Frog and the Peach
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The Frog and the Peach is a restaurant in New Brunswick, New Jersey that was AOL's City Guide's "Best All-Around Restaurant in North Jersey" in 2005-2006 and won "America's Top Tables Award" from Gourmet (magazine). [1] The restaurant was rated the fourth most popular restaurant in New Jersey by Zagat. [2] [3] The Star-Ledger awarded four stars to the restaurant in January of 2007. [1]
[edit] Executive chef
The name of the restaurant comes from a comedy sketch by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Bruce Lefebvre is the executive chef. [4] [5] [6] He was born in Edison, New Jersey and was raised in Sea Girt, New Jersey. At age 15 he worked as dishwasher at The Yankee Clipper. He graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in English and then applied to the Culinary Institute of America. He worked with The Buckhead Life Group in Atlanta for his externship, a family-owned fine dining organization whose portfolio of restaurants include: The Buckhead Diner, Pano’s and Paul’s, and the Atlanta Fish Market. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in 1995, he took a position at The Frog and the Peach. In 1997 he left to work at Aureole with and worked as a stagiere at Daniel and at Lespinasse. He became the sous-chef for Dan’s on Main Street in Metuchen, New Jersey and then he returned to the Frog and the Peach as sous-chef in 2000. [7] He was promoted to the executive chef position in the summer of 2001. [8]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Frog and the Peach. Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
- ^ The Frog and the Peach. OpenTable. Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
- ^ The Frog and the Peach. Dining Out Online. Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
- ^ "Just Purse Your Lips And Whisper 'Truffle'", New York Times, February 11, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. "Bruce Lefebvre, who is the chef at the Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick, New Jersey ..."
- ^ "Frog and the Peach", Gayot. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. "Executive chef Bruce Lefebvre now oversees the kitchen at The Frog & The Peach, where everything from the bread to the ice cream is prepared fresh. Lefebvre’s philosophy is simple and in keeping with the owner Betsey Alger’s original concept combining proven flavor combinations in creative ways. His inspiration is a global palette of flavors for seasonal menus. Appetizers such as black truffle ricotta gnocchi with toy box tomatoes and toasted pine nuts in spring onion brown butter and entrées such as Moroccan spiced lamb sirloin with English pea and green garlic flan, pea shoots with pine nut yogurt sauce are examples of his handiwork. From the dessert list, the molten Valrhona chocolate cake with house-made vanilla ice cream should not be missed."
- ^ "Bruce Lefebvre", Condé Nast. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. "A native son of New Jersey, chef Bruce Lefebvre is acknowledged as one of the top culinary talents in the state. His restaurant career began at age 15 as a dishwasher at the Yankee Clipper, an oceanfront restaurant along the Jersey shore. Fascinated by the tools, ingredients and chef creativity he saw there, he returned to his cooking roots after pursuing a traditional college degree. Lefebvre holds a degree from the Culinary Institute of America, and has worked in the kitchens of top restaurants from Atlanta to New York. He returned to The Frog and the Peach in 2000 and took over as executive chef in 2001, using "culinary common sense" to develop his modern American cuisine."
- ^ "The F&P Rating", New York Times, June 30, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-02-14. "June marks Mr. Lefebvre's first anniversary as head chef at the 18-year-old New Brunswick institution where he is upholding a reputation for very good and very expensive food. It is his second stint at the Frog and the Peach; for two years after his 1995 graduation from the Culinary Institute of America he worked there under Stanley Novak, now chef and owner of Harvest Moon Inn restaurant in Ringoes, New Jersey, then at Aureole and Daniel restaurants in Manhattan before returning to New Jersey."
- ^ Bruce Lefebvre. James Beard Foundation. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. “After Bruce Lefebvre took over as the executive chef of the Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 2001, the Star-Ledger’s Cody Kendall awarded the place four stars, citing it as the perfect place for “an evening of delightful surprises,” while Karla Cook of the New York Times praised the chef’s “creative and vibrant new American menu.” During his tenure, Lefebvre has maintained the restaurant’s long-standing stellar reputation while still managing to introduce innovative dishes of his own making. This summer marks the restaurant’s second annual Peach Festival, or “Frog à la Pêche,” as it is dubbed, both a winking tribute to the eatery’s name and a celebration of the famed local crop, which Lefebvre sources from Melick’s Town Farm in Oldwick, New Jersey, run by tenth-generation farmers Peter and John Melick. Inspired by the brothers’ wide range of peach varietals—including Garnet Beauty, White Lady, and Red Haven—Lefebvre creates dishes and potables that highlight the wonderfully enticing aromas and flavors of this succulent stone fruit. A New Jersey native, Lefebvre is extremely familiar with his home state’s fine produce. He grew up in Sea Girt along the Jersey Shore, and at the age of 15 started working as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. After graduating from Wake Forest University and traveling around the country, Lefebvre realized that he had a passion for food and enrolled in the CIA, apprenticing at the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group in Atlanta as part of the school’s externship program. Upon completion of his studies, he returned to New Jersey, landing at the Frog and the Peach under chefs Stanley Novak and Eric Hambrecht. Lefebvre’s next assignments took him through the famed kitchens of Manhattan’s Aureole, Daniel, and Lespinasse, before a stint as sous-chef at Dan’s on Main in Metuchen, New Jersey. In 2000 Lefebvre returned to the Frog and the Peach as executive chef.”
[edit] External links
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