ZineZone: As host of TV Food Network's popular show, "Taste", David Rosengarten has seduced the palates of millions of viewers. Now his cookbook, "Taste: One Palate's Journey Through the World's Greatest Dishes", has been recognized by the International Assoc. of Culinary Professionals as the Best International Cookbook of the year! Chat with Chef Rosengarten about food, wine, and critiquing for Gourmet Magazine.

SueDM: Welcome, David! You're not only a chef, you also have a doctorate in Theatre. How did you make the transition from stage to kitchen?

DavidR: Hmmm. Well, first of all, it's not really a transition, because when I cook on television, that's a stage - and it was incredibly smooth, because I'm a ham! And on TV I get to both prepare ham and BE a ham! ;-) Food has always been the great passion in my life, but about 15 years ago I started to write about food and wine, with the hope of making that my career, and it worked!

stageboy: If, as they say, presentation is everything, do you think actors make the best chefs?

DavidR: LOL!! I think that actors make the best TV chefs, because what I know about theatre and presentation is more important than what I know about food. But there are many chefs who are terrific chefs who would not be able to do it on television because of their presentation.
So in a restaurant, this type of presentation is not important, it doesn't matter what it looks like in the kitchen. So there it's not an issue. When I work hard, and make 20 cooking shows in a week, at the end of the week I'm extremely tired, but probably not as tired as a chef is after 20 or 30 hours of cooking, but the difference is when I'm doing it for the camera, I have to look fabulous for the camera, but when the chef is finished after a long day, it makes no difference what he looks like!

Vinogrrrl: I've never seen your show (sorry!) but have you ever done a show about wine? Or will you do a show about wine?

DavidR: Vinogrrrl -- I love Vinos of all genders! Yes, wine is one of my passions, and every one of my cooking shows concludes with a discussion of the best wine or beverage to drink with the food. And after the discussion, a demonstration. ;-) And, I'd say about one out of every 15 shows is exclusively devoted to one type of wine. The whole show is about that type of wine, and I demonstrate some food to go with that wine. It's another point of view. :-) So I have done shows for example on champagne, red rioja, dry German Riesling, California chardonnay, red Burgundy, etc.

mammacass: Do you think that it's true that "real chefs don't use microwaves"?

DavidR: LOL! Well, mamma... I can tell you that I have seen in many three star restaurants in France, microwaves -or microondes, as they say. They like to cook vegetables, and something like asparagus is really very good, and a lot of important chefs use the microwave for that. There was a book published about 10 years ago by Barbara Kafka on the subject of microwave cooking, and that very creative, inventive chef found things to do in the microwave that hadn't been thought of before. For example, she found that if you're having trouble opening an oyster, a short blast in the microwave will let you open the oyster, without cooking it.