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The showman of fine dining
J G Vongerichten’s restaurants in paradise
Even if he hadn’t become a master chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten would still have been a restaurateur.
“If I had my way, I’d open a restaurant every month and then give the keys to somebody to take it over.” Why? “Because the first month is the most exciting,” says J G, as he is known far and wide.
Not having his way has worked out pretty well for the celebrity chef. He owns 11 restaurants in New York alone and has given his imprimatur to 20 others around the world, in cities like London, Hong Kong and, of course, Nassau, where he has a hand in two on Paradise Island: Café Martinique in the Marina Village and Dune at the One&Only Ocean Club.
“The restaurants are all different,” says Vongerichten, whose home base is in Soho–Manhattan’s fashionable art and shopping district. “Thirty-one restaurants keep you active. I get 250 e-mails a day.”
J G, who is as comfortable in the boardroom as he is in the kitchen, employs some 4,000 people in his three- and four-star restaurants.
“Eleven of the 31 are run by me,” Vongerichten explains in an interview with Welcome Bahamas. “That means I do the business side of it as well. Those are in New York.”
In ventures outside the Big Apple, Vongerichten brings in partners to help him refine the restaurant’s “look” and top chefs to help him create menus. This is the case with Dune and Café Martinique.
“To do a great restaurant you need a great partner,” Vongerichten told celebrants at Dune’s 10th anniversary party in November 2010. He found the “perfect partner” in South African hotelier Sol Kerzner.
Kerzner acquired his Paradise Island properties in 1994 and transformed them into Atlantis, one of the premier vacation destinations in the Caribbean region, if not the world.
Vongerichten says Kerzner flew him in for a visit in 1999 and asked him point-blank: “Where would you do a restaurant?”
Vongerichten recalls that he pointed to the beach and told Kerzner: “I would do it right here.”
Chef from a distance
Can one oversee a string of fine restaurants from afar? The short answer is “yes” if you’re willing to work 16 hours a day. Vongerichten admits he’s a chef “from a distance,” but he keeps close tabs on all his executive chefs by phone, including Dune’s Alex Powell and Café Martinique’s Frederic Demers. If he’s trying a new recipe, his chefs get a how-to video by e-mail.
“I’m in touch with my chefs at all 31 restaurants once a week,” says Vongerichten, who starts work at 8:30 in the morning and typically ends his day at midnight.
Born and raised in France, next to the German border, Vongerichten credits his “German side” for the discipline he exercises over his culinary empire. It’s that discipline that has helped him rack up accolades and awards for 38 years.
“You have to be very disciplined when you run a business,” he says. “You have to make sure everybody makes a living, everybody is happy, the customers are happy and the food is consistent.”
Growing up on the outskirts of Strasbourg in Alsace, Vongerichten’s father expected him to join the family coal business, originally launched by his grandfather.
“My parents sent me to an engineering school, and I hated every minute of it,” he says. After six months, the 16-year-old left. “I was so bad … I had no idea what I wanted to do.”
Thinking back, J G recalled that he grew up in a home with three generations under one roof, so meals were served in a restaurant-like atmosphere, with his mother and grandmother cooking for family members and employees–a minimum of 20 people at the table.
“My bedroom was right above the kitchen. Every morning, I could smell what was cooking. By the time I was eight, I knew exactly what was cooking …whether it was cabbage, roast chicken or a pork dish.”
But it wasn’t until his parents took him to a three-star restaurant in 1973 to celebrate his 17th birthday that Vongerichten became smitten with the culinary arts.
“It was like a show for me, the choreography of the waiters, the food coming in,” he recollects. “My father asked the chef if I could apprentice or peel potatoes or something. They called me up, and I started the week after.”
Vongerichten trained in a work study program and worked with a number of noted chefs in the south of France. By 1980, he was travelling to Asia to work in restaurants there.
“I really went to Asia to learn about spices [and] ingredients.” He brought back culinary secrets from China, Singapore and Japan.
Today, “the food I do is a blend of French techniques with Asian or tropical spices, herbs and vegetables.”
While travel has influenced his culinary philosophy, it’s local ingredients that make his restaurants such standouts, he says. “I’m inspired by what I find in the Caribbean, especially in The Bahamas. I’m inspired by what I see, what I taste every day.”
“Look at the view, the beach, the atmosphere,” he says, gesturing to the Dune’s panoramic view. “This restaurant is so unique.
“The fish you have here we don’t have anywhere else. Yes, you can buy grouper in New York but nothing like what you find here. Recipes adapt to the location. It’s local in content, but global in reach.”
Vongerichten sums up his outlook and his career in a few words:
“For me, a restaurant is the ultimate [in] entertaining. People come to see you. I cook for them. If it pleases them and makes them come back, then I win.”
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The showman of fine dining
J G Vongerichten’s restaurants in paradise
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