Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Food TV Pioneer Chef Tell Dead at Age 63

I'm bummed. Just got news from WP Tandy that Chef Tell (aka Friedman Paul Erhardt) is dead at the age of 63.

Tell was a fixture on Philadelphia TV when I was growing up in the 1970s, and made his first appearance on the local show 'Dialing for Dollars' in 1974. Along with The Galloping Gourmet he was one of the first "celebrity chefs" that made an impression upon a young Hungover Gourmet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

bummer-he was cool.

Rachel said...

How odd, someone just was telling me about him today (unrelated to his death) and how cool he was. What a coincidence!

Dan said...

Wow, that *is* a weird coincidence! Loved watching him when I was growing up. As my wife (also from the NJ/Philly area) and I were discussing last night, he and Julia Child and Graham Kerr were the first chefs we were ever aware of and it made the whole idea of chefs this mysterious thing that people with accents did!