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Chef Bill Telepan
has brought renown to New York City's JUdson Grill with his
signature version of contemporary American cuisine. His unique
combinations of ultrafresh ingredients, culled from the best
farms and purveyors in the country, achieve a striking balance
of subtlety and intensity and have earned him wide recognition.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, his background
includes classical training in France as well as experience
working with some of the biggest names in New York City kitchens,
including Daniel Boulud and Alfred Portale. Telepan is a member
of the Institute of Culinary Education's Advisory Council. On
Monday, March 4, he will be conducting a food and wine pairing
demonstration at ICE® along with JUdson Grill's Sommelier Beth
von Benz. In this interview with The Main Course, Telepan speaks
about his life and work.
Are there elements of your childhood or background that inspired
you to become a chef?
Definitely. My mother and my grandparents cooked a lot, and
food was a big part of our daily life and our sense of togetherness.
My family had a big garden and we always used a lot of fresh
vegetables in our meals. We all gathered around a big table
at 3 o'clock every Sunday-my family in New Jersey still does-for
a wonderful, lengthy meal. So I guess I would say food was really
central to my family.
Someone once quoted you as saying, "It's about flavor
first," when describing your cuisine. Can you elaborate?
A lot of chefs over the course of the last decade have become
artists in a way. They dress up their food and make it look
good, but when you taste it, there are often too many flavors
and flavors that don't work together. My philosophy is that
if you get the best ingredients and you cook them well, and
you treat them with respect, then the food is going to look
good. When people are done with their plate and there are just
a few sauce spots left on it, they're not going to remember
what it looked like; they are going to remember what it tasted
like. We change the menu four times a year at the restaurant,
and then also within each season we will change it a couple
of times to feature certain ingredients that are only available
for a short period of time. It's about the highest-quality ingredients
at their perfect moment.
Can you describe the special relationships you've developed
with your purveyors, enabling you to procure the very freshest
seasonal ingredients?
For over 11 years now, I have gotten to know many farmers from
the Union Square Greenmarket, and other farmers and purveyors
through them. So my menu is dictated by what they have available,
and most of it is organic. Every January or February I buy seeds
through certain catalogs and send them to my farmers to grow
for me. One year we did special heirloom sweet potatoes, this
year we did a lot of beans and lettuces with certain people,
and next year I'm looking towards more root vegetables. Then
there are some farmers that grow different things each year.
They'll call me and say, "I'm going to have such-and-such
this year. Do you want to use it?" So it works that way.
I call them up, they know who I am, we know each other's families,
so it's a really special thing I have with them.
What is the greatest challenge you face as executive chef
of a bustling, 200-seat restaurant in midtown Manhattan?
Managing a staff of 50 in the kitchen and another 50 to 60 in
the dining room. I work really closely with the general manager
to run the entire restaurant, so I don't get to cook as much
as I would like to. It's managing, and managing is not really
something we, as chefs, are trained to do. You go through school
and you cook, but what I've come to realize is that you should
learn to manage as well. Every dish is different and every person
in your kitchen is different, so you can't have just one management
style either. Certain people need to be told they are doing
a good job, some you can give as much work as possible to and
they'll get it done, and then there're other people you can't
work with at all, and you can't have them in your kitchen. Managing
is absolutely the greatest challenge.
Who is your clientele at JUdson Grill, and how does the type
of clientele influence your menu decisions?
Our clientele is about 40% people who really enjoy food. I kind
of cook for the food lovers. Other people maybe come here for
a unique experience, so we don't want our menu to be like everyone
else's. But we still have to keep it accessible. What I mean
by that is using certain familiar ingredients in combination
with certain unfamiliar ingredients. Because of the purveyors
I work with, I often use unique fish, meat or vegetables that
customers may not be used to tasting, but I tie them in with
some familiar ingredients. When they ask me what is good on
the menu, I usually tell them that if there is something they've
always wanted to try but were afraid to-perhaps octopus, sardines
or pheasant- they should try it here because I think we cook
it well. We get a lot of that, and I enjoy telling people what
to eat.
You took over JUdson Grill's kitchen in 1998, and you are
credited with elevating it to New York Times three-star status
in only four months. How did you bring about such dramatic success
in such a short time?
It was no small task. I did a lot of work before I arrived.
I hired two sous-chefs and we met many times before we started.
I revamped the menu, and I designed a plan and told them how
it had to be implemented. The staff had to be completely retrained
to make the food I wanted to make. Once we started, we replaced
those who couldn't adapt and we added staff because I needed
more people to execute my menu. The sous-chefs and I worked
about 90 hours per week during the first three months. We had
our plan, we knew what we wanted, and we worked unbelievably
hard. It was incredibly demanding and it felt like we actually
did seven months' worth of work, but we had fun, too.
Your pastry chef Deborah Snyder, an Institute of Culinary
Education graduate, is known for incorporating fresh, seasonal
produce into her Americana-inspired desserts. Can you explain
how her finales are a continuation of the style expressed throughout
the meal?
What's great about Deborah is that she has the same energy I
do, directed towards seasonality and getting great ingredients.
We've both developed excellent sources for our produce. We had
sampled each other's work many times before she took the position
here, and we just knew our ideas about flavor and presentation
were really in sync. For instance, in the summertime, gooseberries
are only available for three weeks, so we try to incorporate
them into our menu, both in the savory and in the dessert sections.
The kind of food we create looks good because it's made well,
and it tastes good. What I don't need is desserts that stick
3 feet out from their plates and don't have real flavor. They've
got to be balanced, they've got to taste really good; then they'll
look good.
How do the wine selections of your Sommelier Beth von Benz
complement your cuisine?
I think it's really the other way around: our cuisine really
complements wine. The food here is very wine-friendly because
of its simplicity, and this allows Beth to select a very eclectic
mix of wines. Instead of just Chardonnays and Cabernets, she
will bring in wines from Portugal, Chile, South Africa and even
local wines. She's always tasting and exploring and our menu
really inspires a wide range of choices. Beth is so involved
in the world of wine, and she knows what's out there and where
to get it.
What advice can you offer to someone about to embark on a
culinary career?
Before they choose to actually do it, I think they should work
in a kitchen. Anyone starting out should be patient and learn
the craft, and remember it is a craft, not an art. You have
to really perfect your cooking skills. I cooked a long time
before I became a chef. You have to keep doing it over and over
again. Once you can really cook well, you can do anything. I
always try to challenge myself to make things I've never made
before, and because I have enough cooking experience, I'm able
to figure out how to make anything.
You were the last American stagiaire to work under legendary
chef Alain Chapel in France before his death in 1990. In what
ways did he influence your culinary style?
His style involved using the freshest ingredients, in season;
during the 6 months I worked with him the menu must have changed
7 times. So every third week or so we were doing something new.
I saw the way the menu reflected availability, and I saw the
best ingredients coming through the doors-incredible stuff coming
in everyday-and I decided that was the way I wanted to cook.
What types of food do you eat at home?
I adhere to the same philosophy that I use in the restaurant.
My wife and I usually eat what's in season. We belong to a community-supported
agricultural farm. We pick up different organic vegetables once
a week at an Upper West Side church. Since I'm not home a lot
and my wife doesn't cook, I tend to make soups, stews, pastas
and things I know she can reheat during the week. When I am
home, I keep it simple and fun. I might make a pancake "breakfast"
with all the trimmings for dinner. If we have friends over,
I like to serve cheeses, bread, dips and simple food so I can
spend as much time as possible with my guests.
What was the greatest food-centered trip or vacation you
have ever taken?
The time I spent working in France was of course an amazing
food trip and I learned a lot of technique. But recently I did
this bike trip where I was a guest chef in Tuscany, and it was
really inspirational. I cooked two nights in Tuscany using only
ingredients that were available at the market. I cooked a small
lunch in someone's yard with a wood-burning stove and I made
about six different antipasti. I also cooked a meal in this
14th-century church in a kitchen that was better equipped than
my own kitchen. I made an antipasto, a pasta, a fish course,
a meat course with four different vegetables, cheese and dessert,
and we drank all local wines. The whole experience was amazing.
What do think about the future of high-quality food in America?
People are becoming more knowledgeable about food, so you won't
be able to slack off if you want to be successful. You don't
necessarily have to be cutting-edge, or even high-end, but you'll
have to serve quality. There are a lot of interesting things
being done, some really pushing the envelope, and a lot of experimenting.
I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and there will be people doing
things like bobbing for foie gras, which I recently read about
in the New York Times, or stuff like that restaurant where you
rub rosemary across your mouth and then you eat your chicken.
I won't do that, but some will. I also think you won't see as
many high-end restaurants spring up over the next two years,
but they will be there and they will persevere.
JUdson Grill
152 West 52nd Street
212.582.5252
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