Brad Farmerie Bio

Contestant on Next Iron Chef

Contestant on Next Iron Chef

Contestant on Next Iron Chef

Farmerie Recipe:

Carrot Cardamom Soup with Aleppo Marshmallow and Pumpkin Seed Oil

Brad Farmerie grew up in Pittsburgh in a food-loving family. His mother, an avid home cook, exposed him to a variety of cuisines and insisted on home baked bread and vegetables straight from the family garden.

Farmerie enrolled at Penn State, intent on completing a degree in mechanical engineering. Two years into his studies it became apparent that the cooking he did to pay his tuition was the real source of his collegiate contentment. Thus he took a year-long hiatus from studying the principles of physics to exploring first-hand the cuisines and wines of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Antipodes.

One year turned to seven, and Farmerie's culinary wanderings turned serious when he settled in the UK in 1996, earning a "Grande Diplome" at Le Cordon Bleu. He further rounded out his education and technique at acclaimed restaurants such as Coast, Chez Nico and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. Most influential to his own style was his experience working with Peter Gordon at the Sugar Club in 1996, then assisting Gordon and Anna Hansen in the opening of the critically-acclaimed The Providores and Tapa Room.

In 2003, Farmerie moved back to the States to head up the kitchen of the AvroKO-designed PUBLIC. There, his creative, global approach was described by The New York Times as one that "swings for the fences with each and every dish" and Michelin awarded the restaurant a coveted star in the 2009 Red Guide. 2006 saw the opening of The Monday Room, a 20-seat wine bar inside of PUBLIC which Farmerie turned into a laboratory for his most creative dishes yet, designed expressly to pair with the Monday Room’s eclectic and adventurous wine selections.

In the fall of 2008, Farmerie extended his culinary reach as executive chef of AvroKO's long-awaited two-in-one project, Double Crown and Madam Geneva, which takes as its inspiration the unique cuisine that emerged when the British colonized the countries of South Asia and the Far East. Shortly after opening, the restaurant received a two- (out of four) star review from The New York Times.

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