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 Whether
he's in front of a video camera or in a radio sound booth, Jim is
a media chef with his own television program, radio talk show, and
two cookbooks. He also has his own line of gourmet condiments called
"The Chef's Table," and is executive chef at the AAA Five-Diamond
Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia, a position he has held since
1992.
"I
am interested in just about every aspect of food, and the learning
is never ending." And, viewers of his PBS-television series Flavors
of America, which airs on select stations nationwide, find that
they, too, can make up many recipes from the melting pot of regional
dishes Jim creates.
When
he is not demonstrating his art on television, he is talking to
his audience by way of WHYY FM radio in Philadelphia. "We tackle
as much about issues such as food safety, as we do culinary problems
and solutions," Jim says. "Go beyond the recipe unless it is baking.
Stretch your imagination. Never should a missing ingredient stop
you from making a dish you had hoped to cook tonight."
Cooking
was not originally in Jim's blood. "It was a matter of needing a
job and starting in a restaurant washing dishes," he explains. The
chef there at the time felt the young and inexperienced dishwasher
had talent, and by the time Jim graduated from high school, he was
running the kitchen.
 "I
have a lot of energy," he admits, enough to go around for his public
and his private life at home with wife Candace and children Katharyn
(15) and James (9) in Moorestown, New Jersey. They don't wait for
Dad to cook dinner. But he does make every effort to cook with his
kids on Saturday mornings. He also works with disadvantaged children,
taking them to the hotel and exposing them to cooking.
In an effort to make corporate lunches at the hotel more interesting,
Jim set up a delicatessen environment where everyone could make
their own sandwiches. "I came up with the idea of gourmet mustards
and ketchups to make sandwich lunches more interesting," says Jim.
His cranberry ketchup and fig mustard were received so enthusiastically
that he decided to bottle and sell them. They can be found at specialty
food stores.
Jim
Coleman says that learning about food is never ending. So if you
are wondering why your pot roast isn't perfect or your pancakes
never rise, tune in to Jim Coleman for the answers.
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