Printable Biography of Joey Altman

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Joey Altman began his culinary training at the age of sixteen, and has since emerged as one of the foremost chefs specializing in multi-cultural cuisine. Utilizing his international background in restaurants and catering services, Altman has worked as a chef and consulted for many notable restaurants across the country. In 1989, at the age of 25 he opened Miss Pearl’s Jam House in San Francisco, where he garnered three and four star reviews for his tropical dishes inspired by Caribbean, Cajun, Creole, and Pacific Rim cuisine. Prior, Joey worked as a chef at Jeremiah Tower’s famed San Francisco restaurant Stars. He has also worked for San Francisco’s top caterers, but being a blues guitarist, most enjoyed the down and dirty back stage catering to the world’s top rock acts for Bill Graham Presents.

Joey graduated and received the Chef de Cuisine Award from Sullivan County Community College in the "Borscht-Belt" of the Catskills, where he grew up. He later traveled to Lyon, France, to train under his mentor, Chef Bernard Constantin of the Hotel Larivoire, before relocating to Boston, where he worked for Chef Bob Kincaide at the Harvest restaurant in Cambridge. In January of 1985 Altman moved to New Orleans and worked with Emeril Lagasse at Commander’s Palace.

From 1998 to September 2002 Joey was owner and executive chef of Wild Hare in Menlo Park, a 140-seat restaurant serving contemporary American cuisine, specializing in wild game and exotic meats and fowl.

Joey has created a dedicated Bay Area following with the viewers of his two-time James Beard Foundation award winning local cooking show Bay Café on KRON Channel 4. Nationally, he made a splash with Food network’s series "Appetite for Adventure" an outdoor sport and adventure show demonstrating how people can enjoy gourmet food in the great outdoors and Tasting Napa, a travelogue showcasing the best of food wine and places of northern California’s wine country. Chef Joey Altman is now launching a new series called What’s Cooking with Joey Altman on Shop at Home TV, Scripps’ latest addition to their popular television networks which include Food Network, Home and Garden, DIY, and Fine Living.

Joey is a guitarist in an all-chef band called the Back Burner Blues that plays charity events and monthly gigs at restaurant and clubs raising monies for local food charities.

Joey resides in San Francisco with his wife and three children.