Chit Chat with one of the best French Chef in New York city

Café Crème: After 12 years as the Executive Chef at Payard Bistro, how would you define the restaurant’s identity today?

Philippe Bertineau: You know when I first started ay Payard Bistro, I already had spent 4 and a half years at Daniel. Those years with Daniel Boulud were very rich and at that time I was 30 years old. I thought I was ready to express myself. The type of cuisine I had in mind was traditional, the one people can find in French bistros: simple but somehow sophisticated, far away from all the American stereotypes. This is what I still do at Payard Bistro today.
Take a look at the menu and you will find French basics like cassoulet, bouillabaisse and steak frites.

Over the years, I made some changes of course and I can tell that our clientèle for lunch now is mostly composed of women.  They order a main course and unlike men the burger is not really their cup of tea, that’s the reason why I introduce sandwiches and salads on the menu whereas pizzas and burgers were more fashionable in those earlier days.
Right now I’m thinking about surf and turf dishes. Mixing crab cakes and BBQ, chicken reduction in lobster bisque, nothing more precise but I’m working on it…

CC: How do you find news ideas?

PB: The Union Square Greenmarket is my garden from mid April to Thanksgiving. Fresh fruits and vegetables play obviously an important role in my kitchen.
I also love discovering good American products like lamb from Pennsylvania or veal from Vermont.  Mostly I use ingredients that I really like. For example, the Chilean carica is a very special fruit from northern Chile that a purveyor introduced to me a few years ago. The texture is very soft and firm, the taste is close to pineapple, and its yellow color is just amazing. It was fun to work with it and I teach customers how to appreciate it.

I really enjoy mixing different cultures into my cuisine. Japanese culture is one of them for the techniques and the flavors. I guess staying open-minded is a key to constant improvement. I like to say, “No Soul, No Food”, and I truly believe that taste has a Memory. Ingredients help me interpret what I feel inside.

CC: Restaurants are strongly affected by the economic crisis, so how do you manage during such a difficult time?

PB: First we decided to extend the winter restaurant week and then expensive products have been simply taken off the menu. I try to offer comfort foods and introduce beef tartare and crispy pig’s feet. I also choose hanger steak instead of sirloin. When times are tough you have to be more creative and that’s a good thing because you rediscover some simple products. These are a little bit more reasonable; I would say less noble, but still rich. Milk-fed lamb and veal are preferred to rack of lamb and truffles.  That said, customers’ habits don’t change really much and we still offer a $31 prix fixe menu.

CC: A few weeks ago Daniel Boulud and two others chefs had a roundtable discussion about recession and home cooking. “People don’t understand that trying to cook at home unless you know what you’re doing is going to cost you more money or you’re going to eat very lousy.” What do you think about his statement?

PB: I can see what is saying. Home cooking is first about pleasure. Pleasure to cook and pleasure to eat. Today there is a « bastardization » of food. I mean, take a look to what Italian and Chinese cuisine has become. I’m fed up with dishes like Shrimp Scampi. To be honest this doesn’t make any sense. Home cooking, especially here in New York,  means take-out. If you believe that you are cooking when you buy frozen pasta and put some vodka sauce on it, then you are wrong. There are many different regional cooking styles in Chinese cuisine and it’s not all about noodles. Home cooking needs time and even for a salad if you want to do it well, it will take you some time, good ingredients and this costs money too.

CC: What do you cook when you are home? Is it difficult to share the kitchen with another chef?
(Philippe Bertineau’s wife is the executive chef at San Domenico)

PB: To be honest we take turns cooking. One time Italian, next time French.
We really like soup, antipasti with charcuterie. Salads, lentils and polenta are also among our favorites.
Sometimes I have costumers who bring me food at the restaurant and we try that at home. The other day, I had some polish eels from Queens. They were actually very good. Customers are full of surprises!

CC: What is your guilty pleasure after work?

PB: Among sweets I love pastries that we have here at Payard, and I really enjoy an apple chausson during the cab ride back home at the end of the day. It reminds me of childhood memories.

Payard Bistro
1032 Lexington Avenue
(between 73rd and 74th Streets)
New York, N.Y. 10021
tel: (212) 717-5252