SHELASKY, Alyssa, Famed
French Chef Alain Senderens on His New Brooklyn Restaurant, Renouncing His
Michelin Stars, and His Inner Badass, Grub Street New
York, March
7, 2012.
Abstract : Meeting with a
French Chef, who instead looks like to a fucking rock star : Alain Senderens.
Quotation : « He may
look like an old French man, but he's a fucking rock star,” Cyril Aouizerate
tells Grub Street of his 73-year-old partner at the new Maimonide of Brooklyn, French legend Alain Senderens. Senderens
is the culinary iconoclast who earned three Michelin stars for 28 years at
Lucas Carton before famously rebelling and giving them back in the name of
simplicity. "I was done with the tra-la-la, chi-chi, bling, crystal
goblets, and glamour," he explains. "I wanted to, of course, keep my
purveyors and quality of ingredients, but without any of that nonsense! Nobody
understood. Michelin certainly didn't understand." Perhaps equally hard to
grasp is why Senderens and his regal Greek wife have turned up on Atlantic
Avenue, serving "vegetarian food for carnivores," turning heads yet
again ... this time in fedoras, not berets. Lucky for us, he was more than
happy to explain.
Cyril called you a "fucking rock
star," would you agree?
Well, maybe? My wife is the reason for everything. She keeps me cool and tells
me what to do. Other than that, I was always attracted to non-mainstream
locations and non-mainstream people. The reason I know Cyril is because I've
been the consulting chef at Mama
Shelter [Aouizerate's famed, hip-hop-magnet Parisian hotel]. I liked
it so much there because it was located in an edgy area of Paris, there was
nothing typical about it; we always knew Brooklyn would be next.
But serving falafel in Boerum Hill is a
little random, non?
Sure, maybe, but I strongly believe that in ten years nobody will be eating
meat. This will be the way we eat, entirely vegetarian or vegan, and science
and medicine will thoroughly support that. I have always lived in the future,
that is a philosophy of mine, and this way of eating is the future. I'm committed to that belief.[…] »
Index terms : French chef, rock star, Brooklyn.
Found with : Google alert “French chef”.
MP
