FOOD: Bertrand Chemel 2941

By Kathleen Nixon

September 30, 2011

Falls Church Times Staff

 

Bertrand Chemel Executive Chef of 2941 will be the featured chef at tomorrow Falls Church Farmers Market Chef demonstration. Today he shares a little of his background and his love of preparing foods with fresh local and seasonal foods.

Tell our readers a little about your background? Why did you get into cooking? Who inspired you? What have been some of your challenges as your career has advanced? What is new on the horizon for you?

I was born in Montlucon about 80 miles north of Lyon. I grew up around farms. My parents always bought meat chicken, duck, pork, veal, and beef directly from farms. The only cans we used were my mom’s preserved vegetables, homemade pate, and jam. I had two grandmothers, one likes to cook only pastry and the other one only savory. At the age of 14 during summer break, I was looking for a summer job and my grandmother recommended me to her neighbor who was the baker in town. After two summers cleaning dishes and helping making pie and other small pastries, I decided to pursue culinary school.

After four years of culinary, I travelled to Megeve at the border of Switzerland and worked with this incredible chef, Michel Gaudin for about three years. He sent me to the South of France to work at the La Bastide Saint Anthoine a two-star Michelin restaurant. After two years Michel Gaudin asked me if I would like to travel and my first reaction was to go to New York City. He contacted Daniel Boulud and got me a job. I like to say that I have two mentors, one in France and one in New York. Daniel taught me a lot about how to run a restaurant, pleasing guests, working hard and respecting your employees.

Tell us a little about your restaurant, your staff and how you incorporate local producers into your restaurant purchasing?

2941 offers one of the most beautiful locations in DC and Northern Virginia. We serve innovative French American cuisine, using local and fresh ingredients. I always like to know where and how our animals were raised, who has the best berries around town, or who has the best lettuce at the market. Using produce and meats from farmers can be a challenge since restaurants use big quantities but that’s also the reason why I like to work with them.  They only giving you their best quality produce and it challenges us to be creative with our menu. At 2941, we change our tasting menu every week so we can feature the best produce and meats on any given week from seafood and meat to vegetables and fruits.

You work with many of the local producers? Who do you work with?

Tree and Leaf farm, Douglas Whipple from Whipple farms, Westmoreland farm for fruits and berries. In the summer, I like to go to the Falls Church Farmers Market and see what I can bring back to the restaurant.

As a customer, what changes have you seen in the local food landscape?

People want to know more about the produce they eating. If it’s organic, wild or farmed raised, they have more questions about where their food comes from.

When did you start using local ingredients in creating your menu and recipes?

Since I grew up around farmers, my grandfather was a farmer, I always ate farm fresh eggs, meat and poultry. My father had a year-round farm as well. When I worked at Café Boulud, I was always excited to go to the farmers market and buy vegetables, feta cheese and heirloom tomatoes, fresh herbs and everything else from local farms.

Here I use the Mclean Farmers Market and Falls Church one because I live close to them. And my bigger purveyors always carry fresh produce from Virginia farms.

What ingredients has been the most challenging to work with?

This year it was the tomatoes in the late summer. Because it was very hot, then dry and then we had so many storms, the quality of the tomatoes changed.

Do you think your customers understand and appreciate your incorporation of local food into your menus?

I believe that if I’m proud of the ingredients and produce we’re using to create our menus, our guests will taste the difference. For example, in the summer until late fall, my cooks and I have our own herb garden at the restaurant to create cocktails or essences for our menu.

What local ingredients are not yet available to the local economy that you would like to incorporate into your menu?

Wild mushrooms, ramps and beef

How long have you been part of the Farmers Market Chef series?

This is my second year.

What do you like best about the Farmers Market Chef series? Any challenges or surprises?

I like to meet the shoppers and introduce 2941 restaurant to them. I like showing them new and creative recipes that they can do at home. It’s good to see the parents who come with their kids.  Everything starts when you are young and I believe introducing our kids to the farmers market is a big step to healthy lifestyle for them.

What will you be preparing for your demonstration?

We will be preparing two dishes that feature seasonal items. The first is butternut squash ravioli, sage brown butter, with smoked Savoy cabbage, and the second will be beet salad, slowly baked Gala apple glazed in apple cider, blue cheese marshmallow with walnut vinaigrette.