David Bouley

David Bouley (born near Storrs, Connecticut) is an American chef and restaurateur with restaurants in TriBeCa, New York City. He is best known for his flagship restaurant, Bouley.

Early in his career, he worked in restaurants in Cape Cod, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and, eventually, France and Switzerland. While in Europe, after studies at the Sorbonne, David had the opportunity to work with chefs Roger Vergé, Paul Bocuse, Joel Robuchon, Gaston Lenôtre, and Frédy Girardet.^[1] Having gained that experience, David returned to work in New York City in leading restaurants of the time, such as Le Cirque, Le Périgord, and La Côte Basque, as well as spending time as sous chef in a restaurant opened by Roger Vergé in San Francisco. From there, David became chef of Montrachet restaurant when it opened in TriBeCa in 1985. The restaurant quickly drew attention and earned a three-star review in The New York Times. In 1987 David opened his own restaurant, Bouley, in TriBeCa overlooking Duane Park.

In 1991, Zagat's asked its 7,000 diners, "Where you would you eat the last meal of your life?" Respondents "overwhelmingly" chose Bouley.^[2]

In the days after the September 11 attacks, Bouley organized an operation to feed rescue and relief workers at Ground Zero. This effort was met with controversy, unsubstantiated allegations, after it was reported that Bouley may have been relying on volunteer food servers and donated food while being paid by the American Red Cross.^[3] Through discovery, it was learned the insurance company involved instigated and filed a frivolous lawsuit, a transparent complaint to disavow their obligations. A settlement was granted in Bouley's favor.^[4]

Bouley earned two Michelin stars before it changed locations in 2008. Another of Bouley's New York restaurants, Danube received one Michelin star.^[2] The Danube location was transformed into a new entity designed by Architect SuperPotato or Takashi Sugimoto called 'brushstroke Restaurant'.

brushstroke Restaurant, located at 30 Hudson Street, opened April 2011, is a combined effort between Bouley and the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka, to share Japanese food culture and products at the highest level while integrating American ingredients.^[5]

Bouley Test Kitchen is a private event and testing learning center for visiting guest chefs and to develop recipes for the Bouley entities. The facilities were used by the American Team for the Bocuse d'Or Competition 2011, spear headed by Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller.^[6]

In the summer of 2006 he married fellow collaborator, Nicole Bartelme, pioneer of the TriBeCa Film Festival, artist and photographer.^[7]

Books

• East of Paris: The New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube (Ecco) Authors: David Bouley, Mario Lohninger, Melissa Clark (2003). East of Paris embraces Austrian culture, lifestyle, and — above all else — the new Austrian cuisine, as interpreted by the renowned David Bouley. Praised as one of the top chefs in the world, Bouley, in collaboration with executive chef Mario Lohninger, has adapted and lightened Austrian cuisine, introducing innovative cooking techniques to indigenous ingredients and classic regional dishes. This cuisine is truly unique, capturing the peak flavor in its ingredients, combining classic techniques and influences from around the world, and translating them into a culinary language with an Austrian gestalt.^[8]

Restaurant Health Department Violations

In late 2009, Bouley Bakery and Market in New York City failed health inspections twice. Bouley responded by hiring a former Health Department inspector as a consultant and stating his intention to address all the violations so that it "will never happen again." ^[9]

References