Marcel Biró
One of the youngest chefs in European history to achieve the title Master Chef de Cuisine, Marcel Biró is acclaimed for winning several coveted European awards, for his accomplishments in Michelin -starred restaurants, and for his dedication to demystifying classic cuisine.
Marcel was born in the former East Germany in 1973. He began cooking with his chef/restaurateur father at the age of six and entered culinary school and the kitchens of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, (DDR, or Communist East German Party) at the age of fifteen. By twenty-one, Marcel was a European certified chef instructor, teaching aspiring chefs by day and cooking in Michelin -starred restaurants by night. At twenty-four, he became one of the youngest chefs in European history to attain the title Master Chef de Cuisine and had already served as chef to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. At age thirty, he became the first German citizen to land a national television cooking show deal in the US, and in 2006, at just thirty-two, he was appointed Ambassador of German Cuisine by the CMA on behalf of the German Federal Government.
Marcel is star of the Emmy® Award-winning, national PBS reality-cooking series The Kitchens of Biró; co-author of Biró: European-Inspired Cuisine (Gibbs Smith, May 2005) and the forthcoming Ó: SpanAsian Cuisine by Biró (Gibbs Smith, February 2007); and CEO and chef of Biró Internationale, LLC. He has been the focus of innumerable television, radio, and print features throughout North America and Europe, including on NPR and in The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney Magazine, and TV Guide. He has worked in leading restaurants in Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Spain, and Austria, and has opened restaurants for clients in 34 states and 13 countries.
Grayson Schmitz
Grayson has been involved in the culinary world since entering the workforce as a teenager. While working as a culinary school assistant chef in Kohler, Wisconsin, Grayson facilitated classes and appeared in a PBS cooking series.
Upon graduating with honors from the Culinary Institute of America, Grayson became the youngest line cook at the esteemed, four-star Manhattan restaurant Jean Georges. While at Jean Georges, the restaurant was awarded the coveted three-star Michelin rating in the first-ever US version of the guide.
As Marcel's personal assistant, Grayson works in administration and co-instruction at Marcel Biró Culinary School.
Shannon Kring Biró
