Burt Wolf

Burt Wolf
Born	Burton Wolf 1938 (age 78–79) New York City
Nationality	USA
Alma mater	New York University (B.A., English)
Occupation	journalist, writer, TV producer and host
Known for	Travels and Traditions TV series

Burt Wolf (Burton Wolf), born 1938, is an American journalist, writer, entrepreneur and TV producer. He is the host and author of nine internationally syndicated television series that deal with cultural history, travel and gastronomy, including Travels and Traditions.

Burt Wolf was born in New York City, in 1938, and as a boy helped out at his grandmother's housewares store in the Bronx. In a 1993 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Wolf stated, "My grandmother owned a cooking equipment store," he said. "I literally grew up in the cooking business. So all the time I was training myself for food."

Wolf attended The High School of Music & Art in New York City, and New York University where he earned a BA degree in English Literature. Although he grew up thinking he would become a lawyer, Wolf supported himself by working in restaurants. He left New York University Law School to become the writer-publisher of a series of self-help books. He later sold the publishing house in 1968.

Wolf went to work for an investment banking firm in Switzerland. "The banking group was interested in investing in food companies and asked me to investigate it for them," he said. "I did a lot of research on companies that make cooking utensils. Out of that came a book called 'The Cook's Catalogue.' I edited it and did some of the writing."

During his 35 years as a journalist, Wolf has written or edited more than 60 books including The Cooks' Catalogue, which Time described as "the definitive book on cooking equipment." From 1979 to 1982, he wrote a weekly column syndicated by The Washington Post and in 2000 was a regular contributor to the online publication Salon.com.

Wolf began making programs about cultural history when Ted Turner invited him to report for CNN. Since 1982, Wolf has produced over 4,000 segments for Cable News Network (CNN), 800 segments for ABC (the American Broadcasting Company), 125 half-hour programs for the travel division of The Discovery Channel, and 350 half hours for Public Broadcasting. The New York Times described his programs as “the best food, travel, and cultural history shows on television.”

Wolf's programs are broadcast on public television to 90% of the television homes in the United States, then translated into Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Mandarin and Korean and syndicated to an international audience of over 100 million. His programs have aired on public television, the Discovery Travel Network and networks in Canada, Latin America, Asia and Europe.

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