For the past four years, Christopher Lee has been touted as a “rising star” by many of the restaurant industry’s informed tastemakers. The executive chef of Gilt at the New York Palace Hotel was named the “2005 Rising Star Chef of the Year” by the James Beard Foundation while still executive chef at Striped Bass in Philadelphia, and he earned a spot the next year on Food & Wine magazine’s “Best New Chefs” list. In the fall of 2006, Lee returned home to New York to take over the kitchen of Gilt. Since then, he’s been featured as a “Rising
Star Chef” by
Despite all the praise, Lee is hardly an overnight sensation. Since graduating from the California Culinary Academy in 1999, he’s worked in the kitchens of fine-dining mainstays Jean Georges, Daniel and Oceana. Since his rise to top toque at Gilt, he’s worked hard to educate his staff in the discipline of seasonal cooking as he changes his menus at least twice a season. While he also stresses the importance of knowing classic cooking, Lee encourages his staff to experiment with more avant-garde techniques, so long as a dish’s flavor remains the focal point.
He recently discussed Gilt’s late-spring menu and the lessons he hopes to pass on to the next generation of fine-dining chefs.
What are you most excited about on the late-spring menu?
We’re always excited about the new products that come in. What spring means to me is that it’s the birth of a new year. When spring hits, things just completely change. It’s greener, it’s earthy, it’s baby, it’s smaller. The flavors are subdued, and it’s a much bigger challenge to bring out those flavors.
When produce matures, the flavor matures. In spring it’s delicate, and you’ve got to treat it like that. We look forward to spring as the birth of a great year. If we have a great spring, then it really defines us for the rest of the year. This is the time to work.
BIOGRAPHY Title: executive chef, Gilt, N.Y. Birth date: Dec. 2, 1975 Hometown: Huntington, N.Y. Education: California Culinary Academy, San Francisco Career highlights: earning a Michelin star for Gilt; returning home to New York as an executive chef; earning several “rising star” awards
Where does your attention to the seasons come from?
When I worked in San Francisco, and being in the California markets and seeing the products change, I found that having the discipline to wait is a challenge. But then working with Daniel [Boulud], he was the same thing: season, season, season.
You’d wait all year. If it’s December, I’m like, “I want to use tomato, but I know I shouldn’t because tomato season doesn’t start until about June or July.” That’s seasonal. That’s the challenge. That integrity was definitely taught at a young age.
What else made an impression on you?
When you’re in a kitchen, and you’re looking for that career, it’s really different training from elsewhere. It’s very challenging. You’re so excited about what you do, and there’s so much stuff to learn. You want to show off.
It’s different now I think. Not all kitchens are run like they were. I think the industry’s turned for the best. The Food Network and all the attention given to these shows and the magazines have made our career great. But that’s just pure theory. As you move forward, you always lose something, and I think what we’re losing is more or less people coming in here and working for the right reasons. They’re coming in and they want to be the next Emeril Lagasse or Tom Colicchio, which is fine, but our challenge as chefs is to try to convert that idea and to ask, “Why are you here?”
My line cooks were talking the other day about all these modern techniques and I said: “That’s great. That’s fun. Know what you’re talking about.” …I remember asking someone [who was] talking about all this modern stuff, “You know how to make sauce Américaine?” And they’re like, “What’s that? ”What’s that? That’s your foundation. Patience is what we’re lacking, too.
But you don’t necessarily disparage newer techniques. How could they complement your seasonal cooking?
If you can’t find a balance, then you’re going too far. When you’re young and trying to create dishes, you come with about 20 ideas per dish, and you try to put all 20 ideas into one dish, and that’s what ruins your dish. These modern techniques in my opinion can’t interfere with flavor. They’ve got to drive or help support flavor. There are certain techniques that texturally are very weird and alter flavors.
Some of the new techniques are fun. The starches and the stabilizers are advancing us in making better products, but there are more subtleties. Like the faux caviars, you’re adding 50 percent of an alginate to that product. To really make it taste right, you’ve got to use a product that is so strong in flavor that it can overcome that 50 percent.
The one thing we forget a lot is that this is a business. If I did every obscure thing I wanted to do, that restaurant’s going to be empty. That means the owner isn’t making money and my supporting cast ain’t making money, and that’s all on me because I’m being ignorant, saying “I’m not going to adjust my cuisine to make the people happy.” We don’t do anything too out of the ordinary. We’ll have some safety dishes and some avant-garde dishes.
So is there one dish here that sums up what you’re all about as a chef?
I’d like to think our flavors are what define us. We always challenge ourselves to make sure our flavors are always 100 percent and are strong and robust.
CHEF’S TIPS Remember classics and stress to young chefs that the classics are the foundation for everything. When glazing vegetables, add butter toward the end of the cooking for a stable emulsion and to prevent it from breaking.
You’ve had some pretty notable mentors. Does that inform the way you handle your kitchen staff?
I’ve tried to take both my positive and negative experiences and form my own teaching style. I think I teach my guys too much. A lot of the things I teach them, no one ever taught me. We put a lot of effort into showing them the business side, the flavor side, the ordering side—everything.
A lot chefs lose focus of the fact that our responsibility isn’t just to run the business, build our names and have longevity. We’re also molding the youth. I never said I wanted to replace Daniel [Boulud] or Jean-Georges [Vongerichten], but I sure as hell want to keep what they started 20 years ago going for another 20 years. They’re going to need people that keep their spirit alive. Ten years from now I’d love to go to restaurants where people I worked with are successful. That’s life coming full circle.
So are you tired of being a “rising star” then?
An award’s an award. Maybe one day that’ll stop. It’s funny to hear. But hey, I still haven’t proved myself in New York yet.
You don’t think so?
I mean, I think so. But we have a lot more to go. I’m not content with where we are. I don’t want to rest on my laurels yet. I have a lot more to prove, at least I want to.
