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In 1976, I became Executive Chef at the Pré Catelan Restaurant in France and three months later won my first Michelin-Star.
I got a second Michelin-Star a year after and 18/20 out of the Gault & Millau Guide.
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Who were the biggest inspirations for your career?
Antonin Carême comes first to my mind; his work was reveled by the French diplomat Talleyrand. Then, he worked for the Tsar of Russia, the British Court and finally the Rothschild family. Carême has been called "the Cook of Kings and the King of Cooks". He considered his work as priesthood, and his life was a model of integrity, nobility and fraternity.
What do you enjoy most about being a chef?
I would say the creative part, the stress of being in the kitchen, and finally this privileged contact with the customers.
What was your greatest success and biggest setback?
Two events changed my life. First in 1977, I was 27 and I became the youngest Two Michelin Stars Chef of France. Then, in 1986, I was elected Chef of the Year by the French Culinary Press.
Concerning the biggest setback, here is the story: I was on the Concorde with the French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing; I had prepared a wonderful meal and I had asked a LeNôtre Pastry Chef to take care of the desserts. Mr. Giscard d'Estaing was delighted with the appetizers and the main course and he was waiting impatiently for the desserts, and here is the problem. The pastry chef who was in charge of it could not bring them for the simple reason that the desserts were in the hold. Can you imagine the President's reaction and how bad I felt?
Do you have a culinary specialty?
I do not have a specialty. My classic education acquaints me with all the aspects of the Culinary Arts such as using seafood, meat, fish or even making pastries. I use everything that "moves me".
THE ACTUAL WORK
What exactly do chefs do?
Chefs have to create a Cuisine that gives a soul and a prestige to a restaurant. They are in charge of the quality, the accounting, contact with patrons, public relations with the media and they spread worldwide their restaurant's image through gastronomic weeks, conferences and cooking demonstrations.
How much are chefs generally paid? Are they generally paid by the hour or by salary?
A chef is paid according what he brings to the restaurant he works for, that is to say: clients, Michelin-Stars, prestige. For instance, a brewery chef will be paid $1,800 a month and a "Starry chef" can earn twenty times the previous salary a month. In France, chefs are generally paid by salary.
Tell us about where you work. What do you like most, least?
I am the Technical Director of The Alain & Marie LeNôtre Culinary Institute located in Houston, Texas, and I am also instructor there. What is impressive about this culinary institute is that the programs are shorts (20 weeks) and 100% hands-on. Students will learn everything from the basic techniques to 3-Star meals through an intensive program.
I love the contact with students and to see them awkward the first days and then a couple of weeks after see how fast they can progress and how precise they become. I also like their interest for culinary products and in a nutshell for France.
What I miss the most is the firing, the kitchen atmosphere, the service, and the adrenalin.
How important is it to create & maintain relationships within the culinary profession? If it is, how do you do it?
The French upscale restaurants I belong to is a brotherhood that is supporting the French Culinary Academy, the French Culinary Federation and is the pride of France. It is important to maintain contacts with the culinary profession every day because you cannot do anything alone. Fraternity exists in this industry at a high level.
What are the tools of the trade you use most?
The tools of the trade I use most are the traditional ones such as shallow stew-pans, deeps, saucepans of vertical side, of height at least equal to its diameter, braising-pans, and turbot-kettles.
What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?
I do not like gadgets; I like to work like I was taught to, with traditional utensils such as knives, pans, furnaces.
How much work is done outside of the kitchen?
Everything is done and happens in the kitchen from the preparation to the display. A chef has to stay in the kitchen. I feel guilty when I get out but sometimes we have to be present in events to promote a restaurant or for press conferences; this work has to be done but it is not the part I like better in my job.
JOB INFORMATION & ADVICE
What are some of the skills that help all chefs succeed?
An expertise of the products, strong technical skills, an absolute strictness concerning hygiene, a complete sincerity in your professional acts and words and finally courage that avoid you giving in easily.
How important are certifications in the profession, such as Executive Chef or Master Chef?
Certifications are less important than being recognized as a Master Chef by your peers or, as important, by clients.
What are the best ways to find a job as a chef?
The best ways are to follow a carefully thought-out career path, since the apprenticeship. The résumé is determining in this profession.
How can graduating culinary arts students gain an advantage in their job search?
Students graduating from our Institute are given a technical education or an improved one. Technical skills are the most important advantage for future culinary professionals, then an expertise of the products and the passion for their work.
How is the job market right now for culinary professionals? How do you think it will be in the next five years? 10 years?
The job market for culinary professional is blooming. The supply for culinarians is very high everywhere in the world. If somebody is gifted, has a good training in culinary arts and is serious in his work, he would not experience unemployment. Within 5 to 10 years, people in the cooking or pastry field will only be persons devoted and passionate to their work because it is physically as well as psychologically very hard.
EDUCATION INFORMATION & ADVICE
What is your degree in?
I have a CAP (Certificate of Professional Aptitude) in pastry, a CAP in cooking, and I am a Master Chef.
What did you like and dislike about your culinary education?
I liked all of my culinary education; I loved discovering the secret world that is cuisine and pastry as well as the history of it.
What factors did you consider when choosing a school of culinary arts or culinary department?
I did not go to a culinary school; I have learned everything from scratch in 3-Star restaurants. I knew that at the contact of such chefs and top quality restaurant, I would learn a lot; and one day get 3 Stars, and it is what happened later.
What factors should all prospective culinary arts students consider when choosing their school?
They have to look after hands-on training much more than theory. It is important to know how to use utensils. This is essential.
For those who have the talent already, should they go to culinary school and why?
Talented people must go to culinary schools to learn techniques, accounting, and hygiene but quickly work, at a little level first, for prestigious restaurants.
What advice can you give to prospect students thinking about an education and career in the culinary arts?
One word: perseverance
What are the 5 most valuable courses that aspiring chef's should take?
Aspiring chefs should take techniques classes, they have to learn what are the products they use coming from and how to match them, accounting, hygiene rules, and pedagogy classes.
Based on what you hear in the industry, what do you think are the 5 most respected and prestigious culinary/cooking schools in the world that really make a difference to students who graduate from these schools?
Ecole LeNôtre in Paris, France, for Catering and Pastry; Egloni, based in Lyon, France, for Cuisine; Ecole G.J Bellouet in Paris, France, for sugar techniques and "avant-garde" pastry; Ecole du Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, for Anglo-Saxon or Japanese people; and finally Ecole Ritz Escoffier in Paris, France. The institute I work for is also really good, as the owner is the founder of l'Ecole LeNôtre in Paris, but too young in business to be in the top five yet. However, I am sure you will hear about it really soon.
Is there a major difference in the industry between graduating from a prestigious culinary school and graduating from a college with a culinary program?
It is day and night. In the first case, graduates have an expertise in culinary techniques and are able to get into the culinary field. Graduates from a college with culinary programs only have an overview of the culinary arts; they are not able yet to work in a kitchen.
What advice can you give to prospective culinary arts students before they begin their education?
It is important they define their goals not to lose time. They have to figure out before getting into a school if they want to be restaurant owners, hotel directors or technicians (Chefs).
What should culinary arts students try to get out of their schools?
Culinary arts students should try to get out of their schools the quality of products. You cannot do anything without it; it is the one which do it all. Famous French Master Chefs like to say that there are not great chefs, there are only great products. Also, very important they have to keep in mind that the important is to satisfy patrons over their expectations.
INDUSTRY TRENDS
What are the trends that you see in the field of culinary arts that might help prospective students?
The trends are back to the authentic, the beautiful, the precise.
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Chef Patrick LeNôtre is the technical director of the 