Michel Richard

Michel Richard is a French-born chef, and is formerly the owner of the restaurant Citrus in Los Angeles. He currently owns the award-winning restaurant, Citronelle in Georgetown and Carmel, and Central in Las Vegas, NV and Washington, D.C.

Contents

Biography

Mr. Richard was born in Brittany in March, 1948[1] and raised in Champagne. He learned to cook when he was age 7. At the age of 9, he participated in the French equivalent of the Fresh Air Fund.

Having been told that, if he wanted to be a chef, he first needed to learn to be a pastry chef, by age 14, he was an apprentice baker at a hotel in Reims. After serving in the French Army he worked at the bakery, Maison Lenotre, in Paris under French pastry chef Gaston Lenotre. He opened Lenotre's short-lived New York branch, Chateau France,[2] then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to run The French Pastry Shop at La Fonda Hotel.

In 1977 he was in Los Angeles, where he opened another Michel Richard Pastry Shop. He used the profits to eat in France's three-star restaurants, and solidifying his desire to move beyond pastry, and to train himself to be a chef over the next ten years.

In 1987 he opened the restaurant, Citrus in Los Angeles.[3] Satellites of Citrus were opened in Santa Barbara, Baltimore, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C, all of which eventually closed.[4] In 1997, he sold half of his interest in the restaurant to Meristar Corporation, which is also his partner in Citronelle.

In 1989 A year later, Richard opened Citronelle, in the Santa Barbara Inn Hotel in Santa Barbara. He later opened Bistro M in San Francisco, and Citronelle in Baltimore and Philadelphia. In 1994, he opened Citronelle in The Latham Hotel in Georgetown. Later, he opened a branch of Citronelle at Carmel Valley Ranch in Carmel, California. Ten years later, he opened Central in Washington DC.[5][6]

Books

• Michel Richard's Home Cooking with a French Accent, Morrow, NY (January 1, 1993) ASIN: B001XGZ1Q8

• Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking the Art of Eating, Artisan , (October 2006) ISBN 9781579652999

Television

• Baking with Julia (Episodes 103 and 304)

• How to Cook Everything; Bittman Takes on America's Chefs (Episode 108)

• Great Chefs – Great Cities (Episodes 40, 62, and 76)

• Chef's Story (Episode 111)

References

  1. ^ Sietsema, Tom, "Michel Richard's mass appeal" Washington Post (March 25, 2007)
  2. ^ Katz, Basil, "Gaston Lenotre, who built a culinary brand, is dead at 88", New York Times (January 9, 2009)
  3. ^ Martin, Richard, "Citrus: a French chef's American dream", Nation's Restaurant News (May 11, 1992)
  4. ^ “Michel Richard’s L.A. ‘return’ – the straight scoop”, ‘’Los Angeles Times’’ (November 7, 2007)
  5. ^ Burros, Marian, “Foods ambassador to Washington; Michel Richard is so creative his mission may succeed”, ‘’New York Times’’ (September 30, 1998)
  6. ^ “Central Michel Richard”, ‘’New York Times’’ (February 27, 2008)

External links