Interview with Rising Star Chef Bertrand Chemel of 2941 – Falls Church, VA

Francoise Villeneuve: What inspired you to pursue cooking professionally?


Bertrand Chemel: When I was 14 I was looking for a summer job and my grandmother lived next to a French pastry bakery. So I started working for the baker, cleaning parts, sweeping up flour, doing little stuff. I did that for two months and the following summer went back again. He started giving me more duties, pastries, bread, and I really fell in love with it. When I went back to school, I had to decide if I wanted to go to college or do cooking. I told my parents I wanted to quit school. I did my apprenticeship at a very countryside restaurant in a town called Urçay in Central France. Then I moved back to my hometown of Montluçon, in central France, and I did two more years at Ducs des Bourbons. After military service I found [Chef] Michel Gaudin in Megéve.

FV: Did you do any stages as a young chef in France?

BC: Michel Gaudin was a two-star Michelin chef who’d opened his own little restaurant in Megève, on the border of France and Switzerland. I worked for him for about three years. A particularity of working with him was that it was a seasonal job in the mountains; I worked from October to April with no days off, but from May to October we had four days off a week. During those four days off he made me stage at any two- or three-star Michelin restaurant in the area. Georges Blanc’s Hotel du Rhone in Geneva gave me all the inspiration of a true three-star Michelin restaurant. It [taught] me if you do a lot of stages with the best restaurants you can learn very quickly what they're doing without the inconvenience of working there for four years peeling potatoes.
FV: What brought you to the US? How did you get established here?

BC: I worked for Jacques Chibois for two years in Grasse, and it was really the unexpected, a connection to outside of France. At Jacques we had people from Canada, from Brazil, from New York. I met a French guy that had just [come] back from Daniel. Michel Gaudin used to send people to Joël Robuchon in Tokyo, and he called Daniel Boulud for me. I couldn’t have been a younger chef at 24 years old. [I had to] learn English. I started at Daniel working as garde manger and finished as the executive chef at Café Boulud.

I worked with Andrew Carmellini for three years at Café Boulud. When he left in 2005 I took over until the end of 2007; I got three stars from [New York Times restaurant critic] Frank Bruni. I already had enough years with Daniel; at that point you need to decide if you want to stay with him or leave. After that I came here.
FV: What is your philosophy on food and dining?

BC: It's to experiment [with] flavors and be seasonal. I think our inspiration is to have kind of like a mix of classic and creation, but we're not el Bulli. We want to keep our authenticity of French American cuisine.
FV: What goes into creating a dish?

BC: We go back to seasonal; we have a [big] connection to our purveyors. We keep contact with them to see the best of what they have every week. We don't do signature dishes because it's just a dish that for me becomes a boring dish; for the cooks and the customer there needs to be a new experience. You come to a restaurant to have something different. When you leave the big cities it's a different mentality. The restaurant was very well-received here in Virginia; people were actually very demanding of change and seeing something different.
FV: How are you involved in your local culinary community?

BC: I like to get involved in the new generation and keep them inspired by cooking. I'm working a lot with The CIA, with local schools in Maryland, and Johnson & Wales. I also think it's very important we do a couple of charity events to support our local farms. There is Bastille Day for the French embassy this Saturday. And at Thanksgiving we provide food for disadvantaged families.
FV: What advice do you have for an aspiring chef?

BC: I would say that the only feel[ing] that I have is young cooks want to learn too much new technique before they know how to learn basic cooking. I think the main challenge now is to take a kid from school and inspire [him/her] to be a chef. [Being a chef] doesn’t mean getting a job after school and you are a chef after a year or two. I think the mentality to be a chef has changed a little bit, and it is a challenge. We are always pushing young kids from school to have a passion; we are open to give stages and training.
FV: What chef would you like to cook for you and why?

BC: Pierre Gagnaire or Michel Bras. I think of three memorable dinners in my career. [The first was] Pierre Gagnaire in Saint Etienne in 1990. The second was Thomas Keller; it was for me very interesting to find an American chef with a French culinary background. The first time I came to New York and discovered the food of Thomas Keller was amazing. I would say the most exciting culinary experience was el Bulli. It was more an experience; something way different—definitely more than a dinner.
FV: What’s the toughest thing you’ve had to do in your career?

BC: Here it is to try and become a four-star for the size of the restaurant we have. We always push ourselves to change the menu and find something interesting to do. I try every year to do something different.
FV: What has been your proudest accomplishment in your career?

BC: I'm proud to be where I am right now and also very grateful for the mentors that I had, Michel Gaudin in France and Daniel Boulud in New York. Without them I wouldn't have succeeded. I learned how to manage a French American style restaurant with Daniel Boulud. I was very proud to be recognized in New York City, getting three stars and I am very happy to be welcome in the DC area.
FV: If you weren’t a chef, what do you think you’d be doing?

BC: That's very good question, I never thought about it…I think if I wouldn't be a chef I would be somewhere in the food industry. I don't have any other alternative like a painter. I don't think I ever imagined doing something else.
FV: Where will we find you in five years?

BC: I would love to bring 2941 to reach four stars. It’s a big dining room: 135 seats, a 150-seat banquet, two turns on Saturday, 1200 to 1400 [patrons] during the week…so it’s a big challenge.