Born in Jacksonville, Fla., Claire Robinson and her family spent time in St. Augustine, Fla.; Houston; and New Orleans but ultimately settled in Memphis, Tenn. With a multi-ethnic background, Claire cites her French-speaking grandmother as a major influence on her love for food. She graduated from The University of Memphis in 1999 with a B.A. in Communications. After enjoying a variety of post-college jobs, Claire decided to pursue her culinary dreams by moving to New York City and attending The French Culinary Institute; she graduated in November 2005. Along with being an accomplished private chef, Claire spent time working on culinary production teams for several cooking series including Food Network’s “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello” and PBS’ “Everyday Baking for Everyday Food.”
In her daytime cooking series, “5 Ingredient Fix,” Claire proves delicious dishes only need five ingredients or fewer making cooking easier, faster and down right irresistible. She shows viewers how to enhance the natural flavors of carefully-selected, fresh ingredients to illustrate her belief that each ingredient should truly stand out in a recipe. With eclectic and elegant menus perfect for every occasion, her straightforward cooking style promotes healthy, seasonal eating as well as stress-free shopping. Claire minimizes fuss and maximizes taste to achieve mouth-watering meals in no time!
You are most known for your 5 ingredient approach to cooking. What are 5 pantry items you keep on hand at all times, and what are 5 must have kitchen tools for you?
Oh wow. Good question. You know, its interesting because I’m actually working on my book right now and I’ve been trying to come up with these because I wanted to have a section about 5 pantry items to make everyone’s life easier. My five ingredient pantry items would be an unbleached all purpose flour, a sugar – now I like to keep it simple and use a granulated sugar, and then a good olive oil – I like to keep one that I would cook with and then one that I would finish with, balsamic vinegar – I use it all the time and I love to reduce it down, and then for my fifth one this is where I’ve been playing. I think those four are the ones I use all the time, and then for the fifth one I’ve been bouncing back and forth for what my solid answer would be and I think for now my fifth one would be another kind oil and that would depend on what you would cook with like a vegetable oil that you would cook with, fry with, grill with. So those are my five, for now. Of course, I always keep salt and pepper in the house. For kitchen tools, you know if you ever noticed I’m pretty bad at working equipment – really klutzy. I live in NYC now, so I don’t have a ton of room for a lot of equipment. A really great spatula, a rubber spatula. I use those all the time. A really great pot or pan that I use all the time. A really great set of knives. You don’t need one of those massive blocks with 13 knives. I use a set of 5 – go figure. Good knives really save time in the kitchen. I would think the other two really depend on who you are. If you like a food processor, then go with a food processor.
Other than the 5 ingredient approach, do you have any other tips and tricks for making cooking easier?
Yes, I would definitely say that people are spending lots of time, and I get this question a lot, that people want exact recipes. Cooking should be an event. You should dedicate your time to having fun and enjoying your time in the kitchen. Read the recipe before you go in the kitchen, then put it away, step away from it. Follow the jist. Unless you’re baking, you never have to follow the exact amount. Enjoy cooking, you know.
Do you currently have any other projects in the works and what can we look forward to on “Food Network Challenge.”
“5 Ingredient Fix,” I’m always shooting a new season of that. I’m actually about ready to shoot a new season. I have a book coming out for “5 Ingredient Fix” coming out October 27th , it’ll be the first book for that. And “Food Network Challenge,” I’m so excited about that. This is the most fun show that I’ve been involved with. Its so different than it was before, and it will continue to get more different. I’ve become more involved where I’ve been carrying the audience through by the hand from the first minute to the end. Its the first time for me in real life to see these cakes and chocolate pieces constructed in front of me. It is so much fun to watch, I was just in awe most of the time. When they are moving those things, it is the most nerve wracking ten seconds of your life.
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