Arno Schmidt (born c. 1931 in Salzburg)
Arno Schmidt, Austrian born chef apprenticed 1946 to 1949 in Bad Gastein, an Austrian Spa. After passing the mandatory government examination Arno worked in many countries, including the Grand Hotel Royal in Stockholm Sweden, the Beau Rivage Hotel in Geneva and three years in Casa Langer, a Caterer in Bogota, Colombia.
He arrived in New York City in 1959 as permanent resident and found employment as Chef Poissonier at the venerable Hotel St. Regis when it was still privately owned by Mrs. Astor.
Appointments as Executive followed quickly culminating as Executive Chef at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel from 1969 to 1979.
He started writing a monthly newsletter called: “Notes from the Chef’s Desk” which eventually resulted as a book with the same name. More books followed including The Banquet Business and the Chef’s Book of Quantities, Yields and Sizes, Chatting about The Waldorf Astoria, and his biography “Peeking Behind the Wallpaper”.
His interest in culinary education led to Board Member status membership at the Culinary Institute of America and appointment as Trustee Emeritus.
He also lectured as adjunct professor at NYU and other colleges and cruise lines.
After leaving The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Arno Schmidt was hired by Mrs. Helmsley as Food and beverage Director to organize and open the Harley Hotel on 42nd Street between Third and Second Avenue. Appointment as Food and Beverage Director from 1984 to 1986 at the venerable Plaza Hotel followed,
From there on he worked as an independent consultant with the Kitchen Design Company Henry Grossbard and worked on numerous projects including the Jewish Museum and the Guggenheim in NYC and the yet to be built Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi.
His long industry involvement led to numerous awards including Silver Plate 1984. Judge at the Culinary Salon organized by the Societé Culinaire Philanthropique and Team Manager for the Chaine des Rôtisseurs Culinary Team to the Culinary Olympics 1988. He was President of the local Chapter of the American Culinary Federation ICA/ACF.
Oscar Tschirky was a Swiss-American restaurateur who was maître d'hôtel of Delmonico's Restaurant and subsequently the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, New York, United States. He was widely known as "Oscar of the Waldorf" and published a large cookbook.
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story 625 ft (191 m) Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze and Weaver and completed in 1931. The building was the world's tallest hotel until 1957, when it was surpassed by Moscow's Hotel Ukraina. An icon of glamor and luxury, the Waldorf Astoria is one of the world's most prestigious and best-known hotels. Once owned by Conrad Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, a division of Hilton Hotels, operates under the name of the original hotel in locations around the world. Both the exterior and the interior of the New York's Waldorf Astoria are designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as official landmarks.
Alain Pierre Sailhac was a French internationally recognized chef working in New York City, where he held the position of executive vice president and dean emeritus at The International Culinary Center, founded as the French Culinary Institute. Sailhac earned the first-ever four-star rating from The New York Times while at Le Cygne in 1977. He went on to be a chef at Le Cirque, the 21 Club, and the Plaza Hotel.
Chef salad is an American salad consisting of hard-boiled eggs, one or more varieties of meat, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cheese, all placed upon a bed of tossed lettuce or other leaf vegetables. Several early recipes also include anchovies. A variety of dressings may be used with this salad.
Michael Mina is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He is the founder of the Mina Group, a restaurant management company operating over 40 restaurants worldwide. He is the executive chef at his two namesake restaurants in San Francisco and Las Vegas, which each have earned a star in the Michelin Guide. He authored his first cookbook in 2006 and has made numerous television appearances.
Conrad Gallagher is an Irish-born chef/restaurateur from Letterkenny, County Donegal, based in Dubai since 2016. He was the youngest chef ever awarded a Michelin star at the time, for Peacock Alley in Dublin, at the age of 26 in 1998. In a career that has attracted both accolades and controversy, Gallagher has owned restaurants in Dublin, New York, London, Las Vegas and Cape Town, and has featured in two reality television cooking series. He opened restaurant consultancy Food Concepts 360 in 2018. Gallagher also owns chef recruitment agency The Chefs Connection and opened The Chefs Playground in Johannesburg, South Africa, in April 2020 as a culinary training centre and specialist shop for chefs’ apparel and equipment. In February 2021, Gallagher opened "Off the Menu Food Emporium", a delicatessen, coffee and wine shop serving tapas-style meals, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He also opened Bistro Vin de Boeuf, in St Francis Bay.
Adam D. Tihany is a hospitality designer based in New York. He founded the multidisciplinary design firm Tihany Design in 1978, and is considered the origin of the title "restaurant designer". His firm has designed hotel and dining properties at many notable properties around the world. Tihany was named one of the greatest American interior architects by The New York Times in 2001.
Laurent Manrique is a French restaurateur and Michelin-starred chef. He currently owns establishments in San Francisco. He was the Corporate Executive Chef of Aqua, an upscale seafood restaurant in San Francisco, where he earned two Michelin stars in 2006, the first time Michelin came to the San Francisco Bay Area, and again in 2007 and 2008. Upon his departure in 2009, the restaurant lost its Michelin status, later closed in 2010. Since 2005, Manrique has owned Café de la Presse.
Peter Grunauer is a well known Austrian chef in New York City. He was the proprietor of Vienna 79, one of the few four star restaurants in New York City, and Vienna Park a three star Austrian concept located on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Lawrence Timothy Ryan is an American chef and the fifth and current president of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Ryan, a Certified Master Chef, graduated from the CIA in 1977 and joined the school's faculty in 1982, and later moved to administration before heading the education division. In 2001, he became the first CIA alumnus and faculty member to become president of the college, in 2001. Prior to returning to the CIA as a faculty member, he spent five years as a chef in different aspects of the culinary industry. Ryan has received numerous accolades throughout his career from the American Culinary Federation, James Beard Foundation, and various other organizations.
Laurent Gras is a French-born chef currently living and working in the United States.
Patrick Lin, born in Hong Kong, is Senior Executive Chef for Metropolitan Hotels, overseeing the company's five restaurants in Toronto:
Dan Coudreaut is an American chef. He was the executive chef and vice president of culinary innovation at McDonald's from 2004 to 2018.
RIA was an American restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Waldorf Astoria Chicago, it originally opened in 2009, serving upscale French cuisine. RIA was popular with critics, earning many awards, including two Michelin stars. After losing executive chef Jason McLeod in 2011, RIA closed on July 27, 2012, after replacement Danny Grant left his restaurant position.
The Waldorf-Astoria originated as two hotels, built side by side by feuding relatives, on Fifth Avenue in New York, New York, United States. Built in 1893 and expanded in 1897, the hotels were razed in 1929 to make way for construction of the Empire State Building. Their successor, the current Waldorf Astoria New York, was built on Park Avenue in 1931.
Claudius Charles Philippe, also known as Philippe of the Waldorf or The Host of the Waldorf, was a British-born French-American restaurateur, catering director, hotelier and businessman, who was the hotel banquet manager of the prestigious Waldorf Astoria New York hotel in the 1940s and 1950s. From 1961 until 1963 he worked as executive vice president of Loews Hotels, and was responsible for the planning and building of six new New York hotels.
John Doherty is a prominent chef, who served as the executive chef of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City for 23 years, leaving in 2009. He had served at the Waldorf for an entirety of 30 years, and became executive chef of the Waldorf in 1985 at the age of 27, the youngest person ever to be named to the position. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978, where he was voted "most likely to succeed".
Jon Hill is an American chef who was White House Executive Chef from October 1, 1987, to January 7, 1988. He was the first American-born chef to serve in the capacity.
Willy Otto Rossel was a Chef de Cuisine or Executive Chef most noted for his extensive work in the preparation of gourmet airline cuisine. In 1965, he was hired by the progressive Dallas-based Braniff Airways, Inc., to administer the airline's commitment to providing its passengers with the finest food aloft. Also in 1965, Braniff had begun implementing its revolutionary End of the Plain Plane Campaign, which called for an unprecedented change in the way the airline presented itself to the public. This campaign not only included a change in the company's look but an upgrade of its inflight cuisine to gourmet status. Rossel wrote the first manual used for the apprenticeship of American chefs.
Sidney Schutte is a Dutch Chef. He fulfils the position of Executive Chef at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam and its fine dining restaurant Spectrum. Upon seven months of opening, Sidney Schutte managed to raise Librije's Zusje Amsterdam to the top and received two prestigious Michelin stars and a score of 18 Gault&Millau points. As of 2018, the Librije's Zusje Amsterdam is ranked at the 6th place out of 10, in the Dutch, Lekker magazine.