Priscilla Martel
Encyclopedia
Priscilla Martel is an award–winning American
chef
, food writer, and consultant
notable for dessert
s, baking
, pastries
and fireplace
-cooked meals. Her recipe
s appear in magazines such as Food & Wine
. She is a contributing writer at Flavor and the Menu Magazine. She teaches and has written textbooks including ebooks used to teach students of the culinary arts. Martel married prominent 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 the late Broadway
actor
Peter Kapetan
at their home in Connecticut
. Martel and van Over were co–owners of a restaurant in Chester
called Restaurant du Village. Her cooking often reflects a Mediterranean emphasis. She has a particular interest and expertise in almonds and desserts of the northeast
. Martel and van Over hold patent
s regarding baking
processes.
Martel attended Phillips Academy
in Andover
and graduated in the school's first co–educational class in 1974. Her classmates included jazz Grammy–winner Bill Cunliffe
, software financier Peter Currie
, actor Dana Delany
, painter Julian Hatton
, poet Karl Kirchwey
, writer Nate Lee
, television producer Jonathan Meath
, editor Sara Nelson
, and sculptor Gar Waterman
. She graduated from Brown University
in 1978.
Martel and van Over opened a Chester, Connecticut
restaurant which they named Restaurant du Village in 1979 and sold it in 1990. In 2010, they own a firm called "All About Food" which holds baking patents and collaborates with food manufacturers and restaurants on such matters as menus, marketing programs, and new products.
Martel and van Over were quoted in the New York Times about doing rotisserie
cooking using a fireplace
; on occasions, Martel and van Over have cooked for fellow Chester resident and 60 Minutes
reporter Morley Safer
. 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. At one point, Martel and van Over lived in a house with six or seven fireplaces. Martel said the fireplace cooking experiences "brings out the best in people." They grow vegetable
s and other foods in their garden for some of their meals. The dining table often has beautiful flowers such as zinnia
s and snapdragon
s and meals are often served with wine
. Martel and van Over advise restaurants about such matters as how to create a brasserie
. Beef steak and veal stew are cooked using a Tuscan grill. Martel and van Over argued in their book "The Best Bread Ever" that the best way to make the perfect loaf is to use a food processor
. Martel's recipes entitled Cod with creamy nut sauce and Chicken Almond Curry with Apricots appeared in Food & Wine
magazine.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
chef
Chef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
, food writer, and consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
notable for dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
s, baking
Baking
Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, quiches, cookies and crackers. Such items...
, pastries
Pastry
Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked products are called "pastries."...
and fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
-cooked meals. Her recipe
Recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...
s appear in magazines such as Food & Wine
Food & Wine
Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York...
. She is a contributing writer at Flavor and the Menu Magazine. She teaches and has written textbooks including ebooks used to teach students of the culinary arts. Martel married prominent 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
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
reporter Morley Safer
Morley Safer
Morley Safer is a Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News. He is best known for his long tenure on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which began in December 1970.-Life and career:...
, Chef Jacques Pepin
Jacques Pépin
Jacques Pépin is an internationally recognized French chef, television personality, and author working in the United States. Born in Bourg-en-Bresse, Lyon in France, Pepin was raised by a father and mother who jointly owned a restaurant, where he later credited the start of his love for food. He...
as well as the late Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Peter Kapetan
Peter Kapetan
Peter Murray Kapetan was an American Broadway actor, singer and dancer notable for playing numerous roles during a thirty year career. He was notable for performing in the musical The Wedding Singer as a Ronald Reagan impersonator...
at their home in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. Martel and van Over were co–owners of a restaurant in Chester
Chester, Connecticut
Chester is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 3,743 at the 2000 census. The town center is also defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place .-Geography:...
called Restaurant du Village. Her cooking often reflects a Mediterranean emphasis. She has a particular interest and expertise in almonds and desserts of the northeast
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
. Martel and van Over hold patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s regarding baking
Baking
Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, quiches, cookies and crackers. Such items...
processes.
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
in Andover
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
and graduated in the school's first co–educational class in 1974. Her classmates included jazz Grammy–winner Bill Cunliffe
Bill Cunliffe
Bill Cunliffe is an American jazz pianist and composer based in Los Angeles He has been described by The New York Times as being in the "modern jazz mainstream" and as an "accomplished pianist and composer." Ernie Rideout of Keyboard Magazine described Cunliffe's playing as "inventive, melodic,...
, software financier Peter Currie
Peter Currie
Peter L. S. Currie is a business executive notable for being the chief financial officer for Netscape during the 1990s. Currie was described by Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro as one of the "Silicon Valley wise men". He advised Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about business matters in...
, actor Dana Delany
Dana Delany
Dana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...
, painter Julian Hatton
Julian Hatton
Julian Burroughs Hatton III is an American landscape abstract artist from New York City whose paintings have appeared in galleries in the United States and France. The New York Times described his painting style as "vibrant, playful, semi-abstract landscapes" while New York Sun art critic John...
, poet Karl Kirchwey
Karl Kirchwey
Karl Kirchwey is a prize–winning American poet who has lived in both Europe and the United States and whose work is strongly influenced by the Greek and Roman past. He often looks to the classical world for inspiration with themes which have included loss, loneliness, nostalgia and modern...
, writer Nate Lee
Nate Lee
Nate Lee is an American author and former senior editor at Chicago's Newcity weekly magazine who advocated passionately for live theater. At Newcity, Lee wrote features, a weekly column called Urbanitie, theatre and film reviews as well as stories on architecture and historic preservation, and at...
, television producer Jonathan Meath
Jonathan Meath
Jonathan Meath is an award–winning American TV producer based in Boston who is notable for earning numerous Emmy nominations and the coveted George Foster Peabody Award in 1993. He is known for his commitment to children's educational television...
, editor Sara Nelson
Sara Nelson
Sara Nelson is an American publishing industry figure who is an editor and book reviewer and consultant and columnist and who is currently the book editor at Oprah's O Magazine. Nelson is notable for having been editor in chief at the book industry's chief trade publication Publishers Weekly from...
, and sculptor Gar Waterman
Gar Waterman
Gar Waterman is an award–winning sculptor based in New Haven in Connecticut who is notable for large public arts projects which beautify public places as well as creations which mimic sealife. He works in marble, stone, bronze, wood, and sometimes glass. Some of his sculptures resemble "giant...
. She graduated from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in 1978.
Martel and van Over opened a Chester, Connecticut
Chester, Connecticut
Chester is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 3,743 at the 2000 census. The town center is also defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place .-Geography:...
restaurant which they named Restaurant du Village in 1979 and sold it in 1990. In 2010, they own a firm called "All About Food" which holds baking patents and collaborates with food manufacturers and restaurants on such matters as menus, marketing programs, and new products.
Rotisserie
Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit - a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This method is generally used for cooking large joints of meat or entire animals, such as pigs,...
cooking using a fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
; on occasions, Martel and van Over have cooked for fellow Chester resident and 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
reporter Morley Safer
Morley Safer
Morley Safer is a Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News. He is best known for his long tenure on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which began in December 1970.-Life and career:...
. 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
Quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are found in the family Phasianidae, while New World quail are found in the family Odontophoridae...
, duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
, venison
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
or porterhouse steak. At one point, Martel and van Over lived in a house with six or seven fireplaces. Martel said the fireplace cooking experiences "brings out the best in people." They grow vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s and other foods in their garden for some of their meals. The dining table often has beautiful flowers such as zinnia
Zinnia
Zinnia is a genus of 20 species of annual and perennial plants of family Asteraceae, originally from scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the American Southwest to South America, but primarily Mexico, and notable for their solitary long-stemmed flowers that come in a variety of bright...
s and snapdragon
SnapDragon
SnapDragon is a contemporary jazz band based in San Antonio, Texas. The group released their debut CD, "Stealing a Moment" on Humbug Records in 2008, and the 10-song CD soon broke the Top 100 in U.S radio airplay...
s and meals are often served with wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
. Martel and van Over advise restaurants about such matters as how to create a brasserie
Brasserie
In France and the Francophone world, a brasserie is a type of French restaurant with a relaxed, upscale setting, which serves single dishes and other meals. The word 'brasserie' is also French for "brewery" and, by extension, "the brewing business"...
. Beef steak and veal stew are cooked using a Tuscan grill. Martel and van Over argued in their book "The Best Bread Ever" that the best way to make the perfect loaf is to use a food processor
Food processor
A food processor is a kitchen appliance used to facilitate various repetitive tasks in the process of preparation of food. Today, the term almost always refers to an electric-motor-driven appliance, although there are some manual devices also referred to as "food processors".Food processors are...
. Martel's recipes entitled Cod with creamy nut sauce and Chicken Almond Curry with Apricots appeared in Food & Wine
Food & Wine
Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York...
magazine.
Publications
- On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals, by Sarah Labensky, Priscilla Martel and Eddy Vandamme ISBN 978-0131579231
- Sampler Companion Website for On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals ISBN 9780135046531
- On Cooking: A Textbook Of Culinary Fundamentals, by Sarah Labensky, Alan M. Hause, Steven Labensky, Priscilla Martel; book/CD
- The Best Bread Ever: Great Homemade Bread Using Your Food Processor by Charles van Over and Priscilla Martel (1997)
External links
- Martel dessert page
- Almond and Mixed Berry Shortcakes online recipe posted by Priscilla Martel