As part of the Global Chef’s Initiative we have an exchange program allowing chefs from around the world to participate traveling to host countries. The adventure lasts approximately one month. During their stay, visits to different venues allows us to collaborate and exchange cuisine, culture and make friendships with the guest chef. We were privileged with the opportunity to host a chef from France.

Chef Thierry André Lemaître is from Paris, France. Chef LeMaitre launched his culinary career at age 8 cooking and baking for his family. By age 20, he graduated from one of France’s famous culinary schools. Early in his career, he worked with notable French chefs and continued refining his culinary skills in restaurants in Paris, Reims and New Caledonia. Chef LeMaitre has been a chef for over 20 years. He has held many titles and roles during his career. His love, passion and enthusiasm for food is unrivalled amongst his peers. Chef LeMaitre now shares his vision of culinary with the next generation of chefs that will continue to carry the torch, lighting the way and continuing in the great traditions of French cuisine.

During Chef LeMaitre’s stay with us, we have all been fortunate to learn from his breath of cooking style. What is really cool about the exchange of ideas and interests, is that we have become friends, which is the greatest take-away from these experiences. Thank you, Chef, for your visit, your impact and sharing your time with us. It’s been and honor and privilege. Respect!

In further days, I will perhaps go into some detail on specifics, but for now since I have my real job to do, we will just post some pictures of his collaboration with our local two accounts.

A couple notes. To understand French cuisine, for many of us trained in the old school tradition of working directly under French chefs are experiences now rare and a time from the past. 20 years ago, French kitchens in America were the place to be, if you were interested in becoming a good chef. This is where we cut our teeth. There was no such thing as cooking shows, the internet, just some old revered books you could find in a public library. My, how things have changed!

Our culinary forefathers are French. The French led the way in defining excellence in cooking. All the way back to Marie-Antoine Carême who created French haute cuisine; Then moving forward to Escoffier, a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. French chef’s were notorious for demanding perfection and had tempers to match their zealous egos. But if you were lucky enough to survive this lifestyle, your DNA was changed forever. The take-away from such experiences hardened you for all the challenges you may face moving forward. I can only say, it was comparable to a military boot camp, coming out the other end stronger than ever. Since then, times changing and building upon this foundation, we have seen the culinary world turn to the unimaginable possibilities. Food from all over the world now permeates our everyday lives. What an exciting time to be involved with food. But its roots all began with the structure and systems put in place by French cuisine.

So with that backdrop, we have captured some of the work we created with Chef LeMaitre. Initially, chef had to create ideas that were of lowest common denominator food menus. Chef LeMaitre only had a couple days with many accounts to visit and taking into consideration the complexity of French cuisine and the skill sets of those working with chef, we had to overcome obstacles to meet with success. But, for those fortunate enough to participate, there was the take away for those curious enough to understand the fundamentals of French cuisine. Master classes with French cuisine, perhaps for another day.

So for now, here are some pictures of several accounts where Chef LeMaitre visited. Enjoy!

We have a couple menus here posted on some of the interesting and exciting French dishes we prepared over the week we spent together.

Categories: Dinner