Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten on Michelin stars, Florida frog legs, running 40 restaurants
Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is one of the world's most famous and decorated chefs. He's got James Beard Awards, Michelin stars, and his company operates 40 restaurants worldwide, employing about 5,000 people. He's also the author of one of the first cookbooks that our host Mike Beltran even purchased.
Mike sat with Jean-Georges at The Matador Room, Jean-Georges' restaurant at the Edition Hotel in Miami Beach, to talk about food, business, Miami, South Florida frog legs, and processing negative restaurant reviews.
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Transcript
Nicolás Antonio Jiménez: Welcome to a new episode of Pan Con Podcast. I am Nick Jimenez and I am joined at the moment by nobody because this episode was recorded under slightly different circumstances than normal. Where normally we will record these episodes at one of our host Michael Beltran's restaurants in coconut Grove, this time around we took a field trip. We had an opportunity to have Mike sit with, as a guest for the podcast, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten at the Matador room, which is one of Jean-Georges' restaurants. This one in particular is at the Edition Hotel in Miami beach. He was in town for the South Beach Wine and Food Festival doing some press. And so we blocked out some time and we didn't want to use that time for things like these introductions and our shameless plugging and all of that. But you, you do benefit from getting to hear that stuff.
(00:54) For those of you who are not aware, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, legendary chef, he is a winner of the James Beard Award. He has written numerous cookbooks. He has 40 restaurants all over the world that employ something in the neighborhood of like 5,000 people and, most relevant to this conversation and this podcast, as you will hear Mike mention, he did, through his writing, influence Mike in the early days of Mike's career. So this was a very cool experience for everybody involved and we are sure that you're going to enjoy this conversation. So without any further ado here, this is Mike Beltran's conversation at the Matador Room with chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Michael Beltran: Chef, welcome to Pan Con Podcast. It's all good. You're good.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten: Sorry. I just came from the beach.
MB: Yeah. So, a little bit different today. We're actually recording from the Matador Room in the Edition Hotel and our guest today is Jean-Georges. Can you please tell me exactly how to say your last name properly so I don't say wrong?
JGV: Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It means means "on a platter" when you translate from Alsatian to French or English, it means "on a platter." So I guess it was...
MB: (02:16) Yeah, it was meant to be. First and foremost, thank you so much for doing this. I mean, me, myself, I've been a fan of yours for a very long time.
JGV: Thank you very much.
MB: I started cooking when I was 19. Your book was actually the third one that I bought. My mentor Norman, I bought both of his books and I bought yours third. So it's pretty amazing to be sitting here talking to you. How are you?
JGV: I'm great.
Michael Beltran: Yeah.
JGV: In the end we're just a bunch of cooks, you know?
MB: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
JGV: No matter what we're doing.
MB: I mean, that's what really ... that's what levels the playing field, right?
JGV: Exactly.
MB: (03:01)We all love food. For me it's like the understanding of being able to serve someone my food and my expression and I mean, I'm sure for you it's the same.
JGV: Same thing. You know, I think food today is very personal to everybody, you know, to every chef. You know, we had to please, right?
MB: Absolutely. So you're in Miami for SOBEWFF, I'm assuming.
JGV: That's right. We've been doing this for the last five years now. It's great always to come here on to see our peers, see the chefs, bring some new dishes to Matador Room and to Market, and have some fun too.
MB: Yeah, for sure. I mean, SOBE is like in the best, I think, climate of the year. The weather's the best in Miami. You can go outside. It's not hot, it's beautiful.
JGV: And we escaped New York. It was not too cold, but you escape New York to come here, put your feet in the sand and see the local product and eat some stone crab and some local, you know, Cuban sandwiches. It's the best.