Priscilla Martel is an American chef and restaurateur. She is notable for desserts, baking, pastries and fireplace-cooked meals,[1] but her primary area of expertise, according to Martha Stewart, is cooking with almonds.[2] Martel's recipes have appeared in the magazine Food & Wine, and she is a contributing writer at Flavor and the Menu magazine.[3] She teaches students of the culinary arts, and uses textbooks she has written (both physical and digital) to do so.[4]

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Priscilla Martel
Priscilla Martel
Born	Priscilla Martel (1956-10-22) October 22, 1956 (age 66)
Education	Andover Brown University
Spouse	Charlie van Over
Culinary career
Cooking style	Mediterranean
Current restaurant(s) All About Food
Previous restaurant(s) Restaurant du Village 1979–1990 Chester, CT
Website	priscillamartel.com

Education

Martel went to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and graduated in the school's first co–educational class in 1974. She graduated from Brown University in 1978. Her love of writing was influenced in part after taking a course at Wesleyan, called Portraits of People taught by Anne Greene, in the 1980s.[5]

Career

Martel married Connecticut restaurateur and chef Charlie van Over, and the couple often collaborate on recipes and cooking. Martel and van Over have cooked for 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer, Chef Jacques Pepin as well as Broadway actor Peter Kapetan at their home in Connecticut.[6] Martel and van Over were co–owners of a restaurant in Chester called Restaurant du Village.[7]

Du Village was the kind of restaurant I'd dream about coming across on a back road in Burgundy, a place where everyone is welcomed as family, where the room hums with the lively chatter of friendship and celebration and where the food is so satisfying that I'd run a bit of baguette across the plates to grab sauce and then remind myself not to lick my fingers.

— Dorie Greenberg in The New York Times Magazine July 2021[8]

Martel and van Over were some of the first to start a farm-to-table trend of cultivating a network of local farmers, fishermen, producers and growers who brought fresh and hard-to-find ingredients to their restaurant.[8] Her cooking often reflects a Mediterranean emphasis.[9]

Martel and van Over opened a Chester, Connecticut restaurant which they named Restaurant du Village in 1979 and sold it in 1990.[10]

Martel and van Over were quoted in The New York Times regarding rotisserie cooking using a fireplace; on occasions, Martel and van Over have cooked for fellow Chester resident and 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer.[6] The couple would cook a multicourse meal in the fireplace while having sing–a–longs which sometimes included dancing, and their dinners often included quail, duck, venison or porterhouse steak.[6] At one point, Martel and van Over even lived in a house with six[10] or seven fireplaces.[6] They grow vegetables and other foods in their garden for some of their meals.[9] Martel and van Over advise restaurants about such matters as how to create a brasserie.[11] Martel and van Over asserted in their book The Best Bread Ever that the best way to make the perfect loaf is to use a food processor.[10] Martel's recipes entitled Cod with creamy nut sauce and Chicken Almond Curry with Apricots appeared in Food & Wine magazine. She is co-author of culinary textbooks On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals and On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals.[12] She worked as a consultant in product development to create international seafood chowders and Italian regional soups for Borden.[12] For Absolut Vodka, she was a spokesperson and developer of recipes.[12] She wrote over 150 columns entitled All About Food in Connecticut newspapers.[5]

References

External links

• Martel dessert page
• On Cooking Update textbook by Martel, Labensky and Hause
• Article by Martel in The Gourmet Retailer
• Author Priscilla Martel to Teach Food Writing Course announcement
• Priscilla Martel Living a Flavorful Life blog