Gourmet Calendar: Pin-Ups?

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The Gourmet Institute's calendar is not about sexy chefs strutting their pecks or their pounds – that's been done. Here is a more subdued, more serious collection of photographs of prominent chefs with their diversions. Of course, a few of the chefs have appeared in fashion shots and are, likewise, very easy on the eye - Eric Ripert (February), Marcus Samuelsson (August), and Scott Conant (March). The photos are meant to capture how multifaceted are chefs. Marcus rests a white loafered shoe on a soccer ball while Anthony Bourdain (January) holds his infant child in his arms. Most of the photos also feature a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne, the company backing the calendar. The black & white portraits by Melanie Dunea of the chefs – Cesare Casella (July) surrounded by rosemary and dressed in western duds, Charlie Palmer (November) in a hunting vest ready to butcher a stag, are equally fascinating. Masaharu Morimoto stands solemn with a sword on his shoulder, a baseball mitt holding a fish in his hand, and fish and baseballs at his feet. He almost became a baseball player. The only thing missing from the calendar are any photographs of women chefs. Here is what their publicist says: The only reason there were no women is that when the calendar was shot (it was on a really tight deadline) no women had yet rsvp'd to this year's Institute -- this is chefs of The Fifth Annual Gourmet Institute Calendar -- several wonderful female chefs including Gina DePalma, Amanda Freitag, Gabrielle Hamilton and others did participate, we just weren't able to get them into this year's calendar. Gourmet Institute is donating 5% of all proceeds ($1 from each $19.95 calendar) to Citymeals-on-Wheels. Previous articles: Nigella Lawson's Feast Alain Ducasse: Top Men of 2006 Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef