Daniel Boulud and His French Cuisine

Published by Interrobang Staff at October 31, 2013

World renowned Chef Daniel Boulud owns many great restaurants including Daniel which has been awarded three Michelin stars. In addition to Daniel, he has brought Bar Boulud, DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Boulud Sud, Epicerie Boulud, Cafe Boulud and Bistro db Moderne to New York and several other cities. He stopped by the SiriusXM studios to sit down with Ron Bennington and talk about his new book, “Daniel: My French Cuisine.” A few excerpts from the interview appear below. The interview can be heard in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.

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Daniel Boulud Talks About Loving Food From A Young Age

Ron Bennington: Your relationship with food started as a very young person?

Daniel Boulud: Yeah, I started quite awhile ago. I started at fourteen and I started in Lyon, my hometown. Lyon is, but was also, the Mecca of cuisine in France. I had the chance to be surrounded by some of the greatest chefs of the time. I think that was a real inspiration for me.

Ron Bennington: To be able to do that as a very, very young person and you knew at that point that this was your life’s calling, once you were into that you were like, “yeah, I love it?”

Daniel Boulud: Yeah, absolutely, I was born and raised on a farm, but as much as I loved the vegetables, I loved the food at home, when I started to cook, I felt this was something I could really be happy in it.

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Daniel Boulud Talks About Local Farmers

Ron Bennington: Well, you brought up growing up on a farm, which I think is such a great plus, because you can’t really cook unless you have great ingredients, right?

Daniel Boulud: It starts by that, everything in the kitchen, for us the energy we spend the most is in relationship and finding and maintaining relationships with suppliers. Trying to find the best ingredient and trying to have consistency with them from the suppliers and try to really have a very professional and honest relationship with them. They are the people we have to respect the most because many of the farmers and many of the producers are working very hard to produce things for us.

Ron Bennington: But I think it’s wonderful the way that now even more restaurants have caught on to that. It used to be rare and now even the smaller places are telling you that everything is going to be grown close.

Daniel Boulud: Of course. Very much, and I think the model of French cuisine has always been that there is a certain – you follow the seasonality of the season, you follow the local market and you cook with that. I think today, what is beautiful in America – and the Italian model is very much the same, as well, the whole European: French, Italian, and even Spanish model as well. I think in America, today, we have enough suppliers and farmers around every city to bring wonderful farmer’s markets.

Ron Bennington: There has become more appreciation for the farmer.

Daniel Boulud: Of course, yes.

Ron Bennington: People now would like to drive out, take a look, and just see the farmers.

Daniel Boulud: Absolutely. And we have chefs that are doing amazing progress and trying to create the real farm-restaurant model. Like Dan Barber, for example, at Blue Hill, outside of New York where it’s a dream come true for a chef.

Ron Bennington: It is, I took a drive up there, one time, and just walked the grounds before I went into the restaurant and it changes your experience. You start to slow everything down.

Daniel Boulud: Completely.

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Daniel Boulud Talks About President Obama Coming To His Restaurant

Ron Bennington: Sometimes I’ve got to walk around your block, because the President is there. I live not to far from you. It’s got to feel amazing, even with your career, when you hear that the President of the United States is going to stop by.

Daniel Boulud: I know, I know, and what is funny, is that the President of the United States is so busy that he’s the last one to eat. The last time he was in the restaurant we served everyone, the President made a speech, he shook every hand and took pictures. Then, at the end, we took him into the dining room with nobody left there anymore, and sat him down with his friend and he had a little dinner by himself, with his friend. It was like the most intimate moment the President ever had at the restaurant. (laughs) I love that moment because I feel like he’s just like everybody because he works hard, and then when he could take a little break on the side, he just had a bite.

Ron Bennington: Yeah, he’s basically leaving with a bag like me. “Oh, thank you.”

Daniel Boulud: Often, I have done that, where I give the President a take out bag to eat in the car.

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Daniel Boulud Talks About His Restaurant “Daniel”

Ron Bennington: Your book, “Daniel: My French Cuisine”, first of all, it is such a beautiful book, it’s a stunning book, just to look at. This, again, is a book not to read quickly, but to savor, to go over.

Daniel Boulud: I think you go back at it. That was really about expressing the cuisine we do today at Daniel. Daniel the restaurant is celebrating it’s 20th year anniversary. Restaurant Daniel is a beautiful restaurant, it’s really to the image of the chefs I’ve worked for in the past like, Michel Guérard and Roger Vergé at the Moulin de Mougins, where they was real soul in the place, but there was also elegance and it was about making sure you took very good care of the customer. Offering them wonderful food and beautiful service.

Ron Bennington: Yeah, it’s wonderful, because the service is attentive, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming. It could be the first restaurant, of that kind, that you ever went into, and you don’t feel like you don’t belong. It’s very friendly and homey.

Daniel Boulud: Absolutely, and that was always Restaurant Daniel’s strengths. We are making everyone very comfortable with the experience. No one should ever feel intimidated by going to a great restaurant and feel out of place. We have some of the most humble and gentle and passionate people who come to the restaurant, for the love of food, for the love of pleasure, to be transported, in a way, with food and with wine and service.

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Daniel Boulud Talks About What’s In His Book, “Daniel: My French Cuisine”

Ron Bennington: You look through this book and this food is so beautiful, each texture and the taste is beautiful, at the same time this is what is remarkable about the experience, there is a sense of history with this food and I would think a reflection back to the food you grew up with.

Daniel Boulud: Very much, but even the food I never saw before. So the book is composed of three major sections, the first part, which is about 2/3 of the book is about Restaurant Daniel today, the food we do everyday. And it goes from all the starters and the beautiful different appetizers to some soup and even truffles, and fish, and meat, and dessert. And in between there is also an essays, essay on service, on cheese, on wine, on spice, on seasoning. Then toward the end of the book there are two parts left. One of them is on iconic recipes, those recipes either touched me during my career where I had a chance to maybe play with those recipes but they went back into the closet and forgotten, and I wanted to bring those recipes. But, also recipes from the past, from chef like Carême or Escoffier from the 1800 or the early 1900 who always haunted me and I wanted to practice those recipes. So, to do those recipes, I didn’t want to give recipes, I wanted to give a story behind it, so I invited Bill Buford, the writer, with Bill we cooked together those recipes and created those masterpieces for fun. For fun, and for him to be able to do that with me.

Ron Bennington: And to have that sense of history, because the history of our food is the history of human beings.

Daniel Boulud: Exactly, and to be able to continue to respect tradition and to carry on tradition, that was more for the fun of it. I call the book, “My French Cuisine”, because to me, French cuisine is not only what’s happening today, but what happened in the past with it and how inspiring it is to the future and how inspiring it is to me, constantly. Then the last part of the book is “Home” because I live right above the store, so I’m cooking also at home. I made four menus from four different regions of France. For me the French cuisine is also cuisine bourgeoise, the home cooking, and that is into Aix-en-Provence, and Normandy, and Lyon, and Burgundy, kind of the four regions I chose to make four menus around home cooking.

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Daniel Boulud Talks About The Food He Grew Up With

Ron Bennington: Who cooked for you when you were a child?

Daniel Boulud: My mother and my grandmother. Most of the time my grandmother

Ron Bennington: And your grandmother and mother were cooking and at that point you were just eating for fun, you weren’t that curious?

Daniel Boulud: I was curious, always, and we, you know the interesting thing about the farm is that you know how to use every ingredient you grow, every ingredient you raise, every ingredient you transform. For example, we were going to the farmers market every Saturday morning, and so on Thursday and Friday we would slaughter the chickens and pluck the ducks and all that. But, they would keep the chicken blood, they would put a little bit of vinegar in the bowl of chicken blood we had left over from killing all the chickens. We would make, on Friday night, an omelet with just the chicken blood and a little bit of milk inside and herbs and garlic. We would just make an omelet, like a black omelet, like a pudding, like a blood pudding omelet with the chicken blood. It was delicious, and nourishing, and it was healthy and it was weird. (laughing)

Ron Bennington: Is that still comfort food for you?

Daniel Boulud: To me, it was comfort food, it was expected on Friday to eat the chicken blood left overs. (laughing)

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Ron Bennington: People have now learned to appreciate this cooking and go out and look for it.

Daniel Boulud: Very much, and people today travel the world for food. Food is becoming a real passion for people. I remember when I was a young chef in Lyon, I would take my car and drive two hours just to eat frog legs, or just to have crawfish in one place, or just to have a chicken casserole there because that lady in that small little joint was making that. I think we find that, in America too, where you go to the south and there are destinations for certain foods. I think it’s beautiful what is happening today in America and to be part of it, is even more rewarding.

Ron Bennington: Well, you are truly a very big part of it. It’s as you said, it’s because you’re willing to take this knowledge and pass it on and I think that is the fantastic thing, Chef.

Daniel Boulud: And I hope there will be much more to come.

Ron Bennington: I will see you next time coming through.

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