Daniel Boulud, who has long been a champion of fine dining in America, has been named to the MenuMasters Hall of Fame. He will be honored at this year’s Nation’s Restaurant News MenuMasters gala, sponsored by Ventura Foods.
Inductees into the hall of fame have spent their careers promoting culinary excellence in American foodservice. Past winners have included Jacques Pépin, Wolfgang Puck, Paul Prudhomme, Tom Colicchio and José Andrés.
“I’m so glad to be inducting Daniel Boulud into the MenuMasters Hall of Fame. He has not only developed and run great restaurants in his own right, but has fostered the development of other chefs as well. He is also working to nurture a new generation of chefs through his support of Bocuse d’Or USA,” Nation’s Restaurant News senior food beverage editor Bret Thorn said.
Born near the culinary mecca of Lyon, France, Boulud trained under the great chefs of that city before he moved to the United States. He has lived in New York City since 1982, first gaining acclaim as executive chef of Le Cirque before opening his own flagship, restaurant Daniel, in 1993. That restaurant was inducted into the Nation’s Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 1998 and he was named NRN’s Fine Dining Legend in 2012.
He also has won multiple James Beard Foundation awards, including Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Restaurateur and, in 2011, Chef of the Year.
He was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government in 2006.
Boulud is currently the chef and owner of 14 restaurants around the world — ranging from Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurants to, to elegant taverns to sausage-and-burger eateries — and is the author of nine cookbooks.
He is chairman of the Ment’or BKB Foundation, which recruits and trains competitors for Team USA in the biennial Bocuse d’Or culinary competition.
