If this explanation of the facts is right, then we can expect that Yahweh's victory at the sea will be followed in P's narrative, as in Enuma Elish, by an account of the construction of Yahweh's holy dwelling-and that is precisely what we have in Exodus. But the comparative repercussions of P's tabernacle narrative go well beyond this. Although the narrative location of P's tabernacle account parallels very closely the narrative structure of Enuma Elish, the conceptual details of that tabernacle plan point in the direction of other Mesopotamian exemplars. One implication is that P's mimetic project depended not on a single myth but on a wider variety of Mesopotamian sources tiffany engagement rings on sale traditions.
The second half of P's Exodus is composed of ritual prescriptions and descriptions relating to the construction of the tabernacle and its furnishings. This narrative account of the tabernacle's creation is conceptually similar to the logos creation of the Tiffany Money Clips sale in Ps seven-day creation week, since here as well God speaks seven words of prescription to Moses that,42 when carried out in seven distinct acts,43 result in a place for God to dwell, just as the creation of the cosmos provided a home for humanity.44 As Joseph Blenkinsopp has expressed it, "What P seems to have done is emphasize the building of the sanctuary... as the climax of creation."45 Although these septenary structures surely reflect the uniqueness of P, the patterns in his temple narrative are perhaps not Israelite only. As I have pointed out already, the Priestly link between creation and the tabernacle parallels very closely the narrative links in Enuma Elish, a text that P seems to have known and in which Marduk's creation was followed immediately by the construction of his temple. Further evidence for foreign influence on P's tabernacle narrative has been adduced by Victor Hurowitz, who has demonstrated convincingly that P's account follows a five-step pattern that appears in many Near Eastern temple construction narratives.46 Taken together, this evidence generally supports my thesis that P intended the tabernacle account to mimic the contours of a Mesopotamian pattern-and there is yet more evidence to consider.
According to Mesopotamian tradition, divine cult Tiffany Necklaces sale could be ritually fashioned only if one possessed their divinely revealed plans. This caused a great deal of trouble when the Sutians destroyed the cultic image of Sham ash during the eleventh century.47 For two hundred years afterwards, an image of a sun-disk was used in lieu of the statue. Fortunately, during the ninth-century reign of Nabu-apaliddina of Babylon, priests of Shamash discovered a copy of the long-lost divine image along the bank of the Euphrates. Here we should probably place "discovered" in quotation marks, as it is very likely that the providential find was a pious fraud, proffered by priests who longed to restore the cultic image of their god.48 At any rate, it is clear enough that ancient Mesopotamians ostensibly required divinely revealed blueprints for the preparation of cultic images.
Mesopotamian scholars were interested not only in the divine statue but also in the accoutrements of the temple and its cult, sacred features that they explored in a genre that modern scholars call topography.49 The bulk of the texts are not geographical exercises so much as theological and cosmological explorations of various cult shrines. Temples are listed along with their furnishings and features, and these are in turn provided Tiffany Pendants sale theological interpretations. Some of the topographies are metrological, providing detailed measurements of temples and dieir floor plans. One such text, from the Neo-Assyrian period, carefully lays out the dimensions of Marduk's temple in Babylon (Esagil), beginning with a north-south cross section, followed by an east-west cross section and ending with the temple's overall dimensions and circumference.50 Why were these detailed metrics so important? The ancients believed that sacred dwellings were suitable for the gods only if their designs-like the designs of their cult statues-were divinely revealed. For this reason, when Esarhaddon restored Esagil (Marduk's temple in Babylon), he claims to have consulted written blueprints that preserved its ancient design.51 Says Esarhaddon: "According to the word of the plans I laid its foundation platform"... "I laid its foundation platform directly on top of its ancient footings, according to its original plan: I did not Tiffany Rings sale short by one cubit, nor did I overshoot by half a cubit."52 As we can see, architectural details that might appear mundane and pedantic to us could be theologically significant facts for the Mesopotamians.
Now as so often happens, the similarities between the Jewish and Mesopotamian purgation rites underscore their profound differences. What are these differences? First, I suspect that an older substrate of native Israelite ritual is still visible in the text. It appears in the scapegoat, an elimination rite that finds its closest parallels in Eblaite and Hittite sources from the late third and second millennia.31 second, and perhaps more important for students of religion and social history, a comparison of the two rites reveals the unique theology of the Israelite priests. While the Mesopotamian kings proclaimed, "I am innocent," the Hebrew priest openly confessed the sins of Israel (Lev 16:21). While the Mesopotamian kuppuru cleansed the temple of demonic presence, the Hebrew ... atoned for the sins of Israel itself. These facts strongly suggest that P knew Mesopotamian temple ritual intimately and adopted its forms to bestow upon Israel, and upon Israel's religion, that air of cultural antiquity and Tiffany bangles sale that was attached to all things Mesopotamian.
Evidence for Mesopotamian influence on P appears not only in Genesis and Leviticus but also in Exodus. In a nutshell, the Priestly book of Exodus includes two parts: (a) the story of deliverance from Egypt, followed by (b) its meticulous account of the tabernacle's erection at Sinai. Structurally speaking, this narrative sequence is very close to the plot line of Enuma Elish, where Marduk saves the gods from Tiamat's gang and is then honored by the construction of his temple. Is this similarity a coincidence? In the first place, we should note that it has been suspected for some time that the story of Pharaoh's defeat at Yam Suph (Exodus 1415) might be the demythologized version of an ancient cosmic conflict myth such as appears in Ugaritic, Mesopotamian, and Israelite traditions.32 To be sure, when Frank Moore Cross suggested this connection he was interested primarily in the old Canaanite myths rather than in Mesopotamian texts such as Enuma Elish, but he also recognized that Enuma Elish shared Tiffany CuffLinks sale conflict theme. In the second place, we have already adduced considerable evidence that suggests P was not only familiar with Enuma Elish but also demythologized its features. Circumstantially, these facts make it more likely that a connection exists between Marduk's victory over Tiamat's forces in Enuma Elish and God's victory over Pharaoh's forces in P. With this background in mind, let us look more closely at P's account of Israel's deliverance at the sea.
It is commonly pointed out that P's account of the exodus features a Tiffany Bracelets sale of six "wonders" (...) performed by God through Moses and Aaron.33 While this observation is undoubtedly true in certain respects, perhaps it causes us to overlook an important feature in P's story. Some time ago Dennis J. McCarthy noted that the conceptual and thematic features in P's first five wonders link them more closely to the deliverance at the sea than to the death of Egypt's firstborn, which immediately follows them (P's sixth wonder).34 When we attend to this narrative feature, we discover-as we might have expected-that P's account of Israel's deliverance actually features yet another of his many septenary structures.35 The first five miracles are followed by a penultimate event (the plague that wins Israel's release, the death of the firstborn), and then by God's seventh and ultimate miracle at the sea. Conceptually, this sevenfold series features the defeat of Pharaoh's magicians (see wonders 1-5),36 followed by the defeat of Egypt's gods (wonder 6; see Exod 12:12), followed by the defeat of Pharaoh himself (wonder 7).37 More interesting for our purposes is that this account of Yahwehs final victory at the sea seems to be heavily colored by influences from Enuma Elish. Bernard F. Batto brought this out in his careful comparison of the Hebrew Yam Tiffany Earrings sale traditions with Near Eastern myths.38 He pointed out that P's version of the Yam Suph conflict greatly accentuates Yahweh's sovereign power over the sea, which he splits (Pp3) to create the two walls of water through which Israel would pass.39 This water then becomes the instrument by which Yahweh destroys Pharaoh and his army. As Batto correctly notices, the motif of split waters and the passing of Israel through them does not appear so starkly in the earlier non-P account of Israel's salvation at the sea. From this Batto concludes, I think correctly, that P's rendition of Yahwehs victory at the sea provides a demythologized version of Marduk's victory over Tiamat and her henchmen in Enuma Elish. In both stories, the splitting of the sea provides the space for creation, be it for the creation Tiffany Key Rings sale the cosmos (in Enuma Elish and Genesis 1) or for the creation of Israel (in Exodus).40 As Samuel E. Loewenstamm expressed it, "In parting the sea and the Jordan, Israel's God re-enacts the very heroic deeds He performed in primeval days, thereby proving Himself to be the Creator of the world who founded the earth upon the vanquished seas and rivers."41
Now as so often happens, the similarities between the Jewish and Mesopotamian purgation rites underscore their profound differences. What are these differences? First, I suspect that an older substrate of native Israelite ritual is still visible in the text. It appears in the scapegoat, an elimination rite that finds its closest parallels in Eblaite and Hittite sources from the late third and second millennia.31 second, and perhaps more important for students of religion and social history, a comparison of the two rites reveals the unique theology of the Israelite priests. While the Mesopotamian kings proclaimed, "I am innocent," the Hebrew priest openly confessed the sins of Israel (Lev 16:21). While the Mesopotamian kuppuru cleansed the temple of demonic presence, the Hebrew ... atoned for the sins of Israel itself. These facts strongly suggest that P knew Mesopotamian temple ritual intimately and adopted its forms to bestow upon Israel, and upon Israel's religion, that air of cultural antiquity and Tiffany bangles sale that was attached to all things Mesopotamian.
Evidence for Mesopotamian influence on P appears not only in Genesis and Leviticus but also in Exodus. In a nutshell, the Priestly book of Exodus includes two parts: (a) the story of deliverance from Egypt, followed by (b) its meticulous account of the tabernacle's erection at Sinai. Structurally speaking, this narrative sequence is very close to the plot line of Enuma Elish, where Marduk saves the gods from Tiamat's gang and is then honored by the construction of his temple. Is this similarity a coincidence? In the first place, we should note that it has been suspected for some time that the story of Pharaoh's defeat at Yam Suph (Exodus 1415) might be the demythologized version of an ancient cosmic conflict myth such as appears in Ugaritic, Mesopotamian, and Israelite traditions.32 To be sure, when Frank Moore Cross suggested this connection he was interested primarily in the old Canaanite myths rather than in Mesopotamian texts such as Enuma Elish, but he also recognized that Enuma Elish shared Tiffany CuffLinks sale conflict theme. In the second place, we have already adduced considerable evidence that suggests P was not only familiar with Enuma Elish but also demythologized its features. Circumstantially, these facts make it more likely that a connection exists between Marduk's victory over Tiamat's forces in Enuma Elish and God's victory over Pharaoh's forces in P. With this background in mind, let us look more closely at P's account of Israel's deliverance at the sea.
It is commonly pointed out that P's account of the exodus features a Tiffany Bracelets sale of six "wonders" (...) performed by God through Moses and Aaron.33 While this observation is undoubtedly true in certain respects, perhaps it causes us to overlook an important feature in P's story. Some time ago Dennis J. McCarthy noted that the conceptual and thematic features in P's first five wonders link them more closely to the deliverance at the sea than to the death of Egypt's firstborn, which immediately follows them (P's sixth wonder).34 When we attend to this narrative feature, we discover-as we might have expected-that P's account of Israel's deliverance actually features yet another of his many septenary structures.35 The first five miracles are followed by a penultimate event (the plague that wins Israel's release, the death of the firstborn), and then by God's seventh and ultimate miracle at the sea. Conceptually, this sevenfold series features the defeat of Pharaoh's magicians (see wonders 1-5),36 followed by the defeat of Egypt's gods (wonder 6; see Exod 12:12), followed by the defeat of Pharaoh himself (wonder 7).37 More interesting for our purposes is that this account of Yahwehs final victory at the sea seems to be heavily colored by influences from Enuma Elish. Bernard F. Batto brought this out in his careful comparison of the Hebrew Yam Tiffany Earrings sale traditions with Near Eastern myths.38 He pointed out that P's version of the Yam Suph conflict greatly accentuates Yahweh's sovereign power over the sea, which he splits (Pp3) to create the two walls of water through which Israel would pass.39 This water then becomes the instrument by which Yahweh destroys Pharaoh and his army. As Batto correctly notices, the motif of split waters and the passing of Israel through them does not appear so starkly in the earlier non-P account of Israel's salvation at the sea. From this Batto concludes, I think correctly, that P's rendition of Yahwehs victory at the sea provides a demythologized version of Marduk's victory over Tiamat and her henchmen in Enuma Elish. In both stories, the splitting of the sea provides the space for creation, be it for the creation Tiffany Key Rings sale the cosmos (in Enuma Elish and Genesis 1) or for the creation of Israel (in Exodus).40 As Samuel E. Loewenstamm expressed it, "In parting the sea and the Jordan, Israel's God re-enacts the very heroic deeds He performed in primeval days, thereby proving Himself to be the Creator of the world who founded the earth upon the vanquished seas and rivers."41
The kuppuru took place on the fifth day of the Akitu, in the sanctuary of the scribal god Nabu as he visited Marduk's temple in Babylon.21 Its purpose was to protect Nabu from demonic influences as he copied down the decrees of Marduk. Thus, both Marduk and Nabu come to the fore in this ritual, as we might expect from the Neo-Babylonian period onward.22 The ritual is not entirely understood, but it involved the cleansing of Nabu's sanctuary by slaughtering a ram and rubbing or wiping (kuppuru) the temple cella with its carcass. After completing this procedure, the ram's body was thrown into the river, and Tiffany Money Clips on sale asipu-priest ("exorcist") who performed the kuppuru left the city for open country, accompanied by the ram's slaughterer. Because of their uncleanness, these two ritual figures could not return to Babylon until the Akitu was completed. The purpose of the ritual is expressed explicitly in its incantation: "They are purifying the temple . . . Marduk purifies the temple . . . Great demon, may Bel [i.e., Marduk] kill you! May you be cut down wherever you are!"23 In terms of modern technical vocabulary, the kuppuru was obviously an elimination rite, an exorcism whose purpose was to cleanse the temple cella of demonic presences that might unduly influence the fate decrees for the coming year.
After the kuppuru was completed, the king and high priest entered Marduk's cella for a confirmation ritual known as the "royal ordeal." The king was stripped of his royal insignia and was symbolically forced to bow Tiffany Necklaces on sale Marduk while confessing, "I have not sinned . . . I have not neglected your divinity . . . I have not caused the destruction of Babylon," and similar exculpations.24 After this declaration of innocence, the priest slapped the king's face in what amounted to a test: if tears came to the king's eyes, it was a sign of the god's pleasure; no tears portended evil. Following the rite, the king's insignia were restored, and he "seized the hand" of Marduk and led a public procession of the gods to the great convocation at the Akitu house just outside of the city. A still grander procession would mark Marduk's return.
Anyone familiar with P's annual atonement ritual, described in Leviticus 16, will already recognize the striking similarities between the Mesopotamian and Israelite rituals.25 Both rites marked a transition to the New Year. Both rites involved the ritual slaughter of an animal and the use of its carcass or blood to cleanse the temple cella. In both cases the animal's body was removed from the temple precinct, and in both the carcass polluted those who touched it. The Tiffany Rings on sale rite was called the kuppuru; the Israelite ritual, .... The two terms are related both etymologically and morphologically, insofar as they share the same consonantal root (kpr) and are in a D verbal stem (with the doubling of the middle radical). In Akkadian the D-stem is reserved exclusively for ritual contexts.26 In Hebrew the pattern is somewhat different, but in a way that is perhaps significant for my thesis. Though there is ongoing debate about the particulars, there is a consensus among scholars that ... is employed differently in priestly and non-priestly texts.27 In the latter ... is not a formal ritual act but points directly to the appeasing or assuaging of anger, both divine and human. This is very different from priestly uses of the term in P, Ezekiel 40-48, and Chronicles. Here ... is always a ritual act performed by a priest, and in at least some cases its function is to remove ritual uncleanness. The list of cleansed objects Tiffany Pendants on sale the altar, the sanctuary, the temple, the land, houses, and human beings (both individuals and groups). These priestly ... rites are close to the Mesopotamian conception of kuppuru in ways that non-priestly uses of ... are not. A possible explanation would be that Mesopotamian practice has to some extent influenced P's use of ... . If this is right, then we have in P a semantic shift that is in some respects similar to what we see in the Qur'an, where kafara ("to cover") was pressed into service, under influence from Hebrew ..., as kaffara ("to absolve").28
If it appears likely that the form of the Israelite ... ritual has been intentionally fashioned to mimic the Mesopotamian kuppuru rite, then this conclusion is made still surer by the evidence that I have gleaned from P's creation story in Genesis 1. That evidence strongly suggests that P knew the Mesopotamian myth recited immediately before the kuppuru, that is, Enurna Elish. So P was familiar with both the rites and the myths of Tiffany Accessories on sale Akïtu. The conclusion that Israel adapted Akïtu rituals for use in Jerusalem is further reinforced by the fact the Persians did the same in Persepolis.29 Elite emulation can appear in many contexts, not only among the conquered but also among the conquerors.30
So far Bastianich has made about 180 shows that explore Italian cooking. In the meantime, she says another book and television series are in her future, as is the launch of several retail products. She also is considering expanding her more casual restaurant concept, Lidia's, which has two locations in Kansas City, Mo., and Pittsburgh.
"Because all of the chefs have restaurants, we do the filming in a three-week period," he says. "Each chef fights six battles, and then goes back into the real world."Symon says the experience of competing in Kitchen Stadium is intense, adding: "You have to be able to think quickly on your feet. You also have to be very versatile."At the same time, he adds, "it still lets you be what you are: a chef."In addition, Symon is concentrating on other tiffany necklaces on sale opportunities. Working with his wife, Liz, and business partner, Doug Petkovic, Symon has been overseeing two Cleveland restaurants, Lola and Lolita, working on a cookbook called "Symon Says: Live to Cook," consulting, and mulling new restaurant projects in Detroit and Las Vegas.The anticipated expansion also is prompting Symon and his colleagues to establish a corporate office in the building that houses Lolita."As we take on more projects, we will probably add a couple of layers of management," he says. "We want to grow smart."Walter Staib, the chef-proprietor of the historic American-flavored City Tavern in Philadelphia, was able to parlay his popular cookbook, "Black Forest Cuisine: The Classic Blending of European Flavors," into a 26-episode cooking and travel show for the Comcast cable network. The show, which was scheduled to begin airing Dec. 2, focuses on the cuisine of Germany's Black Forest.
Staib traveled to locations in his native Germany with a production team of 12 to shoot six episodes."We shot the shows in some of the places I worked when I was an apprentice in the 1960s," Staib says. "And every town we visited, we met with the tiffany pendants on sale media, too."The cost of producing the entire show, which Staib estimated to be about $350,000, was picked up by a sponsor, which merchandises a number of food products from the area.However, some observers maintain that television is not necessarily for everyone."Sometimes it can go wrong," Feldman says. "You'll have people who say, 'I'm good looking. I can be on TV.' But it's more than that. You need to have integrity and also be endearing and genuine to viewers." At the same time, television-bred celebrity does not necessarily translate into a more robust foodservice career. Chef-restaurateur Rocco DiSpirito gained national exposure when he starred in the 2003 NBC reality show, "The Restaurant." Yet the experience ended in a court battle with former partner Jeffrey Chodorow and DiSpirito's being barred from even entering the restaurant he helped to create. Since then he has tiffany rings on sale stepped away from the restaurant business. In 2004 he closed his once-celebrated restaurant, Union Pacific, and these days writes cookbooks and focuses on establishing himself as a food personality.
Nor is television generally regarded as an absolute necessity for brand building. Innovative New York chef-restaurateur David Burke acknowledges that "television helps," and appears on network shows like Today." But he also has expanded his business largely without tiffany accessories on sale benefit of much television exposure to comprise five restaurants including davidburke & donatella, cookbooks, a consulting company and a retail food products arm.He also is continuing to expand his business, and plans to open David Burke's Primehouse and a licensed outlet of his casual concept, Burke in the Box, in Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Mashantucket, Conn.
To facilitate future growth, Burke is in the process of building up his company's return to tiffany sale by bringing all the restaurants under one umbrella and hiring a director of operations. He said he wants to add someone to handle retail product sales, too. He currently employs five people.But while numerous opportunities are available for chefs to expand their business portfolio today, a core of culinary practitioners still prefer to keep things closer to home. Gordon Hamersley, who, together with his wife Fiona, has operated Boston's top-rated Hamersley's Bistro for the past two decades, is generally content with the status quo."This is a partnership with Fiona," he says. "It's not just about me - about Gordon Hamersley as a brand. And we both feel strongly that part of the appeal of the restaurant is the ownership presence. Our guests expect personal service. That's how we created the restaurant we have today."
On the other hand, experts say, it's important to keep an open mind when presented with a deal. Tom Colicchio, the New York-based chef-restaurateur who owns and operates 16 restaurants under the names of Craft, Craftsteak, Craftbar and 'wichcraft, initially resisted repeated offers to audition as a judge for a reality show the producers of "Project Runway" were working on for Bravo television called "Top Chef."
"They wanted me to do a screen test, and I said no," he says. "I didn't think it would be right for me."Despite his continued resistance, though, the producers kept pressing him, eventually winning him over. It was, he admits, a smart move."I had no idea how successful Top Chef would be," he says, "and what's great is that the industry has really accepted it."The show is not particularly demanding, requiring only about 10 percent of his time, he says."It takes about a month to shoot 16 episodes," Colicchio says.
The celebrity status accorded with having a hit tiffany bracelets on sale has its benefits too. While Colicchio says he still isn't exactly comfortable being recognized on the street, his role in "Top Chef" helps draw people to his restaurants - "especially in the summer when the tourists are in town." He noted that his affiliation with the show also helps when he expands out of his New York home base into other cities where he is not as well known.Colicchio "still turns down more deals than he accepts," and acknowledges the need for a strong business structure. When the company started to expand more rapidly last year, he realized he needed to tiffany money clips on sale the company. As evidence, he points to the opening of Craftsteak in the summer of 2006."When we opened Craftsteak in New York, it got bad reviews from [The New York Times restaurant critic] Frank Bruni - the first bad reviews in my life," he says. "The team didn't work out, we just didn't have all hands on deck. As you grow, you tend to find inefficiencies and have to address them."
He learned his lesson by the time he opened Craft in Los Angeles."I spent two months there," he says. "I was there every night."He also established a new business structure for his restaurants. Craft and Craftsteak have been consolidated into Craft Worldwide, which maintains a small management team. At the same time his 10 'wichcraft sandwich shops in New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco were gathered into a separate company, which tiffany cufflinks on sale runs with two operating partners. Three more 'wichcrafts are slated to open over the next four months.
Lidia Bastianich also is a believer in establishing a strong business infrastructure, which, in her case, proves to be something of a family affair. Working with her son, Joseph, and daughter, Tanya Manuali, Bastianich owns several of the top upscale Italian restaurants in New York, including Del Posto, of which Mario Batali is a major stakeholder. She also writes cookbooks, operates her own television production company tiffany earrings on sale develops products for retail sales. She and her son have branched out into the wine business, operating two Italian vineyards.
Beginning in the 1970s with a small, nine-table restaurant called Buona Villa in Queens, N.Y., Bastianich crossed the East River to Manhattan where she opened the award-winning Felidia. Along the way she worked to establish herself as an authority on Italian cuisine and culture, branching out gradually, first with a book deal and later with a cooking show for the Public Broadcasting Service.Over the years she has made several series for PBS, all based on cookbooks she has written. Her latest, "Lidia's Italy," is seen on more than 300 PBS channels in the United States as well as in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Asia. About 4 million people are estimated to watch each show.
As a result of her television success, Bastianich has diversified even further, forming her own production company, Tavola Productions, which long-time employee Shelly Burgess and her daughter oversee. Bastianich says that each television series is tiffany key rings on sale to a cookbook, which together take about two years to write and produce. When it comes time to shoot the series, specialists are hired on a temporary basis, she explains. Production can be expensive, she says, noting that her various sponsors cover all costs.
To be sure, many gifted chefs remain happy to focus their energies solely on the restaurants that made them famous, cooking for customers who expect to find them in the kitchen or greeting guests at the door.But as the reigning high priests of food, professional chefs are now free to express themselves in a variety of ways. In feet, so many avenues of opportunity are open to chefs, they need to weigh their options with great care. They can operate multiple restaurants, write cookbooks, star on a television show, consult for other foodservice or retail companies, produce their own line of branded products, or lend their name to return to tiffany company's product lines.
All of that is seen as possible now, as demonstrated by chefs like Bastianich, Puck, Todd English, Bobby Flay and Mario Batali, individuals who constantly are scanning the business horizon to find new culinary worlds to conquer. Puck alone has metamorphosed his long-popular flagship, Spago, into a sprawling business concern. With some 14 fine-clining restaurants, more than 80 grab-and-go concepts, widely distributed frozen pizzas, a line of canned soups and a full line of kitchenware, his companies are said to post annual sales in excess of $350 million."At the end of the day, there are endless possibilities," Feldman says. "At the root of it, it's about the opportunities you make for yourself and the team you build."But the key to such ambitious growth extends well beyond the vision - or even the capabilities - of a signal individual. As a result, chefs who have parlayed tiffany bangles on sale name into a powerfully recognized brand have done so through the creation of a business infrastructure."If you want to build restaurants, you need a great operational team, a publicity arm and chefs who understand your vision," Feldman says. "If you want to do cookbooks, you might need to work with an author. If you're doing TV, you need someone to do outreach for the media."
Todd English compares the business structure to ninning a restaurant."You have all different parts, different specialists," he says. "like in a restaurant where you have a pastry chef or banquet chef, in your business you have people who tiffany somerset the different dynamics. But you have to have competent people."
The foundation of the English empire was established when he opened his award-winning 55-seat restaurant, Olives, in Charlestown, Mass., in 1989. Today, he operates more than 20 locations around the country under such names as Figs, Bluezoo, and KingFish Hall. In addition, he appears on television cooking shows, writes cookbooks and places his brand on lines of cookware, dinnerware, food products and kitchen accessories sold on the Home Shopping Network.Future plans tiffany 1837 for the opening of the Bonfire concept in airports in Boston, New York and Las Vegas as well as a restaurant partnership with "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria in Beso in Los Angeles. English also has a deal with Delta Air Lines, which introduced a line of menu selections English designed for in-flight customers.An early star of the chef-as-a-brand movement, the high-octane English also has acknowledged that his growth hit some rocky patches along the way. A law-suit filed against him several years ago by a former partner in the Olive Group Corp., James Cafarelli, resulted in the pair settling out of court and Cafarelli taking one of the company's Boston restaurants along with another operation in Florida. English also was embarrassed when the original Olives in Boston was shuttered twice in eight days for inspection violations.
Part of the problem, he explained at the time, was that he didn't have the necessary business team in place to help manage his burgeoning empire. These days he operates with several umbrellas - all of the restaurants line up under the Todd English Restaurants banner while cookware and other projects are handled by Todd English Worldwide. He also has started a television production company and is building a studio in New York to tiffany jewelry on sale shows for him and possibly others.English also cautions against taking every deal that comes down the pike, saying that a brand must have a consistent message."You can't be a label slapper," he says, noting that he recently turned down a request to do an infomercial for a tea company. "No matter how lucrative a deal it might be, if it looks like it might hurt the integrity of what you're trying to do, you need to turn it down."