Simmering on the front burner is a collaborative dinner that will take place in January 2024 where many of our historical chefs, as well as current chefs from our well-known restaurants, will come together for one night in one of Detroit's iconic kitchens to cook a feast together in celebration of Detroit's culinary heritage. This entire event will be filmed and featured as part of the story for Detroit: The City of Chefs.
We are thrilled to share with you the clay look alike chefs community that is in development by the artistic team at the College for Creative Studies โ student artist Alexandra Martinescul.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/882183701
It's so important we recognize our current lead supporting companies that immediately came on board to help support this historic story about Detroit's culinary heritage: Great Lakes Wine and Spirits, Chef Source, Asmus Seasonings, Guernsey Farms Dairy, Miceli & Oldfield, and Schoolcraft College Culinary Department. Without them, we could not be as far along as we are with this production.
Please find our most recent production story below featuring Chef Jeff Baldwin, Chef Rick Halberg, and Chef Sharon Juergens.
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As one of Detroitโs long-time seasoned chefs, we had to visit Chef Jeff Baldwin at his family owned and operated restaurant, J. Baldwinโs. Chef Baldwin has been cooking since the young age of 14 when he was supposed to be a dishwasher at Duffyโs restaurant. On a busy Saturday night, the chef at the time walked out leaving Baldwin with no choice but to keep the dinner rush moving and got to cooking.
The rest, you could say, is history. Baldwin became the youngest Executive Chef of the Van Dyke Place Restaurant at the age of 21, as well as being one of the youngest graduates of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Van Dyke Place was opened by partners Ron Fox and John McCarthy, who later opened another iconic Detroit restaurant, The Whitney, where Baldwin became the Executive Chef there as well.
Jeff opened up about his deeply personal journey of the complexity of working long hours in the kitchen and the all too common all-night parting that would take place into the early hours of the morning. His wife, Rose, of 30 plus years, shared her own perspective of life married to a chef and the toll it takes on a marriage and a family.
Chef Baldwin then started Baldwin Restaurant Group, consisting J. Baldwinโs and Testa Barra Kitchen & Cocktails. Jeffโs son, Mike Baldwin, along with his wife and partner Gabriella, is the Executive Chef at Testa Barra and J. Baldwinโs.
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Halberg, an award-winning Detroit chef and self proclaimed hippie from the 60s, got his start on the west coast at a communal vegetarian restaurant in Tucson, Arizona. Halberg learned the kitchen brigade system only when he attended the Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1977. He then made his way to Ann Arbor in the 70s when the hippie movement was in full swing working at a vegetarian restaurant, Seva. Halberg eventually started working for Yvonne Gill at Tweenyโs with another Detroit icon, Chef Ed Jonas.
Halberg has been the force behind several highly regarded Detroit restaurants including R.I.K.โs in West Bloomfield, Emilyโs in Northville and Tutto Benne in Farmington Hills.
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We then got a chance to sit with Chef Juergens, a graduate of the Schoolcraft Culinary program, who admits she tried working the front of the house but was more interested in dancing with the kitchen brigade on the line in the hot kitchen.
She blazed onto the cooking scene as the chef of Street Side Grill in Birmingham until she joined CEC Mary Brady, owner of Diamond Jim Brady's in Novi. As the chef de cuisine there, she would help Chef Brady elevate the small 60 plus seat restaurant to become known as one metro Detroit's best dining spots. Chef Brady, after 12 years, decided it was time to hang up her apron and retire. Chef Sharon Juegens has since become the owner proprietor, managing the innovative, creative style that Diamond Jim Bradyโs has become known for.