Jean-Georges Vongerichten The Kitchen's Bad Boy

Chefs are like maestros. They can be temperamental yet brilliant; furious yet philosophical, creating masterpieces that will leave crowds and fans breathless. This is true with the famed French chef and restauranteur , Jean-Georges Vongerichten. He may be a culinary bad boy, but he's also a master too.

Chef Vongerichten was interviewed and the subject of a lengthy article in today's New York Times Food section. The piece was written by Alan Richman, famed , himself, for reviewing New Orleans restaurants and winner of several James Beard food writing awards.  A young Jean-Georges was not destined for the kitchen, by any means. He was the typical bad boy in his native Alsace-Lorraine town, near Strasbourg. The family business was coal, thanks to his great-great grandfather coming from Holland (hence the last name). He found land along a canal and settled there The chef to be was an altar boy despite his wild nature, skipping classes at the local parochial school. He was apprenticed young and even turned down a chance to cook in the Elysee Palace for the French president. He wanted to cook on a boat instead. This got him a chef's job aboard a submarine which docked in such exotic ports as Casablanca. Here he learned about different spices such as cumin. He tried the spice with carrots and that changed his perspective completely. From there he went to the Riviera where he discovered rosemary and then off to Bangkok

Now Chef Vongerichten is known around the world. He has restaurants throughout the world, being well known here in New York. His mark is everywhere , including Madison Square Garden where he has a chicken-centric Simply Chicken. Here, Chef Vongerichten elevates both the simple chicken salad and sandwich to another level with pickles and a spicy aioli. There is also the extremely elegant Jean-Georges that's decorated all in white with signature tasting menus. His empire, here in the States, stretches to Las Vegas and California, along with eateries in Miami Beach and Philadelphia. He has created restaurants also in Bridgehampton, the start of the Hamptons on Long Island and in Pound Ridge near where he lives in Waccabuc with his second wife and youngest daughter, Chloe. Despite the success he did have failures, namely the V Steak House in the Time Warner Building in Manhattan. The formula worked well with his steakhouse in Las Vegas but somehow the idea didn't translate to New York City. The same was true with his Chicago restaurant where he charged fifteen dollars for fried rice with fresh crab. Diners could get the same dish with frozen crab for $3.50 down the road. Still he will always have success.It's evident in his many successful restaurants here in New York alone.

Being the bad boy can be a good thing. That rebellious attitude has worked well for Chef Vongerichten. It's given him one of the mist successful culinary careers in modern times.

The King Of Seafood

If you want good seafood you should go to a Greek restaurant. These are people who know fish, thanks to millennia of bringing in multitudes of seafood and shellfish. They also know how to cook them too, infusing them with lemon or sumac, delicately roasting or frying. That is the life and love of famed restaurateur Costas Spiliadis. He is one of the pillars of Greek American cooking in the New World.

Alan Richman, famous in his own right, as Dean of Food Journalism at The French Culinary Institute and winner of fourteen (!) James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards conducted this in depth interview with one of the world's best chefs.Chef Spiliadis is a multifaceted , interesting person with an even more interesting background. Food and cooking was not on his radar. He came to New York to study at NYU. His earliest cooking forays were cooking dirt cheap chicken necks in the room he had rented. He left for John Hopkins University to be near his older brother, Stellios. That didn't suit him,, Being a foreign student, he couldn't participate in the protests against the new Greek government along with the racism he saw in Baltimore.. He left for freer thinking Montreal., being afraid that if he returned to Greece he would either be drafted or jailed for his political views Again food was not in his sites - not yet. He helped found a Greek radio station, Radio Centre Ville and also acted in amateur productions. It was in 1979 he opened up his first Milos restaurant,in Montreal, instantly drawing a crowd and a fans.

Chef Spiliadis instantly changed the way people thought about Greek cuisine which was men in paper hats, standing in front of a shawarma machine. It went from being thought of from rustic to classic. His many restaurants, all named Milos, feature recipes that would be on the tables of millionaires and working class. There are lamb chops in lemon and a meze plate , featuring tzatziki, taramosalata and htipiti, the last a feta and red pepper spread. There's also grilled octopus and dishes made with Greek yogurt along with  dessert menu with karydopita, a homemade walnut cake and of course , the classic baklava. There is also loukoumades, traditional Greek doughnuts with thyme honey and galactoboureko, phyllo dough filled with vanilla and lemon zest custard. There is also Chef Spiliadis signature dishes as well, one being his well  known delicately fried zucchini and eggplant slices. The slices  are cut paper thin and dipped in a batter that's as thin as the glue that binds the famed Greek bamboo kites.His Greek yogurt is not fat free. He believes that taste doesn't originate in the head but in the mouth. Food should be flavorful not subject to trends. He is also a perfectionist when it comes to both the foods and restaurants. Flower displays are under just as much strict scrutiny as the catch of the day. There will be scathing emails if there isn't.

Chef Costas Spiliadis is a maverick on both the Greek and the international restaurant  scene. His life is seafood and his recipes. He has made them the must haves on any gourmand's list.

Running A Classic

Le Bernardin is one of Manhattan's culinary landmarks. It literally has put New York city on the radar of serious critics and food lovers. One woman is behind its' success Maguy le Coze. Her life has been the industry Her life is the restaurant.

Alan Richman, food writer for GQ Magazine conducted the interview with Mlle. Le Coze for today's New York Times Food section. Hers is a story of duty and the familiar. She was the daughter of hotel owners in Port Navalo,Brittany , France and was waiting tables in their restaurant at the age of twelve.Her parents wanted her to take the route they did. Marry a chef, tend to his customers, be the face of the restaurant and don't look any further than the front door. That was not Mlle. Le Coze. She came of age in the militant, swinging Sixties of France.She understood their wants but realized it was not for her. She and her brother, Gilbert,  was eighteen months younger,left for Paris , He worked in the City Of Lights as did she, but modeling for the fashion houses along with working for a hairdresser.. Summers were still spent in Brittany, helping their parents. Their restaurant began in 1972  in Paris.with Gilbert adopting Japanese ways of cooking seafood. It was not an easy time. They coasted after their first good review. A second review, a disaster according to her, destroyed them , The restaurant closed after they forgot to pay taxes and the government stepped in.

Gilbert redid the menu and reopened the eatery. Thankfully there was a good review from the renowned chef, Michel Guerard, and it revived Le Berardin, named for a song their father used to sing to them.Gilbert was smarter this time. They made money with Maguy the showpiece. The money allowed her to, take  lark holidays every summer in St. Tropez. It was at this time the restaurant moved to the chicer neighborhood around the Eiffel Tower. Fascinated by New York, they branched out to Manhattan in 1984.It would not be without sadness. Gilbert died of a heart attack at age forty-nine.It still pains her to talk about it. Yet ,Le Bernardin continues to this day. in the city. The main one was sold. The chef and co-owner, Eric Ripert, still follows the basic seafood menu that Gilbert created in the early Seventies.It's mega expensive but well worth it. The vegetable tasting menu is $172 dollars. for a select range of vegetables in sauce.The chef's tasting menu is close to four hundred dollars (!) but has such dishes as caviar along with langoustime with a balsamic glaze.  Le Bernardin hasn't escaped the MeToo movement. There have been lawsuits by former workers about sexual harassment. Even one worker has accused her of fat shaming her after giving birth. Mlle. Le Coze denies it. She is frank and sensible but not relentless with her staff. She is simply a restaurant owner.

Le Bernardin will be around for a while as will Mlle. le Coze. She is  the backbone of this New York classic.She brings joi de 'vivre to the city's restaurant world.

The Last Great Restauranteur Drew Nieporent.

Drew Nieporent is one of the one of the last great restauranteurs. His kind is not seen that often anymore , sort of being a culinary dinosaur of sorts. Yet he was and still is a strong presence on the Manhattan restaurant scene for four decades. As long as there's a trendy eatery to oversee, he's there.

He was the subject of a fascinating interview and article in yesterday's New York Times Food section written by Alan Richman .Drew Nieporent is an interesting throwback to the Sixties when larger than life hosts/owners greeted and seated customers. Mind you, this is the era before celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay and Mario Batale ruled the roost.  The era brought such stars as Sirio Maccioni  of Le Cirque, Joe Baum,of both the Twelve Caesars and The Four Seasons and Georges Lang of the famed Cafe Des Artistes. They shone more than than their cooks did , as . Nieporent does now with his own. His father is to thank for this love. The elder Neiporent worked for the New York State Liquor Authority where there were endless invitations to eat free from restaurant  owners looking for easy ways to maneuver through bureaucratic channels. As a child, Nieporent dined at the fancy San Marino where his mother properly taught to twirl spaghetti on a spoon and ate egg  rolls and sweet and sour pork at China Song., right next to the Ed Sullivan Theater. He ate there the night the Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan's show.

It was inevitable that . Nieporent went into the hospitality industry, graduating from Cornell School of Hotel Administration and worked on the cruise ships, Vistafjord and Sagafjord during his summer vacations.His first jobs were at the prestigious Le Perigord, Le Regence, La Grenouille and La Reserve. He also worked as assistant restaurant director at  the famed Maxwell's Plum, owned by one of the greatest restauranteurs, Warner Leroy.   Later he would hire the now famous David Bouley, who was then a little known chef from San Francisco. He was also responsible for bringing eateries to the then industrial wasteland, Tribeca. This was back in 1983 when no one really ventured south of Broadway. He'd have to  find customers who called saying they were lost on their way to the restaurant, scared to even venture into the dark deserted streets. .He Is credited with inventing the 
inexpensive prix fixe dinner for $16.00 at Montrachet. He is also partners with Robert Di Niro and is currently a partner in five (! ) restaurants right now (he's owned over forty for forty years)that include the trendy Nobu and Tribeca Grill.

Drew Nieporent is ne of the last of his  breed, yet he is as influential now as he was back forty years ago. He is responsible for what Manhattan eats and the food trends that touch our lives. He is the heartbeat behind the city's dining scene