Joey Altman

Bay Area food TV celebrity chef Joey Altman makes cooking look fun. Whether it's his natural cooking flair, his easy-going, entertaining teaching style or his good looks, watching Altman cook is almost as enjoyable as eating his food. This celebrated chef trained across the country and "across the pond" to develop his own unique, multi-cultural cooking style that has been described by critics as "bold," "colorful," and "sophisticated yet whimsical."

After graduating from Hotel and Restaurant Management school in the Catskill Mountains, Joey Altman left for France to train under some of France's finest chefs in Brittany and Lyon, following the rigorous apprenticeship program of French kitchens. He left France with a thorough grounding in the principles and techniques of classical French cuisine and an appreciation of the importance of balance and harmony in cooking.

Altman returned to America to work at Harvest restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Bob Kinkead, one of the creative forces behind the new American cuisine. At Harvest, he gained an appreciation of the exciting developments in American cooking that emphasized the freshest seasonal and regional ingredients in creative and exciting combinations.

Following his stint at Harvest, Joey Altman traveled to New Orleans where he learned the principles of Creole and Cajun cooking under Emeril Lagasse at Commander's Palace. He also continued his travels and culinary adventures in the American South and Southwest, the Caribbean, and Mexico - all sources of his lively and eclectic style of cooking.

Upon arriving in the San Francisco Bay Area, Altman worked at Stars and other trend-setting San Francisco restaurants. But it was the Caribbean- and African- inspired dishes that he created at Miss Pearl's Jam House, which he opened in 1989 that catapulted Joey Altman to the forefront of the highly competitive Bay Area restaurant scene. The restaurant was wildly popular and caught the attention of food writers nationwide with its bright flavors and exciting and spicy combinations of exotic and colorful foods.

From 1999 to 2003 Joey Altman was executive chef owner of the innovative restaurant Wild Hare in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco in the heart of the Silicon Valley, where he offered diners an evocative and inventive menu of a wide variety of meats, poultry, and seafood paired with seasonal and locally grown ingredients.

Altman developed an even larger following with his three-time James Beard Foundation award winning food magazine television show, Bay Cafe. In addition to his local television, Altman hosted two series on Television Food Network; "Appetite for Adventure," a show where gourmet cooking meets the great outdoors and "Tasting Napa" a culinary travelogue through Northern California's wine country. He now serves as the Chef Spokesperson for Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines.

Joey Altman appears at many benefits and food-related events in the Bay Area and nationwide. He also plays guitar in the Backburner's Blues Band, made up of a group of Bay Area Chef. The group plays at local benefits and can be found jamming occasionally at San Francisco rock clubs.

Altman lives in San Francisco with his wife and three children.