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Aspiring Chefs Will Go For The Gusto

Photo by DAVID ROARK

Paul Bocuse (r), founder of the Bocuse d'Or World Cuisine Contest, and Daniel Boulud will grace EPCOT.

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 23, 2008

When Thomas Keller was first learning to cook as a teenager in the early 1970s at the Palm Beach Yacht Club, the United States was in a sort of culinary Dark Ages.

There were no established culinary schools, as there are today. The restaurant industry mimicked classic continental cooking performed in the handful of great French and Italian restaurants across the country. The ingredients were poor compared with European equivalents. Customers had limited expectations for what would appear on their plates. Celebrity chefs were nonexistent.

To Keller's great benefit, legendary French-born chef Roland Henin took him under his wing and helped mold his view of cooking and what it means to be a chef.

The breakthrough for Keller came in 1977, when Henin taught him that nurturing customers and giving them pleasure through their food elevates the act of cooking itself.

"It wasn't only about cooking for the guests and making them happy," he says. "It's also about us cooking and working together as chefs and finding great satisfaction in the process of cooking. The quality of the restaurant manifests itself in the experience that the staff has, both in the kitchen and in the dining room."

Three decades later, Keller commands one of the most well-respected and honored restaurants in the United States, The French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., as well as Per Se in New York City. He now is attempting to pass along the legacy of what he earned and learned by preparing a new generation of chefs to compete in what amounts to the world's culinary Olympics, the Bocuse d'Or World Cuisine Contest.

Keller and chef Daniel Boulud are championing the effort to find the country's best young chefs to represent the United States against international teams in Lyon, France. The contest's namesake, chef Paul Bocuse, recruited Keller and Boulud to create a formal program to select the team and train the members before the contest.

Keller is building a lab next to The French Laundry for that purpose.

On Friday and Saturday, eight semifinalists (see box) will compete at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival in Lake Buena Vista to determine the final team. The top three placing teams will be awarded cash prizes. First place takes $15,000, second place $10,000 and third place $5,000.

Keller spoke recently from Yountville about the contest and the goals of the program.

Q: For those who are unfamiliar with Bocuse d'Or, can you explain a little about why the competition is so prestigious?

A: Paul Bocuse is certainly an icon in the culinary world. He has a three-star Michelin restaurant right outside of Lyon, which is the capital of French gastronomy. He's someone who worked with a mentor of mine, Ferdinand Pointe, who is an icon himself in the last generation of great chefs.

Chef Bocuse began Bocuse d'Or over 20 years ago as a result of the need to continue to further the progress of cuisine by holding something like a culinary Olympics. Every two years, he holds an international competition. Every country is invited to field a team and then present two dishes to a group of international judges in Lyon in February 2009.

Right now, chef Daniel Boulud and I are organizing and selecting which team will represent America.

Q: American teams have never placed higher than sixth in Bocuse. Was there anything in looking back that was a reason for our lack of success?

A: There never was really a collective effort to give a team the support and training that they needed to succeed. This is the first time we've raised enough funds to support the team through the training process. We're actually developing a training center for the team here in Northern California, in Yountville, for the finalists to come train for the three months prior to the competition in Lyon.

This will allow them to not be concerned about financial situations. In the past, many chefs who have fielded a team have always had to continue with their primary jobs and then practice when they could. This time, Daniel and I have put together a structure to offer the team financial security as well as the need to compete at the same level as other countries are.

Q. You mentioned that you're building a training lab next to the facility. Why was that necessary?

A: Well, it will have the same design layout, as well as the same equipment, as the chefs will be using in both Orlando and Lyon. It puts them in that environment so they can perfect their techniques and hone their skills and, more importantly, their timing. Timing is critical in all this. As you can imagine, producing the platters and dishes in the allotted amount of time is going to require them to produce it over and over and over again. It's much like the way athletes have to get their timing down.

Q: For the finals in Orlando, can you describe what will be required of the contestants?

A: The primary difference is that they won't have to make as many dishes as they will in Lyon.

What they'll have is that they'll prepare a presentation platter, which will have the protein on it as well as the garnishes in Lyon. That, in turn, is then served to eight judges. In Orlando, it will be for four instead of eight judges. It's primarily the same style of competition, just a different quantity.

The dishes they do in Orlando won't necessarily be the ones they do in Lyon. The final team will be chosen from the group that will be competing in Orlando. That final team will be able to take the dishes that they've done in Orlando and continue to modify, tweak them and perfect them so they can perfect them in Lyon in February.

Q: Is the lab similar to what other teams in other countries do?

A: I think we're reaching to what other teams are doing. I think the Norwegian team is up to a sponsorship of about $1 million a year to work with to prepare for the competition. We certainly haven't reached that level yet, but we have reached the level of resources that we're able to build this test kitchen. It's actually a house where the team can live and practice there. It will give them the support of a coach, Roland Henin, who was my mentor at a very young age and who has served as a coach in previous years.

Q: Considering the success of the "Iron Chef" format, what is it about cooking competitions that Americans have responded to?

A: "Iron Chef" is very dramatic and relates the competition effort between two chefs onstage. That's not really how the Bocuse d'Or is perceived. The competition is not as intense and flying back and forth as "Iron Chef."

As America has grown in the past 30 years and established its culinary culture, you see great American chefs now. It's just going to bring that much more respect to our country. In the years to come, the Bocuse is going to be a bedrock for competition. We'll have a great, great chance to win a medal.

Q: Why should this competition matter to somebody who, No. 1, will never have a chance to attend the Bocuse, but also likely will never eat any of the food these people will prepare? Is there a trickle-down effect from a U.S. team succeeding? Is it like the pebble that lands in the center of the pond and the ripples spread out from there?

A: If you look at the past 30 years and the quality of the products that are available to us and how that has risen significantly, a lot of that comes from what chefs are doing. The food industry looks to chefs as leaders.

Where that trickles down is what's in our grocery stores and what our growers are growing and farmers are producing. The more recognition that America garners from competitions like this and from what its great chefs are doing, the better it's going to be for everyone in our society. It's going to bring better quality food and better understanding, better knowledge of what food is and how to take care of ourselves and eat healthy.

Q: There's a cumulative effect from raising the culinary self-esteem.

A: Of course.

SEMIFINALISTS FOR THE BOCUSE D'OR USA

Eight two-person teams led by the following chefs will be competing this weekend in Orlando:

Timothy Hollingsworth, sous chef, The French Laundry, Yountville, Calif.; more than seven years working for Thomas Keller at The French Laundry and Per Se in New York City

Hung Huynh, executive chef, solo, New York City; "Top Chef" winner in third season; formerly sous chef of Guy Savoy in Las Vegas

Rogers Powell, instructor, French Culinary Institute, New York City; 23 years of experience throughout New York and France, including La Côte Basque and Maxim's

John Rellah Jr., executive chef, Hamilton Farm, Gladstone, N.J.; former executive chef of the Union Club in New York; experience working at Gray Kunz, Lespinasse and Le Bernardin in New York City

Richard Rosendale, chef-owner, Rosendale's, Westerville, Ohio; U.S. Culinary Olympic Team captain; more than 15 gold medals won in national and international culinary competitions

Michael Rotondo, chef de cuisine, Charlie Trotter's, Chicago; New England Culinary Institute alumnus; experience at Four Seasons Hotels

Kevin Sbraga, culinary director, Garces Restaurant Group (Amada, Distrito, Mercat and Tinto), Philadelphia; formerly executive chef of Le Mas Perrier of the Georges Perrier restaurant group

Percy Whatley, executive chef, Delaware North Parks, Yosemite, Calif.; oversees operations of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park; works closely with coach Roland Henin

IF YOU GO

Epcot Food & Wine Festival

WHEN: Friday through Nov. 9

INFORMATION: www.disneyworld.disney.go.com/.

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324 and jhouck@tampatrib.com

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