What makes chefs tick
Irene Sax
Posted: August 17, 2007
New York City—Jacques Pépin did it at 13. David Bouley did it with his French grandmother. Rick Bayless did it while studying for a Ph.D., and Charlie Palmer between football games and wrestling matches. There's no end to the ways that chefs get started in the kitchen, and a new TV show explores 27 of them.
It's Chef's Story, a half-hour series running on Public Television. (For times in your area, look at www.chefsstory.com.) The idea for the show came from John Servidio, producer of the popular interview program Inside the Actor's Studio, who recognized that some chefs had the star power of actors. Each episode features host Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder/CEO of New York City's International Culinary Center, chatting with a well-known chef. But instead of just sitting in the side-by-side armchairs familiar to fans of Inside the Actor's Studio, the two spend part of the time in FCI's demo kitchen, where each chef cooks a dish that showcases his or her work.
For those unable to see the show or who want to spend more time with these interesting folks, there's a companion book edited by Hamilton and Patric Kuh. That's where you'll learn about José Andrés (Jaleo, Minibar, and others, Washington, D.C.) tending the fire for his father's paella and deciding that "something austere in the Spanish personality craves the simple product." About Daniel Boulud (Daniel, Café Boulud, db Bistro Moderne, New York City) carrying whole cases of produce from the market to the restaurant where he apprenticed in Lyons, France. About the teenaged Bobby Flay (Mesa Grill, Bolo, Bar Americain, New York City) discovering focus and discipline while washing lettuce in a New York City kitchen, and Todd English (Olives, Figs, and many more) defending multirestaurant chefs by swearing, "The modern restaurateur stands for something—it's a signature, it's a brand, it's a stamp, it's a seal."
But of course there are themes that show up in all the life stories. One is physical hardship, as when Norman Van Aken tells about hanging a thermometer around his neck when he cooked in an airconditionless Key West kitchen in the summer. There's discipline: Anthony Bourdain calls the restaurant kitchen "autocratic and militaristic" but also "one of the last meritocracies." And there is creativity, whether it's Alain Sailhac describing stripping ingredients from recipes at the beginning of nouvelle cuisine, Thomas Keller eating ice cream at Baskin Robbins and suddenly thinking up salmon tartare cones, or Jean-Georges Vongerichten awakening to the lure of Thai spices in Bangkok. This is a fascinating book that not only introduces the reader to its star chefs but gives a lively, nuanced picture of their world.
