R.I.P. Chef David Bouley

[weinoo]

The ground-breaking American chef David Bouley passed away this past Monday, at the age of 70.  Here in New York, he is known for being the opening chef at Montrachet, located in what was then a part of town not a lot of people ventured to. 

 

Quote

Mr. Bouley’s simple but sleek cuisine made a grand entrance in 1985 at Montrachet, the restaurant that put TriBeCa on the map as a culinary destination. It was one of the first modern French restaurants to receive three stars from The New York Times.

 

His first restaurant, simply Bouley, was where I had my first "fancy" meal after moving back to NYC to go to cooking school. I'll always remember the smell of the apples in the entranceway...

 

Quote

Bouley’s entrance was perpetually stacked with ripening apples, reminding guests that they were far from the cut flowers and crystal vases of Midtown’s classic temples to French cuisine: Le Cirque, Le Périgord and La Côte Basque. Earlier in his career, Mr. Bouley had worked in all three. 

 

RIP, Chef.

 

Julia Moskin's Obit in the NY Times

 

Daily Mail

 

 

[KennethT]

This is really sad - I loved Bouley, and David Bouley was so nice and generous with his time.  At one point he was giving cooking classes and my wife and I took some of them - he always went past the ending time giving extra explanations and fielding questions.  One time, I remember going to one of his more casual restaurants (which was upstairs from his grocery where he sold products that they used in the restaurants) and we wound up chatting for like 40 minutes.  As one of his waiters once said, "don't get him started talking - he'll never stop!"

[weinoo]

21 minutes ago, KennethT said:

At one point he was giving cooking classes and my wife and I took some of them - he always went past the ending time giving extra explanations and fielding questions. 

 

I definitely went to some of those cooking classes. I think they were called Bouley at Home or something like that?

[KennethT]

I'm not sure but I don't think so.  At one point, he was talking about something they were doing where you could hire them to come to your house and prepare a meal, like a private chef.  They would bring the mise from the restaurant (which would limit how much work they had to do in the house) and would make the restaurant quality meal for you and guests, then clean up and leave.  I thought that was Bouley at Home but I could be wrong about that.

 

I'll try to remember to check the printed recipes that he provided during the classes - that would probably have the name of the classes on it - but I thought it wasn't something that was named - or at least that's how it started.  I went to some of the first ones - after that, the prices went up like crazy, and a lot of what they were doing wasn't of interest to me. Maybe they named it once it became popular?

[weinoo]

I probably am misremembering.  The classes and other stuff I remember attending were in a big, beautiful space (on Duane St.?) maybe even above what was Brushstroke?

 

Let's just say he was involved in a lot of stuff!

 

https://davidbouley.com/bouley-at-home/

[KennethT]

29 minutes ago, weinoo said:

I probably am misremembering.  The classes and other stuff I remember attending were in a big, beautiful space (on Duane St.?) maybe even above what was Brushstroke?

 

Let's just say he was involved in a lot of stuff!

 

https://davidbouley.com/bouley-at-home/

OK, that is something different than I remember.  The classes were in a beautiful space - I forget where - I remember they used that space for small private events sometimes since there was a lot of space for standing around/passed appetizers, as well as classroom seating and an open demonstration kitchen.  I remember there were a lot of plants in there.  But he was definitely involved in a LOT of stuff!

[SLB]

I loved Montrachet enough to travel from Alabama for my 30s birthday dinners there.  At the time, I had to come to NYC about 3 times a year for work, and saved up for fine dining per Reichl recs.  

 

It was, honestly, a wonderful way to, you know, budget.  

[weinoo]

4 hours ago, SLB said:

I loved Montrachet enough to travel from Alabama for my 30s birthday dinners there.  At the time, I had to come to NYC about 3 times a year for work, and saved up for fine dining per Reichl recs.  

 

It was, honestly, a wonderful way to, you know, budget.  

 

Drew Nieporent, as well as the people he brought in to run his restaurants, was a fucking genius.

 

Check out the Chef DB for Bouley, and look at the cooks who came up through that world:

 

https://www.chefdb.com/pl/3073/Bouley-New-York

 

I went to school with a bunch of these people. Sadly, I was no way near as talented as they were, so it's cooking for two these days!

[AAQuesada]

6 hours ago, weinoo said:

Check out the Chef DB for Bouley

Eric Ripert, Sous Chef (holy shit! I didn't know that!!!)