatched antique pressed-back chairs.  Our plan had been to do a more casual brasserie, or bistro style restaurant.  But, this setting has seemed to move us gradually toward a more elegant type of dining.  It’s as if we had to respond to the setting.  It’s so beautiful and romantic.  We have constantly upgraded the restaurant, having chairs made by a local craftsman, replacing flatware with silver, glass with crystal, stoneware with china, and dozens of other changes and upgrades.”

As chefs, Gaier and Frasier have changed also.  At first, they brought a lot of California and Jeremiah Tower with them, but now they have grown into a style all their own.  And the garden, as well as their world travels each winter when the restaurant is closed, has helped to dictate how that style keeps changing and growing.

In recent years, Arrows fame and reputation have grown steadily, so that in 2001, it was named one of the 50 best restaurants in the U.S. by Gourmet Magazine, and one of the ten most romantic restaurants in the country by Bon Appetit.

In 1999, Chefs Gaier and Frasier began to write about the restaurant, offering gardening and cooking tips and describing how they developed the two acres of produce, flowers and herbs out of necessity when they couldn’t find the kind of freshness they were accustomed to in California.  Three years in the making, “The Arrows Cookbook; Cooking and Gardening from Maine’s Most Beautiful Farmhouse Restaurant,” was published by Scribner in June 2003. The book has achieved a steady following, and its publication led the chefs to appear on “The Today Show,” in New York, in July 2003.  Since then, they have returned as guests on Today numerous times.

This spring, the chefs were nominated as Best Chefs of the Northeast by the James Beard Foundation in New York. They will take part in the Gala Awards Ceremony in May.

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Justin Wangler
Chef, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates
Justin Wangler grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, where he began working in restaurants before attending A.B. Tech Culinary School. Justin came west and took a job at Napa Valley's Culinary Institute of America in 1999, followed by Saddleback Cellars and Santa Rosa's Syrah Restaurant before joining the Kendall-Jackson Culinary Team.  Under his direction, Kendall-Jackson has taken "wine country" cuisine to a new level. Given Sonoma County's choice of abundant farm-fresh meats and produce, it's easy to understand Justin's enthusiasm for creating memorable combinations of textures and flavors.  For the daily food creations at Kendall-Jackson, Justin finds a tremendous amount of inspiration and ingredients from the winery's 2½-acre culinary sensory gardens and local food producers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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John Critchley - Chef - Island Creek Oysters
In fall of 2005, Toro restaurant opened in Boston’s South End to rave reviews, with 28-year-old Chef John Critchley at the helm. Toro quickly became known as the destination for Spanish-style tapas in Boston, and a year later, still plays host to a packed bar and crowded dining room seven nights a week.

 

Chef Critchley’s culinary career began when he was just 14 years old, with his first position as a line cook in his hometown of Scituate, MA. Formal training had to wait until high school was finished, and upon graduation, Critchley immediately matriculated at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. After completing his studies at the CIA in 1997, Critchley moved south to Virginia, where he worked as a line cook under Chef David Everett at the venerable Dining Room at Ford’s Colony in Williamsburg. A year later Critchley moved on to the equally renowned Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, where he took as position as pastry chef, and trained with chef/owner, and award-winning cookbook author, Marcel Desaulniers. Critchley moved home to Boston in 1999 and spent the next four years building an independent enterprise as a private chef. He designed menus at diverse locations across North America, from Toronto to Miami.  

 

Spring of 2003 marked Chef Critchley’s return to the professional kitchen. He joined Chef Ken Oringer’s roster of talented cooks at the award-winning pair of restaurants, Clio and Uni, in Boston’s swanky Back Bay neighborhood. Critchley quickly emerged as a stand-out at Clio, and was promoted to Sous Chef / Uni Chef after just ten months. In his tenure as Sous Chef under Chef Oringer, the restaurant’s long list of accolades only grew, with honors and awards from prestigious industry publications, such as Food & Wine, Nation’s Restaurant News, Boston Magazine, and Gourmet. Chef Critchley later took over as Pastry Chef of Clio and Uni, a position he retained until December of 2005, when he left Clio and Uni to open Chef Oringer’s third and much-anticipated Boston establishment, Toro.

 

Toro is Clio’s casual cousin, where Chef Critchley’s take on traditional and innovative tapas emulates its critically acclaimed forebears in a fun, laid-back environment. Toro has received an Extraordinary rating from Zagat, an award that emphasizes Chef Critchley’s culinary acumen with a near perfect score on food alone. Chef John Critchley has been described as having a “calm and unassuming demeanor”, by The Boston Globe, and possessing “genuine and generous talent” by Stuff @ Night.

In recent years, Chef Critchley’s culinary adventures have taken him well beyond the Boston kitchen. In 2004, he joined Chef Oringer at the Gourmet Summit and Food Festival held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2005 he was invited to return to Thailand to teach Thai chefs how to apply Clio’s unique culinary techniques to preparation of their food.

 

In September of 2006 Chef Critchley attended the Star Chefs International Chefs Congress in New York City alongside Chef Oringer, a three-day culinary symposium attended by the world’s most influential and innovative chefs. 


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Phelps Dieck - Chef/Owner - Brazo and Green Monkey
Chef Phelps Dieck is a graduate of Cornell University and the esteemed New England Culinary Institute, where she fortified a natural culinary talent with training in classical French cooking. In 2003, Chef Dieck’s entrepreneurial spirit brought her to Portsmouth where she opened the Green Monkey and still serves as Co-Owner and Executive Chef. Chef Dieck’s newest restaurant, Brazo, is a vibrant reflection of her passion for Latin American culture and desire to bring its bold, exciting flavors to the Seacoast. Her background and influences are wonderfully diverse, drawing upon rich kitchen experiences at Top of the Hub in Boston, Brown Palace Hotel in Denver and The Tavern at River’s Edge in Exeter. She has served as a private chef in Newport, Rhode Island for Mr. Edmond Harnsworth, owner of the London Daily Mail, where she hosted hundreds of parties for countless guests—and spent two years serving as Sous Chef for the acclaimed Cliff House in Ogunquit, Maine.

Today, her cooking philosophy blends simplicity and spice; clean presentations with amazing flavors. By keeping her dishes uncomplicated, Chef Dieck allows the food’s unique flavors to stand up and be counted—you’ll never find more than four elements on a plate, so you can enjoy the tantalizing punch of each and every one.

At Brazo, Chef Dieck’s love of Latin American culture has finally found a home. Here, Latin energy and passion can be tasted in fired-grilled fish and meats, sumptuous fruits and the use of deliciously fresh local ingredients all combined in a feast of bold, spicy, robust flavors.

 

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Christopher Prosperi - Chef and Co-owner of Metro Bis Restaurant
Christopher Prosperi is chef and co-owner of Metro Bis restaurant in the affluent Hartford suburb of Simsbury, Connecticut, which is the highest ranked restaurant in the state for American food according to Zagat. The New York Times also declared “Metro Bis is worth a detour.” In 2007, Chef Magazine nominated Chris as one of five national finalists for Chef of the Year. Chris is a weekly recipe columnist for the Hartford Courant and his work regularly appears across the country via the Tribune wire service.

 

He travels extensively each year teaching cooking classes and composing multi-course dinners which promote his easy and innovative form of American bistro cooking at venues including the Epcot Food and Wine Festival at Disney World (Orlando, FL), The Chef’s Holidays at Yosemite (Yosemite, CA), Justin Vineyards Guest Chef Series (Paso Robles, CA), The Nantucket Wine Festival (Nantucket, MA), The Book & The Cook (Philadelphia, PA), and the Scottsdale Culinary Festival (Scottsdale, AZ) to name a few. In the fall of 2007 Chris will be a guest chef in Tuscany during a Bike Rider’s tour.

 

Chris is a regular bi-weekly guest on the local NBC affiliate and has also appeared throughout the country on radio and television programs. He conducts weekly cooking classes in addition to teaching. Chris is a member of The American Chef Federation, the Society de Philanthropic, the Association of Food Journalists, La Chaine des Rotisseurs, the James Beard Foundation, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals where he serves on the executive committee for cookbook award judging. He graduated second in his class at the Culinary Institute of America and has an expanding product line under the “Prosperi” label. Chris’ passion for food is evident as "the holy joy of creation literally lights up his face as he works the stove."

 

Metro Bis restaurant, a 64 seat bistro, has been co-owned by chef Chris Prosperi and his wife, Courtney Febbroriello, since August of 1998. In 2003 Santé Magazine honored Metro Bis with its Restaurant Award for Cooking with Wine or Spirits and again in 2007 for Wine Hospitality Excellence. Metro Bis has been recognized by the Chaine des Rotisseurs and has also received local accolades such as being named one of the top thirty restaurants in the state by Connecticut Magazine. In 2004 Metro Bis earned the American Culinary Federation’s Achievement of Excellence Award in the category of Fine Dining. The Hartford Courant  "predicted the restaurant would achieve four-star greatness." Prosperi and his team really flex their culinary muscles at monthly wine dinners that attract a cult following." Wine Enthusiast magazine also recognized the Metro Bis wine program with their Award of Distinction in 2005. In August 2002 Metro Bis was one of twenty restaurants selected nationwide to participate in the International Association of Culinary Professionals Foundation's celebration of Julia Child's 90^th birthday.