db Bistro Moderne

Pressroom

August 01, 2009

Daniel Boulud - Biographical Notes

Daniel Boulud – Chef / Restaurateur

 

August, 2009 – Vancouver. As Chef-Owner of some of the country's finest restaurants, author of numerous cookbooks and creator of gourmet products, Daniel Boulud's beginnings on his family’s farm near Lyon may seem a distant past. Yet that past, rooted in the rhythms of the seasons, produce fresh from the fields and fine home cooking have paved the road to Boulud's becoming one of America's leading culinary authorities.

 

After his nomination as best cooking apprentice in France, Daniel went on to train under the renowned Chefs who would become his mentors: Roger Vergé, Georges Blanc and Michel Guérard. Now Boulud himself serves as a mentor to the talented young cooks he has been working with here in the United States for almost twenty-five years.

 

Before making his way to the U.S., Daniel spent two years as Sous Chef in the Les Etoiles restaurant of Copenhagen’s Plaza Hotel. Eager to come to America, Boulud landed in Washington, DC as the private chef to The European Commission. Soon after, he moved to New York City, which he has called home ever since. During his first years in New York, Daniel opened the Polo Lounge at The Westbury Hotel and later Le Régence at the Hotel Plaza Athenée. From 1986 to 1992, Daniel was Executive Chef at Le Cirque. During his tenure there, the restaurant was regularly voted one of the most highly rated in the country. In 1992, Daniel earned the James Beard award for "Best Chef of New York City."

 

1993 was an important turning point for Boulud, the year in which he set out on his own to open his much-heralded restaurant DANIEL. Not long after opening, DANIEL was rated "one of the ten best restaurants in the world” by the International Herald Tribune and would soon become a member of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux organization. Daniel himself was declared "Outstanding Chef of the Year" in 1994 by the James Beard Foundation, with the latter having already named him "Best Chef: New York City" in 1992. After five successful years, the chef-restaurateur relocated DANIEL to its grand Park Avenue home. Since the restaurant's 1998 re-location, Daniel Boulud has also been named "Chef of the Year" by Bon Appétit Magazine, and the restaurant has received Gourmet Magazine’s “Top Table” award, a coveted four star rating form The New York Times as well as Wine Spectator’s "Grand Award" and New York City’s top ratings for cuisine, service and decor in the Zagat Survey.

 

In 1998 Daniel Boulud opened Café Boulud, the contemporary Café Boulud is an elegant French-American restaurant with an international accent and a three-star rating from The New York Times. It has established itself as a destination for Manhattan’s café society, a spot with the cosmopolitan chic of a Parisian rendez-vous. The chef created his first restaurant outside of New York City when he launched another Café Boulud in 2003 at the legendary Brazilian Court Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. DB Bistro Moderne, which Daniel opened in 2001, serves his interpretation of updated bistro cooking rooted in French tradition. It is a relaxed and fast-paced Manhattan restaurant located in the City Club Hotel on West 44th Street, just steps from Times Square and the theater district.

 

Boulud created Daniel Boulud Brasserie. In 2005 "The restaurant is reminiscent of beautiful places you've seen, but is like no place you've ever been," explains Chef Daniel Boulud of his restaurant at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort. A splendid waterfront setting sets the tone, at once Alpine lakeside auberge and Mediterranean seaside resort. The menu abounds with the kind of straightforward cooking that Boulud calls "French comfort food" adapted to this modern rendition of a bustling French brasserie on the Las Vegas Strip.

 

Bar Boulud, Daniel’s causal bistro and wine bar opened most recently in January 2008 directly across from Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. In addition to a full bistro menu, it features the fine terrines and pâtés of famed Parisian charcutier, Gilles Verot. Much further a field in Beijing, is the newly opened Maison Boulud, a French fine dining restaurant in the historic “Legation Quarter” adjacent to Tiananmen Square. The restaurant, in the stately former US embassy residence dating back to 1903, serves French cuisine prepared with local and Pacific Rim ingredients.

 

Daniel Boulud and The Dinex Group have also recently formed a partnership in Vancouver, with David and Manjy Sidoo, which saw Dinex take on the management of the renowned Relais & Châteaux restaurant, Lumière. Adjacent to Lumière, they created are managing a new DB Bistro Moderne as a sister restaurant to the one on New York’s West 44th Street.

 

Daniel's other endeavors include Feast & Fêtes Catering and his "Daniel Boulud CONNOISSEUR" line of Caspian caviar and smoked Scottish salmon offered via direct mail on www.danielnyc.com.

 

The third season of the "After Hours with DANIEL" series launched in Spring 2008. Following the hit first season made in eight different New York City restaurants and a second season set in the Los Angeles culinary scene the newest season unfolds the restaurants of Miami and New Orleans. As the consummate chef, Daniel Boulud gives viewers a behind closed doors look at the late night dinners, by chefs and for chefs, that are a highlight of a city’s culinary life and introduces the colorful characters who make up this demimonde. The high definition series reveals where chefs go to unwind after a night behind the stove and uncovers the far out foods they crave and cook for each other.

 

While Daniel has received countless professional accolades, he is most proud of having been named "Outstanding Restaurateur" by the James Beard Foundation and Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur by the French government, both in 2006. The creativity, energy and personal attention apparent in Boulud’s restaurants and gourmet products are surpassed only by his generosity and sense of community. The Chef has served on the board of Citymeals-on-Wheels since 1999, tirelessly hosting galas and raising funds and awareness to support their efforts to prepare and deliver nutritious meals to homebound elderly New Yorkers. His efforts were recognized April 2007 when he received the "Culinary Humanitarian award" presented to him at the United Nations.

 

 

DANIEL BOULUD – CHEF / RESTAURATEUR

 

1969-72	Apprentice “Nandron” in Lyon, France. Gerard Nandron, Executive Chef. (2 stars, Michelin Guide)
1972	Finalist Best Culinary Apprentice in France.
1973-74	First Cook “La Mère Blanc”, Vonnas, France. Georges Blanc, Executive Chef. (3 stars, Michelin Guide)
1974-76	First Cook then Chef de Partie “Le Moulin de Mougins”, Mougins, France. Roger Vergé, Executive Chef. (3 stars, Michelin Guide)
1976-78	Sous-Chef “The Plaza Hotel”, Copenhagen, Denmark. Roger Vergé, Consulting Chef. (4-star hotel)
1977	Chef de Partie “Les Prés d’Eugénie”, Eugénie-les-Bains, France. Michel Guérard, Executive Chef. (3 stars, Michelin Guide)
1979	Sous-Chef “The Plaza Hotel”, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1980	Chef “Les Etoiles”, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Voted number one restaurant in Denmark 1980)
End 1980	Private Chef for Mr. Adil Khassogi, Mougins, France.
1981-82	Private Chef for Ambassador Roland de Kergorlay European Commission, Washington, D.C.
1982-84	Chef-Adjoint Westbury Hotel, New York City. (4 star Trusthouse Forte hotel)
1984-86	Executive Chef “Le Regence”, Plaza-Athenée Hotel, New York City
1986-1992	Executive Chef “Le Cirque”, New York City.
1993+	Opened “Daniel”, New York City, relocated January 1999.
1994+	Opened “Feast & Fêtes”, the exclusive catering division of Restaurant Daniel.
1997-2000	Opened “Payard Patisserie & Bistro”, New York City with François Payard, Daniel Boulud sold his interest in Payard in September 2000.
1998+	Opened “Café Boulud”, New York City.
2001+	Opened “DB Bistro Moderne”, New York City
2003+	Opened  “Café Boulud”, Palm Beach, FL
2005	Opened “Daniel Boulud Brasserie” at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort
2006	Launched the “After Hours with Daniel” TV series, now in its third season
January 2008	Opened “Bar Boulud”  New York City
May 2008	Opened “Maison Boulud”  Legation Quarter, Beijing, China
September 2008	Launch of Daniel Boulud spice blends
December 2008	Opened “Lumière” and “DB Bistro Moderne” Vancouver, BC
June 2009	Opened ‘DBGB” on the Bowery, New York City

 

 

DANIEL BOULUD - AUTHOR

 

Braise – A Journey through International Cuisine

Photos by Thomas Schauer, Harper Collins November 2006

 

Daniel’s Dish – Entertaining at Home with a Four-Star Chef

Photos by Peter Medilek, Filipacchi Publishing, October 2003

 

Letters to a Young Chef

with Peter Kaminsky, Basic Books, September 2003

 

Chef Daniel Boulud Cooking in New York City

with Peter Kaminsky, Assouline, November 2002

 

Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud Cookbook

co-authored by Dorie Greenspan, Scribner, November 1999

 

Cooking with Daniel Boulud

Random House, October 1993

 

Elle Décor magazine bi-monthly column: ”Daniel’s Dish”

Easy Cooking with Great Chefs Celebrated monthly newsletter (1988-89)

 

 

DANIEL BOULUD – TELEVISION & RADIO PERSONALITY

 

After Hours with Daniel CBS Sunday Morning CNBC Power Lunch CNN News night with Aaron Brown Cooking with Burt Wolf (CNN) Cuisine Rapide with Pierre Franey (PBS) David Letterman (CBS) Eat Out NY (NYCTV) Emeril Live (TVFN) Fox Magazine and Fox 5 Live (FOX)

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (WB) Live with Regis and Kathie Lee (ABC) Martha Stewart (CBS) NYC & Co. Radio with Leonard Lopate The Charlie Rose Show (WNET) The Main Ingredient (Lifetime) The Today Show (NBC) The TV Food Network Squawk Box (MSNBC)

 

 

DANIEL BOULUD – CHARITY DONOR & ORGANIZER

For many national and international organizations including

 

Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation American Cancer Society American Heart Association

Jewish National Fund Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lycée Français de New York