Who is Chef Tell?

Today most 14-year-old kids are interested in music, clothes or hanging out at the mall, but when Friedman Paul Erhardt, better known as Chef Tell, was 14, he set his sights a little higher.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1943, Erhardt left school at 14 to train as a chef under a strict European apprenticeship system.

The strict program and hard work paid off. Before he turned 30, Erhardt earned the title of Master Chef--the highest position a chef can reach in Europe. He was also the youngest chef ever in West Germany to receive such an honor. This was only the beginning of a promising cooking career.

After earning his Masters degree in cooking from the University of Heidelberg in 1970, Erhardt went on to claim several gold medals for his culinary skills and was also named Germany's Chef of the Year.

Erhardt moved on to dazzle people with his cooking in France, Switzerland and Sweden. He was the executive chef at the Kronen Hotel in the Black Forest for over a decade before arriving in the United States in the early seventies. He moved to the United States after accepting a head chef position at Philadelphia's Marriott Hotel.

But Erhardt gained notoriety when he landed a 90-second cooking spot on "Evening Magazine," a Philadelphia based television program syndicated nation wide.

His stint on "Evening Magazine" opened the door to his television career. Since then Tell has appeared on "QVC," "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and most recently, "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee." His quick wit and legendary cooking have led to other opportunities.

The United States' most marketable chef maintains a busy schedule. Aside from making television appearances, endorsing products, giving cooking demonstrations and writing cookbooks, he also runs two restaurants--the Grand Old House in the Cayman Islands and the Manor House on the Delaware River in Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania.