Florida only state in US with an official chef

"Florida seafood — ya gotta love it!" the guy says, grinning. The crowd cheers. The cameraman is happy.

A man walks up and inquires about the hoopla. Someone in the crowd tells him the man in black is Justin Timineri, the state chef of Florida who's filming a spot for ABC.

"Never heard of him," said Paul Pedersen, of Orlando. "He's like the governor's mansion kinda deal? I had no idea we had a state chef."

Move over, Mario Batali. Step aside, Gordon Ramsay. There's a new chef on the cusp of celebrity in the U.S., and he's from Florida.

Timineri is part culinary ambassador, part farm expert and part cheerleader for Florida-grown food. Technically, he's a state employee working for the Florida Department of Agriculture — and he's the only full-time state chef in the nation.

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