Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, has been credited with pioneering the culinary style known as California cuisine. A food lover from childhood, he had no formal culinary education before beginning his career as a chef.
Inspired by a berry tart he had eaten at the then-unknown Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, he applied for a job there in 1972. Alice Waters and her partners hired him for his demonstrable skills and brazenness when it came to recreating great French traditional food. Within a year, he became an equal partner with Waters and the others. He was in full charge of the kitchen, the writing of the menus, and the promotion of the restaurant. Tower left Chez Panisse in 1978, after philosophical and business disagreements with the majority of the Board and with Waters in particular. He worked at the Ventana Inn at Big Sur beginning 1978, and taught briefly in 1980 at the California Culinary Academy. He went on in 1981 to revive the dying Balboa Cafe in San Francisco, at the time, the restaurant was owned by Cathe and Doyle Moon. In 1982, he became head chef at Santa Fe Bar and Grill, located in Berkeley, California and also owned by the Moons. Santa Fe Bar and Grill was a restaurant that was later a springboard for fellow Chez Panisse-alum, Mark Miller, to open the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a string of Southwestern-themed restaurants throughout the United States. In 1984, Tower opened his own restaurant, Stars, in San Francisco, in partnership with Cathe and Doyle Moon. Stars was among the top-grossing restaurants in the Bay Area. Tower opened branches of Stars restaurant in Oakville, Palo Alto, Manila, and Singapore. Numerous American chefs worked at Stars, among them Mark Franz, Mario Batali, George Francisco, Loretta Keller, Joey Altman, Michael Shrader, Brendan Walsh, Chris Colburn, and Ron Garrido, as well as pastry chefs Tim Grable, Emily Luchetti, and Jerry Traunfeld. He owned the Peak Cafe in Hong Kong in the 1990s, as well as various related ventures in San Francisco including a more casual cafe, an upscale bistro, and a kitchenware shop. As his fame grew he licensed his name out, and began to earn celebrity endorsement contracts, including one for Dewar's Scotch. In 1998, Tower sold a part interest in the Stars restaurants to a Singapore real estate company. The new owners closed the Stars restaurants after two years of operation. Tower moved to Manila, Philippines for a year, then to New York City for four years, followed by a move to Italy and then Mexico. In 2014, he was hired as executive chef of Tavern on the Green in New York City, but he left in April 2015, after six months.
Filmography
In 2016, the biographical documentary Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent, by Anthony Bourdain and Zero Point Zero productions, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The 100-minute film was bought by The Orchard for US distribution in the spring of 2017. On November 12, 2017 the film was broadcast on CNN. In 2017, Tower appeared on Top Chef, the Rick SteinTV show “Road to Mexico” for BBC, the CRAVE wine and food festival, Spokane, Washington, guest of honor at Chef’s Roll, Miami Beach, and as a judge at the Basque Culinary Center World Awards, Mexico City.
Previous restaurants
A list of previous restaurants Tower was associated with.
California locations
Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California, worked here from 1972 –1978;
Santa Fe Bar and Grill, Berkeley, California, worked here from 1982–1986;
Stars Restaurant, Civic Center neighborhood, San Francisco, California, operated from 1984 –1999, sold in 1998 to Andrew Yap but Tower stays on as creative consultant;
Stars Restaurant, Manila, Philippines, opened in 1999;
Stars Restaurant, Singapore, operated from 1996–1998;
Awards and honors
Tower's first book, New American Classics, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 1986 for "Best American Regional Cookbook". Tower won the James Beard Foundation Award for "Best Chef in California" in 1993 and "Outstanding Chef of the Year" in 1996.
