John (Jean) François Nicolas 

This French-born chef is a cum laude graduate of the Hotel School of Paris and knows the heart and soul of haute cuisine.
Jean cultivated his passion for the culinary arts at an early age at renowned resorts in Brittany, France where he met his mentor, René Lamarche, Chef de Cuisine and a Director of the Hotel School in Paris. There, at the age of 19, he received the Curnonski prize, the highest award in culinary competitions with the best students from all culinary schools in France.

After his formal training in France, Jean Nicolas' desire to travel and discover new cultures brought him to Ireland, The French West Indies, (St. Barth), the Bahamas, Canada and The United States where at the age of 28 he became the youngest teacher-chef at The Culinary Institute of America.

From French classical cuisine to Garde Manger, he demonstrated his exceptional culinary skills as a Chef and teacher, Along the way, we has won several culinary awards and co-authored The Art of Garde Manger that became the best selling academic cookbook for many years. He is also the author of The Complete cookbook of American Fish and shellfish and The Very Best Salmon Cookbook a 2006 publication by Bristol Publishing.

Learn about salmon while cooking great salmon recipes. John is also the creator and Webmaster of cascapediariver.com. He has been salmon fishing for 30 summers on the famous and most beautiful salmon river, the Cascapedia River in Québec, Canada.

In 1971, John's career shifted from teacher-chef to private chef for prominent families where he was able to cultivate his skills as a pastry chef, cake decorator, baker and manager, all while developing countless recipes that are presented on this web site. He gained a wide experience and his artistic palettes continue to expand.
With the advent of the internet, in creating this website, chefdecuisine.com, John's greatest passions for food, computers, web designing and photography have merged. Along with hundreds of recipes, John met the challenges of web and graphic designing. This site is a unique opportunity to present his culinary specialties to the world at large.
With this specific aspiration in mind, the culinary team welcomes you to discover and enjoy the new 2006 edition of chefdecuisine.com.