For decades, Daniel Boulud has helped shape the way Americans view food. His New York-based Dinex group and flagship restaurant Daniel set the standard for luxury dining and fostered the careers of chefs such as Andrew Carmellini, David Chang, Gavin Kaysen, Rich Torrisi and many more. . He now operates about 18 restaurants around the world, ranging from extreme high-end (the minimum spend in Daniel’s Skybox 4-seat restaurant, where I interviewed the chef for this podcast, is $ 1,600), to Fast food establishments at Epicerie Boulud where you can get a $ 9 sandwich.
Hailing from the heart of French cuisine near Lyon, Boulud came of age during the Nouvelle Cuisine movement of the 1960s and 1970s which broke Escoffier’s dogmatic chains, allowing chefs to develop their own dishes and try out non-traditional techniques. traditional.
He brought this sense of adventure with him to the United States 40 years ago, when he arrived as head of the Embassy of the European Economic Commission (which would later become the European Union). He was acclaimed in New York City as the executive chef of Cirque, the celebrity mecca to see and see of the ’80s and’ 90s, then started his own business, starting with Restaurant Daniel.
In this inaugural In The Kitchen podcast, I mostly sat down and let the master speak for almost an hour, sharing his stories of the early years of modern dining in Washington and New York, and his current mentorship. from top- and future chefs, as well as discussing his latest project, slated to open later this year, or possibly early next year. We’ve split the conversation into two parts for your convenience.
You may be wondering what Boulud means by “pantagruelistic”. It refers to Pantagruel, a gluttonous giant of the 16e Century of French literature famous for its debauchery.
If you are curious about how this happened, listen to this podcast.
I hope you like it.
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