MY CHEF CAREER

Restaurants, Friends and Celebrities

First there was Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

With my partners and Alice Waters.

Here we are two years after I left Chez Panisse at a picnic in the Chalone vineyards, given by its boss Richard Graff for Richard Olney, the great American cookbook author (Simple French Food) and inspiration for a lot of Panisse food.

And when Chez Panisse was a success and I moved on from an $800 a month check, celebrating the change in my Bernal Heights (SF) house with my great friend and former Harvard roommate, the poet Michael Palmer.

While looking to open my own San Francisco restaurant, I revived the singles bar Balboa Café (on a corner nicknamed the “Bermuda Triangle” because of the three bars there from which so many young things were last seen).

I put women as bartenders (nearly causing a revolt by the old customers) and flowers in the bar and dining room (starting rumors by the old customers that it had turned into a gay bar).

And here I am at the Balboa in 1980 for an article in the San Francisco Magazine called “The Fixer.” We did fix the Balboa and once again the owners were driving big BMWs and fancy Harleys.

While still managing the Balboa, the owner’s other restaurant hit a wall. It was the Santa Fe bar & Grill in Berkeley and the chef was Mark Miller. The bank with which I was flirting for funds for my new restaurant, told me one day save it (the SFBG) or forget us. The Big Game (Berkeley versus Stanford) was on Saturday. The bank called me on Tuesday and said do something now because we would like the money and you and it needs it. I drove to Berkeley to look, took one look, closed it, rehired some of the staff, and opened 4 days later in time for the Saturday Game crowds.

Santa Fe Bar & Grill introduced American regional food festivals, promoted mesquite charcoal grilling, and built the team for Stars.

Including David Robbins (who now runs Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants, Steven Vranian our genius at the grill and the sauces for it, Mark Franz, Emily Luchetti, and Loretta Keller.

After that opening night.

James Beard

It was James Beard who told me to leave Panisse and start a restaurant on my own.

“Stars was the bump of white-sand coke snorted off a lacquered table on some department store heiress's yacht in Tiburon, with lobsters on the grill, Montrachet chilling in a platinum bucket” a quote from John Birdsall for Eater.

1988

With the incomparable Richard Olney and Stars chef Mark Franz in front of the restaurant in Paris that inspired me to do Stars.

It soon filled up with celebrities & friends.

With Julia Child at Stars celebrating our Cooking with Master Chefs.

With Beard and the great friend and powerful socialite who promoted Stars with the rich and famous, Denise Hale.

My long-time pal, Rudolf Nureyev.

With Jacques Pepin.

A glossy from Barbra Streisand from the wall of the VIP section at Stars.

And powerful friend, Robert Mondavi.

With Tipper Gore at the Stars Cafe in Napa Valley.

Robin Leach of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, presenting me with the James Beard Foundation’s Best American Chef Award in 1996.

OTHER RESTAURANTS

Right after Chez Panisse there was the job of chef at Big Sur’s Ventana Inn.

After the dinner. Beard and Alice.

We opened Speedo 690 around the corner from Stars to cook food from tropical beaches and islands.

Opened it just in time for the 1989 earthquake.

Meanwhile the English governor of Hong Kong asked me, as “the Fixer,” to take over the Peak Café in Hong Kong. Legendary for its location as the best view in the world and as the world’s worst restaurant.

Introducing Indian and Thai food.

As well as traditional things like my favorite Hainan chicken rice.

And the superb ingredients.

All of which made me ready, once I had sold Stars in San Francisco, to expand again to Asia. First Manila and then Stars Singapore. Which Drew Nieporent called “the most beautiful restaurant in the world.”

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