According to former Philadelphia Inquirer food writer Elaine Tait, “CHEF TELL is “America’s first TV showman chef... whose food always tastes good.”
Born in 1943, of a newspaperman and a pediatric nurse, Tell credited his mother’s recombining of garden-fresh ingredients with C.A.R.E. package foodstuffs as his first lessons in food preparation and basic cooking. In turn, she championed his childhood career choice to entertain and cook for others around the world.
Having endured a grueling, years-long apprenticeship, in 1970, Tell became Germany’s youngest master chef at 27. He captained the Gold Medal-winning team that won the Cooking Olympics — his new dish, SchweinePfeffer, also won for him a personal Gold Medal — and he became Germany’s Chef of the Year in recognition of his special recipes and accomplishments that same year.
rising star…
With the help of a former Miss Philadelphia (whom he later married) Tell arrived in America in 1972. Not long after, the TV cameras found him, and he began teaching gourmet cooking with simple ingredients to home cooks all over America. His rapid-fire, quip-laden appearances on syndicated television segments and TV talk shows made him the nation's first "rock-star" celebrity chef.
Tell’s fan base grew to 40 million Baby Boomers who were in love with the irrepressibly funny German Giant with a thick German accent, a curly top of black hair and a horseshoe mustache. He lit up switchboards, and TV station mail departments received tens of thousands of recipe requests weekly. He appeared on Merv Griffin, Dinah Shore, John Davidson and on LIVE! with Regis & Kathie Lee. In fact, he was Regis Philbin’s most-requested (and favorite) guest chef.
The irreverently humorous, speedier-than-anybody-with-a-knife Chef Tell also packed commoners, gourmands and celebrities into a handful of Philadelphia area restaurants — one winning the prestigious Cordon Bleu Award four times.
A naturalized American citizen sponsored by former President of the United States Richard Nixon, he established a thriving restaurant in Georgetown on Grand Cayman Island. Chef Tell’s Grand Old House remained his workplace and vacation spot — he loved scuba — for over a decade, even as he continued to demonstrate his culinary prowess and knowledge on television and at public-venue cooking shows all around America.
sweet home Philadelphia…
Affluent American and European gourmands and A-list celebrities followed Chef Tell wherever he cooked and served food. The first seven years of the 21st century found him back in the Philadelphia area. He loved Philadelphia for its colorful history and American cuisine strongly influenced by a German cooking heritage.
Offered one of the first TV contracts by then-fledgling Food Network, he chose instead to have his own TV show, In the Kitchen with Chef Tell, produced out of Allentown, Pennsylvania by WFMZ-TV. Test runs proved that his loyal audience wanted even more of their beloved pioneer TV chef, and the show was picked up for syndication to stations in several cities. His television "comeback" on the mainland was imminent.
gone too soon…
Tell Erhardt lived the classic celebrity lifestyle, overcoming overwhelming odds, some self-created, to achieve his goals before he passed away on October 26, 2007. The Internet buzzed with condolences and reminiscent messages from fans all over the globe that day, and more than 300 culinary dignitaries and friends gathered at his estate on his last birthday on November 5th. Fortunately for the rest of us, his best-selling recipes, cookbooks and DVD’s remain an interactive part of America’s culinary landscape today, and now we have "the rest of the story."
The biography of Chef Tell’s fantastic life, CHEF TELL The Biography of America’s Pioneer TV Showman Chef, by Ronald Joseph Kule, with forewords by TV hosts Regis Philbin and Chef Walter Staib, is replete with timeless life-lessons for young and old alike; until now, never gathered, researched and written up. Baby Boomers and readers of all ages and interests can now marvel at how one energetic and prankish German survivor of WW II conquered the worlds of cooking and television entertainment in one foreshortened lifetime.
Chef Tell left new recipes never before published! Here’s one of them:
Chef Tell Black Forest Apples
- 8 Apples
- 8 Tablespoons Raisins
- 8 Tablespoons Sliced Almonds
- 8 Tablespoons Honey
- 8 Tablespoons Kirsch (Cherry Brandy)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cut a lid off each of the apples and reserve. Peel each apple one-third of the way down. Core the apple with a melon-ball cutter, being careful not to cut through the bottom of the apple.
Fill each apple with one tablespoon of raisins and one tablespoon of almonds. Pour one tablespoon of honey into each apple and sprinkle one tablespoon of Kirsch over each apple. Put the tops back on the apples.
Put the apples into an ovenproof baking dish and pour in about ¼ inch of water. Bake about 25 minutes, or until the apples are tender.
“There’s a wrong way and a right way… and there’s my way of cooking.” — Chef Tell Erhardt
Bon Appetit!*
* DISCLAIMER: The recipe provided here is a guide only for home cooks and professional chefs to prepare the listed foods. The author, his company, publisher and/or their respective representatives are expressly not responsible for, and may not be held liable for, any injury or illness resulting from the use of the information, or in the preparation, cooking, presentation and/or ingestion of the listed foods. The publisher and author are expressly not responsible for, and may not be held liable for, the subsequent health of any person or animal using the recipes and/or ingesting the foods.
Copyright 2012 by KuleBooks LLC. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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