The Food Guru

Peter Harman C.E.C., the Food Guru, Is the Chef/Owner of Martini's Grille in Burlington, Iowa. Peter is also President of Food Guru LLC, Chick N. Lipp LLC and the Chicken Lip Foundation, the Non-Profit wing of the Food Guru empire. 

Peter is the World’s leading expert on the preparation of Straight forward REAL food, as well as a genius at twisting common dishes and creating foods that are familiar, but fantastically different and exciting!

Peter is the host of Food Guru Moments which are 90 second cooking videos produced in his Food Guru University TV Studio kitchen. Food Guru Moments are now Podcast around the World. Food Guru Podcasts have subscribers from Singapore, Japan, Germany, The Netherlands, England and others.

Peter's goal is to make Food Guru .com a hub of culinary education and teach his friends to be better cooks 90 seconds at a time. Food Guru Moments are available 24/7/365 on demand. When the Student is ready The Food Guru will Appear! You can also download Food Guru Moments to your iPod and take them with you anywhere in the world.

The Food Guru is the author of "The Food Guru's Cookbook", "The Manly Art of Macho Cookery" and "Martini's Martinis".

The Food Guru spends his days teaching his Martini's Grille staff of over 60 employees how to run a first class restaurant. He is also working to expanding the "Chicken Lip" empire by franchising new stores. Peter's passion really is cooking; he can usually be found working the grill, cooking steaks on weekends or in his state of the art TV studio kitchen, developing recipes, teaching classes, and filming Food Guru TV Moments.

Chef Harman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1959, but grew up in Vermont where he was always being kicked out of the fridge by his mom. As a kid, Peter’s passion was baseball. He loves to compete. His goal in life was to be the catcher for the New York Yankees and become a famous baseball player and open a restaurant, with his name on it. However, that was not to be. So now Peter is working on his real passion –food– with plans to make a huge mark on the American Culinary landscape.

Peter has spent over a decade working on Sanibel Island Florida, as Executive Chef and Food & Beverage Director of several prestigious resorts hotels, such as Sundial Beach and Tennis Resort (Windows on the Water) and Casa Ybel Resort (Thistle Lodge). Nine years ago Peter lost a bet, and moved to Burlington, Iowa. Today, Peter lives with his wife Kim and their little dog, a miniature Dachschund,named Toots. Peter has two sons, Tyler and Evan who are both in the United States Air Force. In his off time he enjoys movies and visiting the boys at their bases, hoping to get a ride in a really fast jet. Peter also tries ,unsuccessfully, to keep his lawn as nice as the guy across the street.

Peter is the past president of the Southwest Florida Chefs Association, and was also the youngest ever Certified Executive Chef (C.E.C.) of the American Culinary Federation in 1984. He has been a member of several prestigious culinary organizations, including The Chaine Des Rotisseurs, Les Amis de Vin, The Escoffier Society, as well as the winner of many American Culinary Federation Gold Medals! Peter received his formal training at the Essex Junction Educational Center in Essex Junction, Vermont and also through The American Culinary Federations Certification Program.

In the spring of 2000, Peter founded the Chicken Lip Foundation, a non-profit organization that creates unique fund raising opportunities and events to help local charities help themselves. The main fundraiser is the annual "Iowa's Largest Community Basket, a totally unique fund raising concept, check it out on this site under Chicken Lip Foundation. Since it's creation, "The Chicken Lip Foundation" has raised over $400,000. The Chicken Lip Foundation has also built "Lip Land" at Community Field in Burlington which is a great little kids play area.