Fottocini

Sweet and savory – black and white – dinner and dessert – at the chef’s table.

Check out my interview with Chef Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin in New York City. Fottocini questions in bold.

If you had to choose a song to illustrate your style of cooking what would it be, why?

That’s an interesting question, and I’ve always been fascinated by the notion of applying the practical theory of other disciplines to cooking. What analogies can we make, and then, can we really do anything useful with them? I don’t know the answers, but it sure is fun thinking about it!

That said, I like the idea of creating the culinary equivalent of say, a Sonic Youth song: experimental or unexpected elements plus slight dissonance that ultimately unifies into a pleasant harmony. I find it interesting that they can  hit a ‘wrong’ note or introduce something out of key, yet it makes perfect sense.

Carrot Powder

Are you afraid of doing anything in the kitchen?

Time, rather than fear or lack of confidence, is the one thing that holds us back. I actually embrace and thrive upon some degree of trial and error. It’s often only through mistakes that we truly learn anything.

What does the term “chef” mean to you?

I like to refer to a quote from a book written by my boss, A Return to Cooking:

A cook and a chef are different entities. “Chef” is a title. A chef can be good or bad or everything in between… “Chef” denotes a job. But when you are a cook, that is who you are. It’s your spine and your soul. It suffuses all that you touch.

I’ve learned a lot about cooking over the years-  technique, discipline, finesse-  a little of which I took from all of my former chefs and mentors, but more recently, and especially working with Eric Ripert, I’m learning that being a great chef is so much more than simply being a great cook.

Speed

If a student did an externship at your restaurant, what would you expect from him/her?

Luckily I have very little turnover in my pastry kitchen, but I do encourage and enjoy having short term stages and externs in to break up the monotony, so to speak. Because such stints are unpaid, I make sure that the experience is an educational one; in exchange for their time, hopefully the extern walks away with some amount of knowledge and inspiration. Qualities of a good extern are simply a desire to learn and an attention to detail, and a sense of urgency doesn’t hurt either!

At the end of the night, when everything is done, where/what is your escape?

Often, the best buffer between busy night at work and calmness of home life is simply the commute.  I live and work in Manhattan, so I choose from my travel options depending on my mood: the subway, a taxi, or a leisurely walk. I like taking a few moments to think on the next day’s to-do list while everything is still fresh in my head, and then I usually plug into my iPod. Again, what I listen to is mood based: angry hardcore punk or something a bit quieter or even an audiobook, as I don’t get a chance to read real books as much as I’d like. I cook dinner for my wife and me (also in the business) almost every night, which means I also shop on my home every night. By the time we’ve eaten, it might be 2am, and the day- whether good or bad- is long behind me.

Notes

Whats in your knife kit?

There’s a cliché that pastry chefs always have dull knives, and as much as I hate to admit it, to some extent it’s true! But in any kitchen, it’s the pastry chef who usually has the most varied and fun tools. If I had to name the three or four most indispensable items that are always at hand… A small offset spatula, surgical tweezers, a precision digital scale, and an all-purpose ten-inch slicer. And then there are my plastic bowl scraper, rubber spatula, my favorite whisk… I could go on all day!

How did you get hooked up with the Japan consulting? What influences did you bring back?

The consulting in Japan is an ongoing project that has included perhaps a dozen New York City pastry chefs over the last five years or so. The company that hired us operates about twenty pastry shops throughout Japan, located primarily in the depachika- or department store food halls (department store culture there is very different than that in the West; these basement food emporiums often offer the best and most expensive products available). Each year, a weeklong event is held, typically in Tokyo or Osaka, and a group of us will go and operate a sort of temporary shop. Then throughout the year, products we designed or inspired remain in the actual stores.

I worked for a Japanese chef for over five years, and my interest in Japanese culture and cuisine existed well before that- I studied Japanese language in high school. So really, creating items for the Japanese palate and aesthetic sensibility came fairly natural to me when I began working on such projects. As with any short term travel, it’s always difficult to quantify its influence, culinary or otherwise. While I certainly wouldn’t say that I gained a sudden and comprehensive understanding of Japanese cuisine, what I did take away was a better appreciation of their reverence of and pride in ingredients, along with a respect for their work ethic and attention to detail. I’ve often said that some of the most exciting ‘French’ pastry can be found not in Paris, but in Tokyo!

Reference

Imagine you could cook for anyone in history, who would it be? and what would you cook?

This is a common question, and one that’s always a difficult to answer. I guess I’d like to invite cooks from wildly different eras, if anything, just to make for some interesting dinner conversation! So perhaps it might be Carême, arguably the father of all contemporary pastry, Fernand Point, the imporatant link between the cuisine of Escoffier and the nouvelle cuisine that his pupils came to create, and finally, maybe Ferran Adria, who has been pivotal in advancing cooking in the 21^st century. I’m sure there would be a lot to talk about, no matter what was actually on the table!

Savory and Sweet, what about pastry pulled you into it?

Though I technically began my career in breads, I did bounce back and forth between sweet and savory for a few years before eventually settling down as a pastry chef. I’d like to think that such cross-training has been beneficial; despite the commonly held opinion that there lies a distinct line between the two, I feel that line has blurred significantly over the years. Pastry chefs have become far more spontaneous in their approach and savory chefs increasingly incorporate ‘our’ techniques in their cooking.

If you would have asked me this question a few years ago, I probably would cited the expanded artistic and creative boundaries afforded to pastry chefs. In short, we simply manipulate our ingredients far more than our savory counterparts. But over time I think I also realized there must have been some sort of subconscious urge to become a pastry chef: in a way I’m master of my own domain with a fair amount of autonomy. Certainly, I have a boss to answer to, and I exist within a greater kitchen team, but I appreciate the fact that I lie just outside the realm of the typical kitchen hierarchy. I think most pastry chefs exhibit that quality of independence and being a self-motivator.

Your comfort food.

Funny, during our first few years of living in New York, our go-to restaurant on our one night off was often WD-50. The avant garde cooking Chef Wylie Dufresne is known for isn’t exactly what most would consider comfort food, but for us it was in a way! Even if the food in front of us was edgy or ‘modern’,  the casual nature and sense of play were what made it a staple.

But as I mentioned, I cook at home quite a bit, though I confess I rarely do anything sweet. What I make at home is usually more spontaneous and far less refined than what I put out at work, and is thus comforting in its own way. And I find the actual act of cooking, say, chicken soup or simple salad, just as therapeutic as eating the results. It’s a totally different sort of cooking for me, and one that I happily undertake even after the busiest day in the restaurant.

Omar

Name 3 people that helped you get to where you are today.

I referenced my former chefs above; they are most responsible for the directions my career has taken. My very first boss, Rich Willerer, was there with a patience and encouragement that helped solidify my passion for food. From Rick Halberg, I learned that cooking conveyed a sense of soul. Rigid discipline and technique came from my many years as both a line cook and pastry chef under Takashi Yagihashi. And then alongside Eric Ripert, the focus on aspects outside of the kitchen is equal to the high level of execution we perform in the kitchen. I’ve been extremely lucky, that with all of these mentors, I’ve been given room to grow and contribute to each of the overall visions.

Do you have time to cook for your family? When you do, what is there favorite dish that you make?

Like I said, the cooking I do at home is an important part of our day. It’s often a bit of an adjustment to go from cooking for hundreds during the day, to preparing dinner for two. I’ve gotten better at scaling back, but I still shop with my eyes and my stomach, with little worry of what will come of all the inevitable leftovers. Dinner might be a BLT and a Caesar salad, or a simple pasta, roasted chicken, or a hanger steak and French fries. A couple nights a week I’ll get more ambitious and take on something like a paella, or pad thai. It’s true, that due to our schedules, dinner is quite late; in reality, we try to maintain a ‘normal’ schedule, even it is several hours off of what most people experience.

Banana and Lime

Your last vacation destination.

I travel a lot- at least once a month if not more- but it’s most often work-related. It’s been over a year and a half since our last true vacation, a week spent in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, basically just ‘hanging out’ wherever and whenever we wanted. We’ve talked about another real vacation this year, perhaps Spain. But even if my trips are for business, and whether it’s Thailand or Toledo, I love to travel.

Would you ever consider leaving the kitchen, and pursuing something else that interests you?

For many years my goals were to be exactly where I am now. I’ve been here over five years, and needless to say, new goals are more difficult and bear more weight than ever. But I think there are an increasing number of platforms open to chefs now that don’t necessarily involve standing in the kitchen for twelve hours a day. I still want a piece of that world, but I also look forward to exploring other facets of the business, like more (and more varied) consulting and writing. I can’t predict exactly when it will be finished, but I’m well into a book project. So far, the inability to say ‘no’ to work of any kind has served me well, so I look forward to whatever the next opportunity might be!

Silpat

And finally, What’s on your to do list tomorrow?

Well, we just finished our busy season, which makes up the better part of October through December. While we slow down slightly, our normal pace is still swift. In addition to lunch and dinner service everyday, I can return to a few new dishes I’m working on, in particular, one with chestnuts and another involving a panna cotta supported by grapefruit and green tea elements. I’m also planning a cooking demo coming up in a few weeks, as well as figuring the logistics for a 600 person dinner that will be part of the February’s festival in South Beach. And I’ve put the blogs on hold for a few weeks, so I need to post something there, too. That’s pretty much a normal day! I like to say that the day you come to work without a pit in your stomach is probably the day you should start looking for a new job!

Raspberries

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I will be shooting the 2010 South Beach Wine and Food Festival in February. Chef Michael will be preparing a dessert course for the Daniel Boulud Tribute Dinner, check it out soon.

For more info visit www.le-bernardin.com or http://michaellaiskonis.typepad.com/main/