Bill Buford spent many years in Italy and Lyon, France learning firsthand both Italian and French cuisine. His philosophy as a writer was that to truly accurately write about something you loved you needed to be in the arena participating at the front lines so to speak in order to fully understand what you were writing about. As a result he worked as an amateur cook in many restaurants as well as working in a butcher shop. The result was two books "Heat" and "Dirt". "Dirt" describes his experiences in France and I have organized the chefs he mentions here and I recommend you review articles about them on the internet. I will present in my next article the ancient Chef's of the past long gone in date order as reading the books can be confusing as to who is who and who did what. In the end French cuisine has evolved over hundreds of years bringing us to the here and now. In many ways because of the evolution of French cuisine we can all enjoy it now and with Mr. Buford's books understand it better. It took a while but I also found a You Tube series, "Fat Man in a White Hat" on the internet from 2004 where you can see first hand many of these chefs and dishes mentioned in the book. The link is to the first 20 minute video and if you just let it run it will automatically go onto the next 20 minute video and there are 8 videos. The first link is here:
Maurice Edmond Saillard, the French wine writer known as "Curnonsky" was the first person who wrote "Lyon, the Gastronomic Capital of the World" Lyon is the Ville des Meres, the city of the mothers, the mere chefs. Having been to Lyon I can verify the statement as true and Mr. Buford's book clearly supports this statement. Fortunately this cuisine has been exported to the world so I start with two famous American chefs who sadly have passed on and one still living, who brought the best in French cuisine to the USA and I recommend you read about them also. In my opinion what they did was elevate French Novelle Cuisine to a level better appreciated and understood by American consumers and making a statement that "yes, French food is that good!" I consider Julia Childs and Jacques Pepin traditionalist who showcase French Classical cuisine but my goal here is to elevate and celebrate French Novelle Cuisine as the current gold standard in French cookery and more specifically Lyon, France Cuisine. This is the first of three articles.
Maurice Edmond Saillard "Curnonsky"
American Chefs who celebrated French Cuisine in the USA
1949 Dorothy Cann Hamilton(1949-2016) French founder of the International Culinary Institute and author of "The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine" She was also president of the Friends of the USA Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015. WomanzWorld described her as "one of the most influential forces shaping the American culinary landscape today". She tragically died in an auto accident in 2016.
Chef Dorothy Cann Hamilton
1948 Michel Louis-Marie Richard (1948 – 2016) was a French-born chef, formerly the owner of the restaurant Citrus in Los Angeles and Citronelle and Central in Washington, D.C. He has owned restaurants in Santa Barbara, Tokyo, Carmel, New York City, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Washington, DC. Richard was born in Pabu, Brittany, France on March 7, 1948 and raised in Champagne. Needing to help his mother care for his siblings, he learned to cook. By age 14, Richard was working full-time as an apprentice pâtissier at a hotel restaurant in Reims. After completing his military service as a cook in the French Army, he moved to Paris, where he was hired by French pastry chef Gaston Lenôtre at Maison Lenotre He was the author of "Michel Richard's Home Cooking with a French Accent" his famous Opus 1. We met Richard at the Festival of Fine Wine and Food at the Tyson's Corner Ritz Carlton in January of 2003. The very first dish he served us was raw eel cappacio. Served on a plate the eel looked like gray rose flowers and was very artistic. Years later we learned his technique using frozen rolls of food sliced thin with a meat slicer. The eel smelled up the room and 90% of the guests refused to eat it. But when you took a sip of Champagne and ate the eel the combination was spiritual proving wine improves food and food improves wine when done correctly. Over the years we had dinner twice at Citronelle and the dinners were again innovative and spectacular. Sadly Michele died from a stroke in 2016.
Ross & Clark with Michel, It was an honor to know him
1955 Daniel Boulud (born 25 March 1955 in Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu) is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, London, and Singapore. He is best known for the eponymously named restaurant Daniel, in New York City, which has two Michelin stars. While raised on a farm outside of Lyon and trained by a variety of French chefs, Boulud made his reputation in New York, first as a chef and most recently a restaurateur. His management company, The Dinex Group, currently includes fifteen restaurants, three locations of a gourmet grocery (Epicerie Boulud), and Feast & Fêtes Catering. His restaurants include Daniel, Café Boulud, db bistro moderne, Bar Boulud, DBGB Kitchen & Bar, and Boulud Sud. At fifteen, Boulud earned his first professional recognition as a finalist in France's competition for Best Culinary Apprentice. Boulud worked in France with Roger Vergé, Georges Blanc and Michel Guérard and later in Copenhagen before becoming the private chef to the European Commission in Washington, D.C. After moving to New York City, Boulud opened the Polo Lounge at The Westbury Hotel, followed by Le Régence at the Hotel Plaza Athenée. From 1986 to 1992, he was a critically acclaimed executive chef at Le Cirque. I had dinner at his new place at Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas where I had his famous foie gras hamburger which was basically a high-end hamburger with a chunk of foie gras in the middle. Highly over the top!
Chef Daniel Boulud
1957 Jean George Vongerichten born 16 March 1957) is a French-American chef. Vongerichten commands restaurants in Miami, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo, as well as New York's Jean-Georges restaurant and Tangará Jean Georges in São Paulo's luxurious Palácio Tangará, by Oetker Collection. He is also the head chef of Eden Rock, St Barths. Vongerichten is the author of five cookbooks, two with Mark Bittman. Born and raised on the outskirts of Strasbourg in Alsace, France, Vongerichten's earliest family memories are about food. The Vongerichten home centered around the kitchen, where each day his mother and grandmother would prepare lunch for almost 50 employees in their family-owned business. His love for food cemented his choice of career at the age of 16, when his parents brought him to the 3-star Michelin-rated Auberge de l’Ill for a birthday dinner. Vongerichten began his training soon after in a work-study program at the Auberge de l'Ill as an apprentice to Chef Paul Haeberlin. He went on to work with the top chefs in France, including Paul Bocuse and Louis Outhier at L’Oasis in the south of France. Often working with Outhier, Vongerichten opened 10 restaurants around the world from 1980 to 1985, including the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, the Meridien Hotel in Singapore, and the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. Vongerichten arrived in the United States in 1985 under the auspices of consulting chef Louis Outhier, opening the Le Marquis de Lafayette restaurant in Boston. A year later he arrived in New York to take over the executive Chef position at Lafayette in the Drake Swissôtel, generating critical acclaim with his innovative interpretation of classical French cuisine and earning four stars from The New York Times at the age of 29. There he met financiers Bob Giraldi and Phil Suarez, a loyal dining patron. Vongerichten, Giraldi and Suarez opened a bistro, JoJo, in 1991. JoJo was named Best New Restaurant of the Year, and earned three stars from The New York Times, in which Food critic Ruth Reichl claimed: "His food took my breath away". Jean George's cuisine is very accessible at the Trump Tower at 1 Central Park West in New York City. He serves a 3-course lunch for a reasonable price and serves many of his famous dishes there. I have eaten there many times and highly recommend it when you are in New York City.
Chef Jean George Vongerichten
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