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Rose Hotel guest profile: The Food Network’s Robert Bleifer

Food is a great topic.

Who isn’t interested in food? It’s a matter of survival. It’s a form of recreation and social bonding. And, for some people, it’s a calling.

That’s the case with Robert Bleifer, who has become a regular guest at The Rose Hotel.

Heat in the kitchen: Chef Robert Bleifer

Most of you probably haven’t heard of Robert Bleifer before, but you’ve almost certainly heard of his employer, The Food Network. Bleifer is one of the executive chefs at The Food Network, which is a lifestyle TV network and website committed to exploring new ways to approach food – through pop culture, competition, adventure, and travel. Its cooking shows featuring Paula Deen, Rachel Ray and Bobby Flay are distributed to more than 96 million U.S. households. The Food Network website gets more than 7 million visitors per month.

Bleifer is making periodic visits to Northern California and The Rose Hotel because of a business partnership he and the Food Network has with Wente Vineyards in neighboring Livermore, Calif. (During his most recent visit, Bleifer worked on the new 2010 vintages for entwine wines, and then co-hosted a dinner at Wente Vineyards that featured the entwine wines paired with foods.)

So, yes, it would be accurate to say that Bleifer is a foodie. The Sea Cliff, N.Y., native studied classic culinary arts at the French Culinary Institute. His culinary motto is “live to eat,” and never did Bleifer live higher off the hog than a repast he ordered 10 years ago at the Spago when he ordered the tasting menu.

Turns out that Spago founder Wolfgang Puck was one of his culinary inspirations, as were Rick Bayless, Julia Child and Graham Kerr.

Though food is clearly Bleifer’s calling, it took some time for Bleifer to realize food was his thing. He started as a photographer. Then one day things changed.

“While on a freelance gig, I was looking through the camera and just decided, ‘You know what? I don’t want to do this anymore,’ ” he said during an interview with the French Culinary Institute. “It was a really easy job, too, but at that moment I realized that was not what I wanted to be doing with my life.”

It was shortly thereafter he decided that food was the real bread of life.

“It was something I had a flair for and enjoyed a lot more than I enjoyed photography,” he said. “It wasn’t until later, when I spent my year with chef David Burke, that I saw the potential for the art form of cooking. It wasn’t until I got to the Food Network that I saw food as an art form.”

Bleifer joined the Food Network on a freelance basis in 1995. A year later he was hired full-time as a food stylist, and was later promoted to chef, then to his current position as executive chef.

Bleifer’s favorite Food Network program is Iron Chef, where top chefs battle to win a permanent spot in Kitchen Stadium.

The New York resident has a few other favorites you might find informative for your next trip to the kitchen or dining establishment.

His choice for a last meal would make a person pine for a date on death row: goose liver, lobster, grano, porcini mushrooms, venison, chocolate, and plenty of wine paired with each course.

His favorite food is blueberries, and the beverage he can’t live without is single malt whisky.

And his favorite hotel? We’re honored to say it’s The Rose, based on the comment he recently penned on one of our Guest Comment cards: “Thanks! You guys are the best hotel anywhere!!!”

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