Biography of Jim Coleman

Chef Jim Coleman is one of America’s only multi-media celebrity chefs, having mastered television, radio and print.  In 1993, the national trade magazine Restaurants and Institutions dubbed Coleman “the spatula-wielding king of all media,” a title he continues to hold.

When he’s not in the kitchen, Coleman is in front of a microphone.  In 1996, Coleman started hosting his television series, Flavors of America.  As we speak, the new Flavors of America is being released, making Flavors the longest continuously running national cooking show on PBS in the country. As far as viewership, we have approximately 50 million viewers.  Since we are now well over 250 shows, we are in syndication across the country, primarily with Comcast, but with other affiliates as well.  In syndication, we have approximately 11 million viewers six days a week and growing.

Recently, Chef Coleman has signed on to do 26 new episodes of Flavors of America, 13 of which will be focused on heart healthy cooking. This series will be called Heart Healthy Flavors of America. Filming will begin in July, 2005 and will air this fall on PBS nationally and later on syndication. This August Chef Coleman will also begin filming a new reality show called Bragging Rights. The premise of the show is to find the best amateur cook in America. Ideally the contestants will be mothers and grandmothers who will submit their recipes and bios to the show. If selected, a film crew will go to their house to do a background video. The contestants will be brought to the studio to make 1 dish, which will be judged by consumers. If they win they will go on to the next round. The winner of the show will be flown to Vancouver where they will embark on a 10 day cruise to Alaska. This series will be aired on PBS and will run on syndication at the same time.

Since 1996, Coleman has hosted “A Chef’s Table,” a weekly National Public Radio show which features conversations with nationally recognized chefs, authors, and food personalities on a variety of food and beverage issues.  The radio show reaches approximately 30 million listeners in 27 markets.  The show is the 2nd largest NPR food program and growing.  We are also carried on Sirius Satellite Radio and the Armed Forces Network, which has an unknown number of listeners. You can also listen to the radio show via www.whyy.org/chef.

Chef Coleman also writes a weekly column for Knight Ridder, which is the 2nd largest newspaper publisher in the US.  The column, which is called “The Chef’s Table” is distributed on the wire service, and released in 24 to 47 papers weekly. 

Coleman has published three cookbooks: The Rittenhouse Cookbook, A Year of Seasonal Heart-Healthy Recipes, published by Ten Speed Press in 1997, Flavors of America, published in 1998 as the companion to the television show, and Jim Coleman’s Flavors, published in the fall of 2001 by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Random House.  He is contracted to have a new book by Spring 2006.

In 2002, Coleman left the five-star Rittenhouse Hotel where he had been executive chef for 12 years to embark on a culinary adventure as executive chef of an historical property,  Normandy Farm, where he oversees all food and beverage preparation, including Coleman Restaurant. 

Coleman is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America.  He was chosen as one of 40 out of 10,000 applicants to participate in the premiere session of Madeline Kamman’s Beringer School of American Chefs.  Born and raised in Dallas, TX, Chef Coleman’s career has taken him around the world – from the beaches of California to the Great Wall of China.  He currently lives in Moorestown, NJ, with his wife who is the senior editor of a national food magazine, and has two children.