Chef Eric Villegas

Award winning chef/restaurateur, cookbook author and television personality Eric Villegas brings his culinary knowledge and recipes (especially sous vide) to the readers of VacMaster’s Fresh Bites Blog.

Education

The Michigan born chef embarked on his culinary career after studying liberal arts at Michigan State University. Moving to Paris, France he attended Anne Willan’s LaVarenne Ecole de Cuisine and Steven Spurrier’s Academie du Vin. After which he gained a wide range of practical cooking experience in the classic restaurant kitchens of France’s gastronomic capital, Lyon.

Chef Eric returned to the States to continue his studies at the New England Culinary Institute, where he specialized in the service aspect of hospitality running the school’s flagship dining room.

Experience In The Kitchen

From 1987 to 2007, Chef Eric owned and operated two of mid-Michigan's most unique award winning regional restaurants, Dusty's Wine Bar and his eponymous flagship, Restaurant Villegas where working closely with local farmers and ranchers he developed his now highly recognized contemporary Midwestern style.

Since debuting on Michigan public television in 2001, Eric has been tirelessly seeking out the artisan growers, farmers and ranchers that continuously produce top quality foods for the American table. “Fork in the Road with Eric Villegas” also brought recipes, cooking tips and culinary history based on the Great Lakes food scene.

Originally airing weekly on PBS in his home state of Michigan and Canada, his efforts brought the chef two regional EMMY awards as host for popular show. In late 2007 "Fork" began national distribution via NETA on PBS offering his unique take on regional and sustainable Michigan agriculture and cuisine to the rest of the country. The long awaited companion cookbook to the award winning series hit store shelves in late 2007 and immediately garnered the chef another award as being listed as one of Michigan's most notable books of the year.

In 2011 Chef Eric teamed up with Readers Digest's culinary juggernaut, Taste of Home. Boasting the largest subscription base of any cooking magazine in the world, the Taste of Home Cooking School will have chef crisscrossing the country hosting up to 2500 eager guests for standing room only, two hour cooking classes

Personal 

The "Culinary Compound" is Chef Eric’s aptly named culinary headquarters and homestead that he shares with his growing family, fiancé Dana and their children Taylor and baby Sophia. Where on any given day you might find him testing recipes for his growing roster of culinary clients in between making school lunches and heating baby bottles.