Howard W. Hewitt – Known as one of the country’s most celebrated food authors, buddy to Anthony Bourdain, and a familiar face for his frequent television appearances, Michael Ruhlman will visit Wabash College Tuesday, Oct. 16.
Ruhlman has appeared on Food Network’s Iron Chef America and Next Iron Chef as a judge as well as frequent appearances on Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Channel television shows.
But he’s best known as an author and chef, having written 12 books. He’s known for books with or about chefs, including Michael Symon of the Food Network, Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, Eric Ripert of Bernadin, and more.
The Cleveland native is a graduate of Duke University and the Culinary Institute of America. He will bring a unique perspective to Wabash based in part from his education at University School in Cleveland, a private boys’ day school. His first book was based on his all-male education, Boys Themselves.
Final details of his visit are being arranged but he will speak on campus at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16 about his career and the rise of chefs to celebrity status. He is expected to give a noon-time talk early in the day which will be more cooking specific, probably an open question and answer session.
Most recently he has released Salumi, a book on dry Italian curing, and Twenty, a book of “twenty essential ideas from ingredients to processes to attitude that are guaranteed to make every cook more accomplished.”
His other titles include: The Making of a Chef, The French Laundry Cookbook, Soul of a Chef, Bouchon, Charcuterie, House: A Memoir, The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen, Element of Cooking, Ratio, and Live to Cook with Michael Symon.
Ruhlman’s appearance is being sponsored by the Visiting Lecture Series.
Ruhlman has an even stronger connection to Wabash than his all-male secondary schooling background. In the Fall 2002 issue of Wabash Magazine he penned an essay “Gathering Home.” That essay later inspired his memoir, House.
