Chef

The old Kolper's Tavern on Clipper Road, more recently known as the Mill Steakhouse, will reopen this fall as Birroteca -- the name is a play on "enoteca," which today pretty much means a chic place that serves wine. The chef at Birroteca will be Robbin Haas, who was named one of the top 10 chefs in America by Food and Wine magazine back in 1994. Haas' resume is extensive, both as a chef and as the principal in Robinhaas Concepts, a restaurant consulting firm. His credits include the Montauk Yacht Club in Montauk, N.Y., Phillips Seafood restaurants (for whom he redesigned the Phillips restaurant in Atlantic City, N.J., Chispa in Coral Gables, Fla., and, more recently, Nokiate and Bistro Cinq in Antigua, Guatemala.

Nikki McGowan is no stranger to half-pints in the kitchen. The Howard County chef teaches kid-centric cooking classes in schools all over the region, making her a perfect fit to help us kick off Maryland Family's brand new Kids' Cooking Club. Each week during June, check the Maryland Family website for a new kid-friendly recipe designed by a local chef. Make the recipes with your child, and tell us about it (see the next page for how to join). Once you've completed all four, we'll mail your budding chef a congratulatory certificate.

It looks like Brian Bruso has left Gitan Bistro Cru. You can follow the drama on Bruso's Twitter account, which is connected to his former restaruant, Birches. 1) Please acccept our sincerest apologies for your favorite Gitan Menu items slowly disappearing. :( 1:11 AM - 22 Mar 12 2) Ownership / Management @Gitan has reduced our ability to provide the level of food & excellence you would expect from us personally. 1:12 AM - 22 Mar 12 3) Feel free to lodge any complaints or concerns with Gitan's GM Jessica Nadeau!

After 25 Preaknesses, Annette Thomas has her routine, and recipes, down pat. Thirty pounds of ribs, both pork and beef, marinated overnight in vinegar and soy sauce, then grilled in front of her house on Saturday. Fifty pounds of red-skin potatoes — "Never russets, oh no, no, no!" — boiled in her crab pots for dill whipped potato salad. "Half-and-half," or homemade sweet tea — not the bought tea, she explains — and lemonade to wash it down. For the hungry hordes heading into or out of Pimlico Race Course , sidewalk chefs like Thomas serve up a home-cooked alternative to the concessions inside.

Four days after Tom Sietsema reported that Wit & Wisdom, A Michael Mina Tavern was looking for a new executive chef, representatives of the Mina Group could not confirm that executive chef Benjamin Lambert was being replaced. Sietsema's one-and-a-half star review of Wit & Wisdom in The Washington Post wasn't a pan exactly, but it probably wasn't the review that the San Francisco-based Mina Group wanted for their signature restaurant in the Four Seasons Baltimore Hotel, located in the Inner Harbor's Harbor East development.

The Wine Market has elevated sous chef Andrew Weinzirl to the position of executive chef, the restaurant's owner, Chris Spann, announced Oct. 14. Weinzirl takes over from Chris Becker, who left to join the Bagby Group. "I wanted to find a chef that understood my culinary philosophy but who also had his own approach to food," said Spann, who added that Weinzirl had been running the kitchen for a month before his promotion. After graduating from Baltimore International College, Weinzirl put in time at Linwoods , Dogwood and the Chameleon , with a sojourn in between at the James Beard Award-winning Highlands Grill in Birmingham, Ala. On Weinzirl's first menu: a house-made short rib hot dog with apple kimchi; a pine nut and pinot noir risotto with wild mushrooms and Parmesan sage broth; and a pan-roasted Creekstone Farms bistro steak with potato-kohlrabi gratin.

Bradley Willits is the new executive chef at B&O American Brasserie in the Hotel Monaco. Willits is the third executive chef at the Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants property, which opened in 2009, following E. Michael Reidt and Thomas Dunklin. Willits, 31, has more than 20 years of kitchen experience and education, having started his restaurant career at his father's cafe in Sarasota, Fla. His formative kitchen experience was at Tango, a Vero Beach, Fla., restaurant, where he trained under Ben Tench.

So, the endless post-season scenarios have put your plans up in the air? Think about Josh Distenfeld, executive chef at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Distenfeld has to make ordering, prepping and staffing decisions for what could turn out to be anywhere from zero to four games in the next five days. On Wednesday afternoon, here's what Distenfeld knew -- exactly what everybody else knew. "We're just like everybody else," said Distenfeld, who oversees all of the food operations at Camden Yards.

James Michael Crooks, a chef and former co-owner of the Country Kettle Cafe in western Howard County, died Friday of heart failure at his New Windsor home. He was 44. Mr. Crooks was born in Wheaton and was raised there and in London, where he attended London Central High School. After graduating from Wheaton High School in 1982, he went to work in the restaurant business. "We met when we both were working at the Olney Ale House in 1983. Back then, we were young and crazy," said his wife of 17 years, the former Amy Regina Lauer.

A Washington D.C. restaurant is getting by with a little help from the chef's friends. When R.J. Cooper, the chef/owner of Rogue 24, underwent planned open-heart surgery at Johns Hopkins earlier this week, the Washington D.C. restaurant didn't temporarily close. Instead, 12 of Cooper's friends are stepping in -- each for a week -- to lend a hand while Cooper recovers. The restaurant is calling the series of collaborations the Rogue Sessions. Each evening features a 24-course dinner consisting of 12 of the visiting chef's dishes and 12 Rogue 24 favorites.

Some dozen Baltimore restaurants will be adding soft-shell crab specials to their menus for Baltimore's fifth annual Soft-Shell Crab Celebration. The restaurant promotion, sponsored by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, will run May 24 through June 2. The participating restaurants include Alexander's Tavern , The Black Olive , Diamond Tavern, Grille 700 , J. Paul's , Kona Grill , Miss Shirley's , Pabu , The Oceanaire , Phillips Seafood , Regi's American Bistro , Roy's , Ryleigh's Oyster, Ten Ten , Townhouse Kitchen & Bar and Vino Rosina . On the eve of the 10-day celebration, Downtown Partnership and Vino Rosina will host a five-course soft-shell crab tasting featuring chef Jesse Sandlin's contemporary interpretations of classic recipes.

Company's coming to Pimlico Race Course . For the throngs expected at Saturday's Preakness, the hospitality team at Pimlico Race Course is bringing in 7,000 pounds of crab meat and 3,000 pounds of aged tenderloin. Did someone remember to get ice? Yes: 30,000 bags of frozen water are already in place. Those were just a few of the items on the Preakness list of Tommy Inzer, director of hospitality for the Maryland Jockey Club, which has been hosting the Preakness since 1873.

The James Beard Foundation announced the winners of the 2013 James Beard Foundation Awards on Monday night at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center , capping a weekend of gastronomic events in New York City . Spike Gjerde of Baltimore's Woodberry Kitchen attended the awards ceremony and was among the five finalists for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic, one 10 regional categories in the JBF Awards. But Baltimore is still without a JBF Award winner in a chef category. The Mid-Atlantic winner announced on Monday was Johnny Monis of Koni in Washington.

After seven years running his own kitchen at Salt , his Upper Fells Point restaurant that put duck-fat fries, Wagyu sliders and changing menus on Baltimore's food map, Jason Ambrose is stepping aside. Ambrose is turning over Salt's day-to-day kitchen operations to Brian Lavin, who joined the Salt team in 2010 and has been the restaurant's sous-chef for about a year and a half, according to Ambrose. "I made a decision I was going to take a step out," said Ambrose. "Brian came to me as a line cook with a tremendous interest in food.

Brooklyn Brewery is on the road. The New York-based brewery is in the middle of an 11-city tour that began in Austin, Texas, before moving on to New Orleans, Nashville, Tenn., and Boston. The traveling event is a benefit for Slow Food USA. It's Baltimore's turn. The Brooklyn Brewery Mash: Adventures in Food, Film, Music, Books and Beer is in Baltimore through Sunday for a week of parties, comedy, concerts, pop-up supper clubs and readings. Among the six days of activities are a few food highlights.

Bradley Willits is the new executive chef at B&O American Brasserie in the Hotel Monaco. Willits is the third executive chef at the Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants property, which opened in 2009, following E. Michael Reidt and Thomas Dunklin. Willits, 31, has more than 20 years of kitchen experience and education, having started his restaurant career at his father's cafe in Sarasota, Fla. His formative kitchen experience was at Tango, a Vero Beach, Fla., restaurant, where he trained under Ben Tench.

WHEN A CHEF GIVES a simple dish remarkable flavor, there are a few things I want to know. Namely, how did he do that, and can I do the same thing at home?Recently I found myself grilling two different chefs about two different dishes. First I ate some braised sea bass with dried tomatoes, whipped up by chef Roberto Donna at the Great Chefs' Dinner, a benefit for the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Maryland held at Linwood's restaurant. Donna, who owns Galileo restaurant in Washington, was joined in the kitchen by his friend, Francesco Ricchi, chef of Bice restaurant in Washington.

Services for Edwin A. Kuser, a retired Swiss chef who headed hotel and hospital kitchens, will be at 11 a.m. today at Ambrose Inc., 1328 Sulphur Spring Road in Arbutus.Mr. Kuser, a resident of Arbutus, died of heart failure Thursday at his home. He was 94.Mr. Kuser trained as a chef in his native Switzerland under a rigorous apprenticeship system, which required that he pay for the privilege of learning.After arriving in New York in 1920, he took a job as an ice carver at the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where he worked until he moved to Baltimore five years later.

Watch Four Seasons Baltimore executive pastrychef Chris Ford in the final and concluding episode of the Chicago Restaurant Pastry Competition, a web-based video series. Ford competed against three other chefs in the competition, a single-day event where finalists are asked to make eight servings of an original, creative, plated dessert. The chefs also competed in a mystery challenge where they were asked to create an inventive, molded gelato. This was the second year for the competition and web series, which focused on Chicago-based chefs the first year.

The Bagby Restaurant Group has hired a new executive chef for Fleet Street Kitchen.  He is Chris Amendola,  most recently of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., that serves a $208 12-course "farmer's feast" menu. Chris Becker, who opened Fleet Street Kitchen last September, is now the executive chef for the entire Bagby operation, whose other restaurants include Bagby Pizza and Ten Ten. Becker, who was also recently named the group's chief operating officer, will be turning his focus to Cunningham's and Cunningham's Cafe & Bakery, which are scheduled to open this summer in the Towson City Center.