CHEF TELL

Biographies & Memoirs

synopsis

Synopsis

CHEF TELL was America's pioneer, syndicated-TV rock-star chef, a contemporary of Julia Child. His fan base was 8X larger than hers. Friedemann Paul Erhardt faces an audition for a cooking slot on a syndicated-television show scriptless. Using his wit and personality, he wins, birthing a new breed: the TV-showman chef. Soon, 40,000,000 avid fans tune in to Evening Magazine or PM Magazine and watch “Chef Tell” perform 90-second cooking segments three times a week. He sweeps across the nation’s small screens like a prairie fire. No one has ever seen anyone like him. PM Magazine’s “rock-star chef” draws up to 50-percent market share in 95 percent of their syndicated outlets. Tell’s ruggedly masculine appeal crosses gender and generational lines. “If a housewife, or man, sees me do something in 90 seconds they figure they can make it in five minutes,” says Tell. Off-camera, Erhardt already suffering the scars of his post-WWII childhood and his mother’s ignominious suicide, endures another suicide, two lost marriages, sporadic drug use, and clandestine sexual encounters before finding personal happiness with a woman he trusts implicitly and loves boundlessly. He makes numerous appearances on LIVE! with Regis & Kathy Lee, begins production of his own cooking show, and opens two more restaurants in Pennsylvania. In the Kitchen with Chef Tell airs on PBS locally, pulls high ratings, and gets picked up on syndication. What happens next is worth your reading!!!

bio

Author Biography

Born in Bogota, Colombia... traveled in 39+ countries (public speaking engagements in 17); worked in sales 39 years. Since 2009, writing EXTRAordinary biographies and historical fiction novels oncommission, consistently earning five stars on review and opening new opportunities by inspiring and entertaining clients and readers.

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Author Insight

Chef Tell's Gateway to America

Friedemann Paul Erhardt, who later and only in America would become the TV persona we knew as "Chef Tell," had established his culinary reputation in his native country of Germany but he wanted to go to America. Not knowing how he would ever get there... an innocent, roadside meeting under the canopy of a lonesome forest brought him to meet a woman who would became his gateway to the Promised Land where he would find fame, fortune, and heartbreak! Janet Louise Nicoletti, a former Miss Philadelphia, had been visiting her relatives in the region when her car broke down just as a rainstorm began to pour on her...

Book Excerpt

CHEF TELL

On a Saturday in early July 1972, Tell walked among thousands of Freiburg residents and single-day tourists eager to taste the first vintages of the year. The free-market community in the heart of the wine-growing region hosted the annual event. The mood was festive and carefree, though everyone avoided falling or stepping into one of the free-flowing water gutters (Bächle) in town, lest they suffer the legendary consequence after falling into a Bächle—having to marry a Freiburger.

His wine tasting completed, perhaps with a glass or two of his favorites, Lauffener Katzenbeisser’s Schwarzrieling and Canstadter Zuckerle—the latter named after the Stuttgart suburb where he’d grown up—Tell headed home in the 280 SL through the Black Forest at dusk. By day, the sunshine glinted between the tall conifers like reflections off brook riffles, by nightfall raindrops fell. Having secured the top on the vehicle, Tell turned on his wipers and maneuvered the twists and turns of the wet pavement with both hands upon the wheel. He was in a good mood. Feeling fulfilled, he whistled a few notes from his favorite Beethoven symphony, “Ta, da-da-dah . . . ta, da-da-dah.”

As serendipity would have it, around the next bend, dramatic changes for Tell unfolded.

From the moment he laid eyes on the distressed beauty with a flat tire—the woman, not the car—Tell’s journey through life was altered, although he did not know it at the time. He only knew what his eyes saw.

The woman in front of him looked curvaceous under her rain-soaked silk blouse and shorts, and she looked like she needed some help. He slowed and pulled over to see what he could do.

Tell hopped out of his car and was rummaging through her trunk before they exchanged any words. In minutes, her car was jacked up about as high as her blood pressure. She scanned over her Good Samaritan’s tall and tanned physique, thinking, He’s as German as they come. She also adored his take-charge attitude.

With the flat tire replaced and the spare parts squared away in the trunk, Tell saluted the stranger and was about to take his leave when a lightning bolt flashed and cracked a tree nearby. The ear-splitting thunderclap frightened the startled woman, who pushed against him.

A different kind of electricity rifled through both of them. Speechless, they kissed.

Tell broke away and asked her name.