Tyler Florence, Dean of COPIA

By JULIETTE ROSSANT COPIA (The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts) has leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle that Tyler Florence will become its new dean of culinary studies covering food and nutrition education and culinary instruction. Part of Florence's job will be to produce online food and wine content, [COPIA's CEO Garry] McGuire says, adding to the library of recipes and wine and food instructional videos on Copia.org. At the same time, plans have solidified for changes to Copia's food service. Julia's Kitchen will undergo renovations, starting in December. "We want to make the restaurant much more about Julia Child," McGuire says. Visually that means incorporating photographs of Child, and pots and pans from her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen, into the decor. The article goes on to say that the new Julia's Kitchen will serve bistro fair like soups, salads, mussels, and steak frites. That sounds like Tyler Florence fare. So, why Tyler Florence? COPIA will not comment until they issue their press release next week, but Super Chef is willing to speculate and invites comments. Tyler already produces recipes and online content for his own website and others. He lives in the area, as do many other chefs, but he is not currently a chef in a restaurant. He does have a Mill Valley kitchen retail shop and continues to star in the Food Network's Tyler's Ultimate and other FN shows. He is increasingly involved in education (see Super Chef article on Tyler's camp food and his own Johnson & Wales scholarship for Charleston, SC students). Also, he has contacts to bring other high-profile celebrity chefs from the Food Network to COPIA. If COPIA needs to increase its corporate sponsorship to pay down debt (as the Sacramento Bee reported in July), then Tyler and his FN buddies should come in handy. Rachael Ray has lots of big sponsors these days: how about seeing Nabisco or Dunkin'Donuts at COPIA? Paula is doing well, too: how about some Smithfield ham with your wine? For that matter, Bobby has tied up with Kohl's: maybe all the FN chefs can create t-shirts a la "Artists Inspired by You"? For that matter, Tyler has tied up with Applebee's... Maybe Applebee's would consider an investment in COPIA? So, let's see what Tyler can do for COPIA's bottom line. Previous articles: Tyler Florence: Camp Cuisine Joachim Splichal Mammoth Mountain Mogul Tyler Florence: Tyler's Ultimate Tyler Florence: New Year Buzz Christmas Coffee; Tyler Florence and Senseo Tyler Florence: Eat This Book Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef