Terrance Brennan
Chef-Proprietor
The son of Annandale, Virginia restaurateurs, Terrance
began cooking at the age of thirteen and rose steadily to the
ranks of America's most renowned and imaginative chefs.
Following positions at several Washington, D.C. restaurants
and hotels, Terrance served as a saucier at Le Cirque under
Alain Sailhac and worked in many of Europe's greatest
kitchens, including Taillevent, Le Tour d'Argent, Moulin de
Mougin, Gualtiero Marchesi, and La Gavroche. Terrance's
signature culinary style took form while working under Chef
Roger Vergé at Le Moulin de Mougins in the south of France.
Inspired by the region's "cuisine of the sun," Terrance
returned to New York City and refined his art as Chef at
Annabelle's, the Hotel Westbury's Polo restaurant, and Prix
Fixe.
In 1993, Terrance opened his first restaurant. Named after
the petite green olives indigenous to the Mediterranean coast,
Picholine earned three stars from the New York Times
for its sumptuous French-Mediterranean fare, received the
Zagat Survey's Highest Overall Ratings distinction from
1997-to the present, and is a perennial award winner for its
600+ wine selections. Picholine was also Terrance's launching
pad for the introduction of the traditional European cheese
course as standard fare for fine dining in America.
Picholine's cheese plate continues to set the standard for
insightful selection and incomparable flavor, and is lauded by
gastronomes throughout the world.
Terrance extended his groundbreaking cheese service in 2001
with Artisanal, a bistro-fromagerie-wine bar that gained immediate prominence as a shrine to the pleasures of fine
cheeses and was awarded Best Brasserie Cuisine in the 2002
Zagat Survey.
Paying the ultimate "homage to the fromage" in the spring
of 2003, Terrance launched the Artisanal Premium Cheese
Center -- a 10,000-square foot facility dedicated to the
selection, maturation and distribution of the world's finest
artisanal cheeses. The Cheese Center is home to five
custom-designed cheese caves -- the first of their kind in the
United States -- where more than 300 expert-selected cheeses are
affined (aged) to their peak of flavor and made available to America's top-rated restaurants and connoisseurs
alike through http://www.ArtisanalCheese.com/.
The Cheese Center also hosts a wide variety of educational classes for consumer and professional audiences year-round and
is available for private events.
A frequent guest on the Television Food Network, Terrance
has also appeared on PBS, Martha Stewart Living Television,
"The Today Show," "CBS Morning News," "The Early Show" and
"Live with Regis and Kelly." Terrance shares his love of
cooking in his recently released cookbook,
Artisanal Cooking: a Chef Shares His Passion for Handcrafting Great Meals at
Home (Wiley).
|
