Gabriel Kreuther - Gabriel Kreuther: The Spirit of Alsace, a Cookbook

Aerial view of the center of Slestat. Notice the extraordinary green shingles on the roof of St. Georges Church, common in Alsace on important structures and houses of wealthy residents. The church dates to the early sixteenth century, replacing a chapel for Charlemagne, who visited it in 775 CE.
See for additional information on the photography of Alsace found throughout the book.

I cant tell you how wonderful it is to see my past, my homeland, so beautifully and thoroughly represented in this book, and also to see how Gabriel Kreuther has brought Alsatian cuisine into the contemporary dining room. Its time.

Of course, Id heard of Gabriel Kreuther shortly after he arrived in the 1990sa new cook from Alsace in New York. I knew hed be a great chef. Hes from Alsace!

At the time, good cooks were hard to come by. Id heard he worked at La Caravelle, the French fine-dining institution in Manhattan. Hed worked at Michelin-starred restaurants throughout Europe, so I expected him to be solid. After speaking with the owners of La Caravelle, I reached Gabriel in the kitchen during midday prep and said, Ive got a chef poissonier position available, but theres room to move up. Even though he was far more experienced than was required for that position, he took it.

Gabriel was very shy, like me. So I saw myself in him, as I was when I arrived in New York. He was a very good cook, I could see right away, with a great foundation. But more, he was a great teacher to all the chefs around him, and in a very short time he moved up to sous chef and eventually became my number-one guy at Restaurant Jean-Georges. And to me, he became almost like my brother.

He showed enormous patience with the younger chefs. He was also a great leader. He took the time to teach every chef de partie every dish. And he was also an innovator in my kitchen. At one point 25 percent of the dishes on my menu were his. He always cooked with great flavor and great balance, and his dishes were always founded on great fundamental technique. I would travel to Asia and pick up new flavors, and I knew the kitchen was in good hands with Gabriel in charge. He was exactly the kind of person I needed to surround myself with. Hes sensitive, and, most important, he was reliable. When he said hed do something, you knew it was going to get done. He was and is a great communicator and brought the team together, as he does at Restaurant Gabriel Kreuther.

I always knew someone was going to come in and take him away from me. When that happened, Gabriel was a gentleman. He would not accept the job without talking to me first. But I knew it was time for him. He really was like a younger brother, and the opportunity to open Atelier at the Ritz was one that wasnt likely to come around soon for him again. I could see in his heart he wanted to do it. So I told him, Go for it. I know youre going to do a great job. Youre going to make it. He was ready. Hed been ready.

And since then, opening the Modern brilliantly, winning best chef awards, and then opening his own restaurant, hes proven me right.

Hes a great, original chef and very humble. Bringing sauerkraut to New York City fine dining is amazing! The tarte flambe. Hes more traditional in his roots than I ammore in the vein of Andr Soltner, an Alsatian legend in the chef worldbut it was the right time to bring these Alsatian flavors to New York. Gabriel uses his own deep nostalgia for Alsace in his cuisine in New York, so people can really enjoy the flavors of that region. People think that French cuisine is only Escoffier, sole avec sauce vin blanc. But Alsatian cuisine is more rustic. Youve got the German influence, the Swiss influence. Its a fascinating region. Bringing those flavors to New York in a modern way is amazing to me. I want to try everything in this book!

Gabriel is a true Alsatian in New York. Its been amazing to watch him grow from a cook in the basement of La Caravelle, to poissonier at Jean-Georges, to today, when hes at the top of his game. Only in New York. How I love this city.

Im a lifelong Francophile and since my teens have been fascinated by various regions of France: The Loire Valley, famed for its wines and chateaux. The amazing, rugged region of southwestern France known as Gascony, revered for its cassoulet and foie gras and Armagnac. Having studied at the Culinary Institute of America to write about it, I developed a love of, even devotion to, classical French technique.

This set me up beautifully to work with Thomas Keller at the French Laundry, an American whom Michel Richard once called the best French chef in America. I would go on to work with Eric Ripert, at Le Bernardin, equally Michelin-starred and devoted to classical technique. And, most recently, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who gained world renown for blending classical French technique with Asian ingredients. More importantly, though, this French chef was from a region of France called Alsace, in the very easternmost part of the country, bordered by Germany and Switzerland, a part of France I knew almost nothing