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What’s Cooking
Area chefs bring worlds of experience - literally - to their work
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Business New Haven
10/30/2000
By: Lucy D. Twarkins
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The American family is hungry. Not going hungry. Just plain hungry. Hungry for establishments were they can enjoy their “home replacement meal” and experience that precious family time. In fact, the National Restaurant Association estimates the average American family spends almost $2,000 per year on meals outside the home.
Considering that household income is one of the most influential characteristics when it comes to restaurant spending, the average Connecticut family must be starving - starving for new and exciting menus, that is.
Connecticut diners are reaping the benefits of being next door to the cultural sauté pan of New York City. As diners we are sophisticated, adventurous and even daring. Our finely honed sense of taste is intrigued by the latest delicacy.
But just because Connecticut is overflowing with enthusiastic eaters doesn't necessarily guarantee a restaurant will be successful. Of the more than 6,500 restaurants in Connecticut, recent statistics show that 70 percent close down or change hands within the first five years. Patrick Boisjot, director of the Institute of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts at the University of New Haven, former owner of the highly respected Le Petite Café (and nephew-in-law to world-class French master chef Jacques Pepin) agrees that there are many inherent problems in operating a successful restaurant business in Connecticut.
“Boston and New York drain the area of most of its qualified help,” Boisjot observes. “This problem is compounded with the fact that Connecticut is a residential community that hesitates to go out when the weather is inclement.”
In addition to his work at the Institute, Boisjot comes to the aid of floundering restaurants with his Pyramid Consulting Co. He is currently developing a set of benchmarks to determine a restaurants' ability to succeed - that is, to attract repeat business.
“Essentially, when a customer sits down for dinner at your establishment, they own their table,” Boisjot says. “They are consuming a product that they can't test-drive like you would a car. Once it's eaten, bad or good, it must be paid for. To keep that customer coming back, the owner must establish an immediate trust with their customer that the sumptuous meal they came for will be delivered.”
That means serving a quality product in a timely fashion with extreme detail to cleanliness. All this must be available to the customer every time she or he walks in the door. According to Boisjot, “Consistency in quality, timeliness and cleanliness is the key to repeat business.”
Boisjot names several chef/owners in the New Haven area that he feels have the ability to establish that immediate trust with their customers: Jean Pierre Vuillermet, chef at the Union League Café, Arturo Franco Camacho, chef of the new-and-hot Roomba, both restaurants located in the heart of downtown New Haven on Chapel Street, as well as chef Bill DeLegge of Il Pranzo in Branford.
“I think what makes them different is the fact that they have a faithful following in the area, their food is so different from one another and their restaurants have a track record of success,” observes Boisjot.
Jean Pierre Vuillermet grew up in a family of hoteliers. For four generations his family owned and operated the Hotel Clairfontaine, a restaurant at the foot of the French Alps. With his father and grandmother as inspiration, he ventured out to learn his trade by apprenticing in France and Geneva and a two-star restaurant outside of France's gastronomical capital, Lyon.
After a brief stint in the military, Vuillermet returned to his passion as sous-chef in a Parisian two-star restaurant Le Pre Catalan. This position allowed him to spend his summers in St. Tropez' Hotel Byblos, where he perfected his style of cooking. His next move was an opening at LeNotre Bakery Catering in Houston, Tex. From Texas he went off on his own and accepted the position of chef at a new New Haven eatery called Robert Henry's. When the owner of Robert Henry's, Jo MacKenzie, decided to sell the restaurant and retire, Vuillermet felt it was time to make a change and create a restaurant that would truly reflect his background and cooking personality.
“Robert Henry's had a formal, expensive club atmosphere,” Vuillermet recalls. “I wanted it to be more open - to attract a wider audience - no dress code. I bought the restaurant from my mother-in-law - but not in that order. “I got the restaurant first, then I got a mother-in-law.”
Vuillermet's Union League Café has earned high accolades from the Zagat guide, Connecticut Magazine (overall excellence statewide for seven years), the New York Times and Hartford Courant.
Perhaps his presence in New Haven can be summed up best by the headline on a feature article on the restaurant in a1999 issue of Connecticut Magazine: “Lucky Us.”
Chef Arturo Franco-Camacho traces his chefs roots to his mother's restaurant in Mexico. This is where he was first exposed to what would become his passion for the history and philosophy of food.
Franco-Comacho learned to cook with the products and spices that were available in each region as he traveled through Latin America to learn his trade. Deciding to place studying for a career as a dentist on the backburner, he attended the Culinary Institute of America. From there, Camacho honed his skills in restaurants in France, Spain and London and finally ended up as chef for five years on the Queen Elizabeth 2.
After five trips around the world, it was time to open a restaurant of his own. With the help of his wife, Suzette, Franco-Comacho opened Roomba a year ago and hasn't looked back since.
He calls his cuisine “nueve latino” offering “a little bit of each country” in it's ingredients. Camacho named his restaurant after the rhumba, an upbeat, exciting party dance. This is how he wants others to remember their dining experience there - as an exciting, delicious party.
Bill DiLegge is not only chef and owner of two popular eating spots, Il Pranzo and Pasta Cosi. He has his jarred sauces on supermarket shelves. He also finds time to guest lecture at the Institute of Gastronomy & Culinary Arts. As one restaurant reviewer proclaimed recently, “It's quite conceivable that Bill DiLegge is plotting to take over the world!”
Judging from the accolades he has received for serving up delicious homemade pastas and desserts - that wouldn't be a bad thing.
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