Biography of Bob Blumer

Whether he is taping his Food Network show in his gleaming Toastermobile, or concocting new recipes in his own kitchen, Blumer transforms common ingredients into wow-inspiring dishes through whimsical presentations and unusual cooking methods that have become his culinary trademark. His artful approach to cooking, confidence-inspiring instructions, and contagious enthusiasm have endeared him to a loyal following who tune in to his weekly half-hour show, frequent his cooking classes and appearances, and collect his books.

Bob’s culinary career started like an accidental gas explosion in 1992. During a break from his job managing and traveling the globe with musicians, he channeled his passion for cooking and his knack for living well beyond his means into The Surreal Gourmet: Real Food for Pretend Chefs (Chronicle Books, 1992). More than just a cookbook, it is a guide to better living, and the first book to recommend “music to cook by” for each recipe. The San Francisco Chronicle called the debut "an instant classic and possibly the wittiest and most sensible how-to cookbook of the decade". It was also a year-end recommendation in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and was picked by the Book of the Month Club and Better Homes & Gardens Book Club.

Unceremoniously thrust onto the talk show circuit, Bob made TV appearances on 3 continents, including all major U.S. network morning shows (to date he has made over 400 TV appearances). At the same time, he met and was befriended by some of the country’s most respected chefs. Through practice and osmosis, his cooking skills caught up with his enthusiasm. With his new-found self-confidence and a license to devote all of his creative energies to the world of food, Bob embarked on a culinary path of inventing innovative dishes, demystifying the classics, and converting urban food myths into functioning recipes, all using ingredients from the local grocery store.

Three years after the release of his first book, Bob proved that anyone with a dysfunctional kitchen and mismatched place settings can throw a killer dinner party with The Surreal Gourmet Entertains: High-fun, Low-stress Dinner Parties for 6 – 12 (Chronicle Books, 1995). In that same year, he began writing a weekly column for Salon.com, a monthly column for Men's Health and a bi-monthly column in WineX (a GenX wine magazine). One of his favorite jobs—if you can call it a job—is conducting celebrity cover interviews of hipster wine oenophiles like Tori Amos and Jason Priestley for WineX. During many of these interviews, he cooks for the interviewee and allows the lucky guest to plunder his burgeoning wine collection. Bob is also a regular contributor to Cuisine (an international award-winning New Zealand food and wine magazine) and has contributed features to Maxim, Food Arts, Smoke, Wines & Vines, Canadian Living, and Seventeen.

Bob’s third cookbook, Off The Eaten Path: Inspired Recipes for Adventurous Cooks (Ballantine Books, May 2000) features a blend of practicality and eccentricity, packed with recipes, anecdotes, culinary adventures and his own whimsical food-related illustrations and object’s d’art. To promote the book, Bob embarked on an ambitious 30 city, three month odyssey in a Toastermobile—an Airstream trailer he customized with a $50,000 stainless steel professional kitchen, and topped with two eight-foot slices of toast. The tour was covered extensively in local and national media, including features on CNN and in People magazine. The book won the most innovative cookbook award at the prestigious World Cookbook Fair in Perigueux, France. And the Toastermobile became the mobile kitchen featured on his Food Network show.

Bob’s interest in food and wine pairing drew him deeper into the world of wine. He has traveled extensively in many of the world’s wine-producing regions, and since 1999 has been a judge at the prestigious Los Angeles County Fair and the San Francisco wine competitions. He has also written many wine-related stories, including one documenting his ten days as a grape picker at the legendary Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, and a first-person account of running the Médoc marathon—a 26.2 mile race in Bordeaux, France that winds past 24 picturesque chateaux, where the pit stops are stocked with grand cru wines and fresh Atlantic oysters.

Bob’s 4th book, Surreal Gourmet Bites: show-stoppers and conversation starters debuts in October. He is currently taping 26 new episodes of his Food Network show.When he is not traveling in his Toastermobile, Bob lives in the shadow of the Hollywood sign and cycles daily in the canyons near his home.