Chef, La Panetière, 530 Milton Rd, Rye (914) 967-8140
Your Best Dish Foie gras crème brûlée and carpaccio of bay scallops with fresh truffles. The coupling of the scallop and truffle is very interesting—the ocean and the earth, delicate and powerful.
Wine of Choice St. Emilion, Bordeaux. It has a powerful, earthy flavor.
Favorite Cuisine Asian cooking employs different cooking techniques from European cooking. One of my favorite dishes is the Vietnamese summer roll. It’s a dish I order all the time.
Favorite Restaurant Music I like the music at Buddha Bar. It’s a fusion of Asian, Indian, and world music.
Culinary Hero Ferran Adrià, El Bulli’s chef, because he has opened so many doors. I’d like to try El Bulli’s liquid nitrogen technique because it allows you to freeze the outside of an ingredient and make it crispy, yet soft and creamy on the inside. My dad is also my culinary hero because he was always hosting parties on Sundays, and I would be his petit apprentice.
Least Favorite Food to Cook I’m not crazy about cooking tripe. It is not enjoyable to prepare and clean. It also doesn’t smell very good.
If Not a Chef, You’d Be… in the Special Forces. I had a good experience in the Army, first in France and then in a commando training camp in Germany, next to the Black Forest. I learned survival skills and got all sorts of driving licenses for operating motorcycles, buses, heavy trucks, and tanks.
Favorite Kitchen Utensil: The thermal circulator. It helps me to perfectly control my braising and poaching techniques.
Last Book Read: Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller. It’s nice to have a book of reference that I can adapt to the La Panetière style.
