Cheryl Lewis's Page

The day I found out about the closing of Gourmet magazine, I felt like holding a wake. I wanted my mother to be alive again, so we could share our memories of Sunday afternoons – examining page after page, planning dinner. I wanted to call S.I. Newhouse, Jr. (chairman of Conde Nast), and bawl him out. How could he close down such an icon, my first real introduction to cuisine, at the age of 9 – certainly one of the reasons I became a chef?

What was worse was that Newhouse closed Gourmet while k… Continue

It’s Time to Get Back to the (Sustainable) Garden
Chef Cheryl Lewis


If you choose to eat mass-produced fast food, you are supporting a network of supply and demand that is destroying local communities and traditional ways of life all over the world – a system that replaces self-sufficiency with dependence. And you are supporting a method of agriculture that is ecologically unsound – that depletes the soil, and leaves harmful chemical residues in our food – Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse… Continue

Becoming an Executive Chef – A Ten-Year Plan
Chef Cheryl Lewis – Professor of Culinary Arts

Some (probably most) Culinary Arts students work while they earn their diplomas or degrees. They work at jobs that allow them flexible schedules, and enough money to live on until they can look for that first post-graduation career position. While in school, it is so important to think about career goals in ten-year increments. If one’s goal is to earn a Certified Executive Chef (CEC) certification, then… Continue

Is Foie Gras Really a Luxury?
Cheryl Lewis – Chef/Professor



Recently, I had the pleasure of eating foie gras in an utterly sumptuous form – simmered in Sauternes, chilled and whipped, and then sandwiched between two meringues (à la Gaston LeNôtre) - with a drizzle of veal/blueberry glaçe. I know that “life-changing” is a clichéd idiom, but that it was. All at once, I tasted savory and sweet – crunch and melting – rich and light – old school versus 21st century. It was hard not to cry out in d… Continue

Classic Beauty: Finding One’s Soul
Chef/Professor Cheryl Lewis


In Escoffier’s “The Complete Guide to Modern Cookery”, he is not eschewing classic technique; rather he is exalting it – using the new technology of the time (1907), given to the world through the Industrial Revolution. As Escoffier wanted it to be, the book is a tool – allowing the reader “to be free to decide on the way to carry out the work according to his own personal views”. Escoffier is careful not to give exact recipes, bec… Continue