Power Couples! Michael Whiteman and Rozanne Gold!
Monday, January 30th
In 1976, the restaurant Windows on the World opened on the 106th and 107th floors of the World Trade Center's north tower. As president of Baum + Whiteman Worldwide, Michael Whiteman was one of the restaurateurs behind the space; Rozanne Gold their Chef-Director. Together, the two opened several other iconic projects over the course of several years... which made the early stages of courtship rather risky ones. Now, decades later, they share remembrances of those early days together -- what made them both take the risk, and what falling in love felt like so many years ago -- and how time has both challenged and strengthened their marriage through to this day.
The fourth in five shows about couples who cross work with love, Michael and Rozanne give us some serious lessons in long-game investment.
About Michael Whiteman
Michael Whiteman, considered the “dean of American restaurant consultants”, is president of Baum + Whiteman Worldwide, the company that created two of the world’s largest-grossing and most magical restaurants -- the legendary Windows on the World and the Rainbow Room. In business since 1971, they created five of New York’s three-star restaurants, developed the world’s first food courts and high-profile concepts for Starwood Hotels, Taj Hotels, Raffles Hotel Group, the Regent of Sydney, and Equinox, a rooftop extravaganza in Singapore, which was named one of the best hotel dining rooms in the world.
Working with the top names in architecture, design, and food, Mr. Whiteman’s firm creates big ideas for diverse sections of the food industry -- from supermarkets to museums, from amusement parks to drinking bars. As Founding Editor of Nation’s Restaurant News, he built the industry’s first newspaper into its most powerful trade publication, and is now a frequent contributor to national magazines and media outlets.
Currently, the company is planning the food, beverage, and public spaces for a 3-million square foot shopping complex in Dubai; is creating an underground steakhouse in an abandoned bank vault beneath the thousand room Hotel New Yorker, and is working with a start-up chain of fast-casual Chinese restaurants with a group of Yale grad students.
A recipient of the prestigious Silver Spoon Award from FoodArts Magazine, Mr. Whiteman lectures around the world as a food futurist and trends pundit.
About Rozanne Gold
Rozanne Gold is a celebrated chef, author, journalist, and philanthropist known for her prolific voice and storied career. At the age of twenty-four, she was the first chef to New York Mayor Ed Koch and went on to became consulting chef to The Rainbow Room and Windows on the World. A four-time winner of the prestigious James Beard Award, Ms. Gold is the author of thirteen cookbooks and more than six hundred articles about food, trends and dining culture. She has written and produced stories for TheNew York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and numerous national publications.
A food trends pundit, she has anticipated – and advocated for – culinary change and is responsible for the creation of some of the country’s most enduring trends. Ms. Gold was the entertaining columnist for Bon Appetit magazine, and responsible for saving Gourmet magazine’s library by purchasing it and donating it to New York University. After Hurricane Sandy, Ms. Gold established a pop-up kitchen in Brooklyn to prepare and deliver 185,000 meals to those in need. She is a frequent guest on National Public Radio, and known as a mentor to many young women and men in the food industry.
An impassioned hospice worker and end-of-life doula, Ms. Gold is a Trustee of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. She is a graduate of the New School with an MFA in poetry, where she teaches "The Language of Food," exploring the intersection of cuisine and commerce, poetry and prose. This course, the first of its kind, establishes menu language as a literary form.