Ronald Joseph Kule - Chef Tell: The Biography of Americas Pioneer TV Showman Chef

Chef Tell made cooking on TV the new frontier. He did it with humor, a thick German accent, and was rather bossy. Let me show you how to cook this, he would say. He showed, we learned, we laughed.

Jan Yanehiro, First Co-Host, Evening Magazine, San Francisco

WOW! is a great start for Ronald Joseph Kules Chef Tell: The Biography of Americas Pioneer TV Showman Chef. This is a wonderful account of one mans voyage and how in so many ways every reader will connect with something. It is engaging, and takes you through all the emotions of life, leaving you to decide what is next for you; and how will you make the most of your today.

Tracy Repchuk, Bestselling Author, International Speaker and Motivator

The story you have written is fantastic! I knew Chef Tell as a talented Master Chef and works as his pastry chef for more than 10 years. This book puts his story together very well.

Suladda May, Restaurateur of Thai Orchid, Grand Cayman Island

Before Wolfgang, Emeril, Paul, Jacques, Bobby, Mario,
Cat & Rachel, there was .. .

Ronald Joseph Kule

FOREWORDS BY

TV hosts Regis Philbin and
Chef Walter Staib

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2013 by Ronald Joseph Kule

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-62636-004-4

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATION

To his millions of fanshome cooks, professional chefs, and gourmands who know, appreciate, and love foodthis story and Chef Tells NEW included recipes are for YOU.

To Elaine Tait, former food writer extraordinaire for the Philadelphia Inquirer, who was among the first to recognize Tell Erhardts influential place in the heritage of Philadelphiaslater Americasculinary renaissance...Thanks for the inspiration, Elaine... wherever you are!

P eople from all walks of life helped bring this work to the world. Tells son, Torsten Erhardt, provided insight, photos, and research documentation. Bunny Erhardt, Tells widow, added vital connections and support.

Busy professional chefsnotably Georges Perrier, Susanna Foo,

Freddie Duerr, Nunzio Patruno, Vasile Bageag, Lesley B. Fay, Chris Soule, Paul Drew, Suladda May, William B. Reagor; Walter Staib and his assistant Molly Yun, Steve Marks, and Iron Chef Cat Coragraciously shared their time and offered important suggestions. Thank you, all.

TV host Regis Philbin and his wife, Joy; executive in charge of production for LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, Art Moore; Tells producer, Victoria Lang, and her husband, Tony Baarda; Susan Winston, widow of Richard Winston, nephew and executive V.P. of Harry Winston, Inc.; attorney Nina Reznick; producer Bob Croesus; Helen and the late Russell Baum; Theresa and Don Pfeil; Alicia and Dan DeGowin; Christine Hess; Francesca Kennedy; Barbra Murphy; Faye Litzenberger; Theresa Badmann; Ian Boxie Boxall, and Naul Boddenoffered anecdotes and made me cry, laugh, and marvel about Chef Tells antics. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.

Carolyn Eischens of Nordic Ware; Alex Bartlett of the Germantown Historical Society; Pam Sedor and Ann Etris of the Radnor Memorial Library; Crazy TV Lenny Mattioli; Herbert Engelbert, sommelier of the International Wine & Food Society of Philadelphia; The Chaine des Rtisseurs of Philadelphia; Philabundance of Philadelphia; Wine Spectator magazine; Jill Walker, CEO of Total Tape Services, and my representatives Derek Britt and Courtney Williams of Derek Britt Entertainmentall assisted selflessly and with generosity. My hat is off to you.

Megan Oldfield, my personal editor, held me to a high standard. Early-draft readers Diane Austin and Linda Batdorf kept me on point in the storys early stages. Well done!

J. David Miller, AAA 2012 Football Coach of the Year, best friend, co-author of Pressure Makes Diamonds a Timeless Tale of Americas Greatest Pastime, mentored my writing flawlessly. Thank you, David. The temperature is always nine.

My sister, Theresa Pfeil, a generous being with an open heart, understood the importance of this work and always had my back. None of us will ever be the same because of you, Tee.

My wife, Sherry Kule, put up with my long hours away and endless drafts read aloud to her. She encouraged and shared my journey from its beginning. Somos siempre, Enamorada.

To Jeremiah and Justin, my son and grandson, More than you know, you increase a fathers love just by being a part of my life.

by
REGIS PHILBIN

I think theres a little bit of sizzling here. Honestly, I can feel it. The ions are flying back and forth.

Regis Philbin

I said that while doing a TV show with my friend, the late Chef Tell. Thats what I think about when I think of him. His legacy encompasses not only good food and fun, but also his guts and determination to overcome many obstacles and succeed in his line of work. Details about Americas leading pioneer of the phenomenon of TV showman chefs are revealed in these pages and are well worth reading.

In some ways we were different, but we ended up good friends. I grew up in the Bronx, a borough of New York City named after Jonas Bronck, an early immigrant from Denmark. When I was born, tenement buildings and single homes in the Bronx mixed as well as the Irish, German, Italian, and Jewish cultures that inhabited the area; just as African-American and Hispanic-Americans do nowwe all got along.

Chef Tell, on the other hand, was born in Stuttgart, Germany. Their high-rise buildings for the most part were rubble in the aftermath of World War II. The Germans got by on their meager gardens and with C.A.R.E. Packages sent overseas through Philadelphia, which made it all the more interesting that Tell, one of my favorite guest chefs on my TV show, would end up, of all places, living in Philadelphia, a hop away from my native New York City.

As a young man, I could revisit the Bronx and the neighborhood to which my parents moved on Long Island pretty much any time I wanted. Right across the street from where Edward and Mary Hinz raised six children stood my parents house in Mineola on 12th Avenue. I lived there after my two years of U.S. Navy service, following my graduation from the University of Notre Dame. As a page for NBC, I commuted to Manhattan every day, like many fellow New Yorkers.

Tell left home as a teenager, worked as a cooking apprentice and, after he came to America, he lived far away from his roots. Although his father lived into the 1980s, he lost his mother at an early age. My parents were with me well into my adult life.