Knives at Dawn (45 page)

Guest had learned what countless commis and candidates had before her—Bocuse d'Or memories, like wines, cheeses, and certain meats, intensify with age. Despite the occasional bouts of culinary post-traumatic
stress, she feels grateful for the experience, which she says left her feeling like more of an adult. She says that she may even try to become the American candidate at some future date.

If there was a big winner on Team USA in 2009, it was Gavin Kaysen and, by extension, the Bocuse d'Or USA itself. Kaysen had successfully turned Boulud and Keller on to his professional idée fixe: Boulud resolved to reprise his role as chairman, and Keller—again at the request of Paul Bocuse—would be back as president and had offered up the Bocuse House for training. Jérôme Bocuse, too, would remain in place as vice president. The Bocuse d'Or USA had also been transformed into the Bocuse d'Or USA
Foundation
, with a scholarship component. Nora Carey, formerly director of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, came on board as executive director, and Jennifer Pelka, while still working for Dinex, would spend much of her time as Director of Competition and Events for the Foundation.

“This year
was
a Cinderella story because we went from nothing to something,” said Kaysen, whose dream had come true: future candidates would have an organization to support them in every possible way. Nearly two years from the 2011 Bocuse d'Or, the new foundation was already on the march, soliciting sponsors, identifying potential candidates to be encouraged, and bringing relationships to bear in upping the Bocuse d'Or's profile in the United States. For example, a planned episode of
Top Chef
scheduled to air in November 2009, featuring Boulud, Keller, Jérôme Bocuse, Hollingsworth, Kaysen, and Pelka as guest judges, would offer a unique prize to the winner of its elimination challenge: a role as a finalist in the next Bocuse d'Or USA trials.

Keller wasn't sure if he'd be back for a third time, in 2013, but he wanted to help create an entity that could continue to grow and thrive on its own without him. It was similar to his goal for his restaurants. Keller often speaks of his desire to leave a legacy, to create such strong foundations in his restaurants that they can live on and continue to evolve after his time, and this had become his personal goal for the Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation as well.

At the very least, with adequate time to focus and to weave the Bocuse
d'Or into his and Boulud's calendars for the next two years, Keller was certain of one thing: “We will be much more prepared in 2011 than 2009.”

As for Hollingsworth and Henin, they had not spoken to each other in the months since Lyon. But on Thursday, May 7, 2009, Hollingsworth learned that the coach would be passing through Yountville, and sought him out. With the competition behind them, the two men greeted each other with a warm handshake outside Bouchon Bakery. The sun was shining on them again, as it had been when they began this adventure.

Henin congratulated Hollingsworth on his news: in early April, it had been announced that Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee would be leaving The French Laundry to open his own restaurant, and that Hollingsworth would be taking over as chef de cuisine of one of the best restaurants in the United States. It was
his
ultimate moment of judgment as a restaurant chef, the culmination of his career to date. Not bad for a former dishwasher who got hired “by accident,” as Keller likes to say.

The two men may not have become intimates during their time together, but they would be forever linked in American culinary history, perhaps more for what surrounded them that May afternoon than for the Bocuse d'Or. In many ways, Keller's success, manifested in his restaurants and other properties around town, began with Henin, though the mentor refused to take credit for it.

“Thomas doesn't have to do that [thank me all the time] and of course he has done it a lot more than really is necessary,” Henin said later. “I am happy that I was instrumental, but a lot of it came from him, too. I didn't create it from something that didn't exist. He is like going in a garden and growing something. If the soil is not good, no matter how much work you put into it, you're going to be limited in your harvest. But if the soil is really good then your harvest is going to be so much better … maybe I was instrumental in putting him in the right direction, or to help him see the light, but I think that the basic foundations, the basic stocks, the basic earth, the quality of the earth was there. I didn't create that. I just helped. I was just an instrument in the development.”

Hollingsworth would be the next link in the chain, the conduit from Henin to Keller to all those cooks and commis the new chef de cuisine would help develop over the coming years.

Inevitably, the Bocuse d'Or crept into the conversation, as Henin reminded the candidate of the original schedule he had created, and how it would have included serving food to invited guests so the team could have practiced serving from the platters. What might that have meant in the end, the coach mused aloud.

“It was a great experience,” said Hollingsworth, disengaging from the past as they shook hands and said goodbye. “It changed my life.”

He wasn't just being polite. Hollingsworth still rides himself harder than anybody else for his performance. His colleagues at The Thomas Keller Restaurant Group profess nothing but pride in him and Guest, and for a time the Bocuse d'Or USA Web site homepage welcomed visitors with a congratulatory message for the 2009 Team. But Hollingsworth maintains profound disappointment in his result, a regret that he believes “will never go away.” (So deep is the wound that, as of May 2009, he had not visited the Bocuse d'Or Web site to view the official photographs of his platters, nor had he featured cod on any of his menus at The French Laundry since the competition.)

Nevertheless, with the distance of a few months, Hollingsworth had come to appreciate his competition experience more than he could have imagined when he reluctantly embarked upon it. Of the conversation with Henin, he later confirmed his assertion that the Bocuse d'Or “changed my life socially, professionally, intellectually.” As was the case with preparing for the team trials in Orlando, he found the opportunity to spend months fine-tuning a group of recipes—rather than serving them for a day, then moving on—invaluable to his development, not to mention the time overseas and the national and international attention.

For all of the disappointment the coach had suffered throughout the process, this revelation put a smile on his face. “He said, ‘I am a better cook,' ” said Henin. “He has a different view, a different understanding
of things.… That by itself is already worth every pain or every sweat or blood or whatever you want to call that.”

The next day, Henin spoke to the graduating class of The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, about ten miles up Highway 29 from Yountville in St. Helena. He began the way he often did, a humble expression of gratitude for the introduction and some kind words about the host institution. His address built to a comparison of a cook's career to a seven-course meal. “You have just completed the hors d'oeuvre course,” he said. “You have had just a taste of what a chef is about, and of course you are hungry for more.”

He went on: the fish course was the beginning of a career, and it was a delicate one. If it went well, his audience would move on to the next phase, “the main course … now you will be really cooking.… You will have to make choices about the kind of chef you want to be and the kind of life you want to lead.” After that would come the salad and cheese courses, which for Henin meant serving as a mentor to other chefs. “Whatever path you are on,” he said. “You will be the legacy you will leave to others.”

Adopting a wistful tone, Henin continued. “Some day you will wake up, you will look around, you will realize that it is time for dessert, the sweet time.” This would mean different things to different people; they might lecture, coach, give speeches, write a book, all the while reflecting on how they might have tweaked things along the way.

“If you've done things the right way,” Henin promised. “You will realize it has been the kind of meal you always dreamed of.

“Then, finally, you pour yourself a small glass of the perfect fine
digestif
,” he concluded. “Raising your glass in a toast, to all those who have helped you along the way … all those people who have been a part of your success.”

As heartfelt as all of this was, the most profound passage of Henin's remarks preceded this coda, when he told a story, a humorous parable, about two young students on the verge of graduating from The Culinary Institute many years ago—whether it is true or not is anybody's guess, and doesn't really matter. The tale began the weekend before the final exams,
when the two young men in question decided to get a head start on their celebration, partying up the road at Johnson & Wales.

“Suffice it to say, they had a good time and, as you can imagine, didn't make it back in time to the CIA.” said Henin, milking the melodrama.

Trembling, the two students went to their chef-instructor, telling him they had left campus to
study
for the exam, and on the way home got a flat tire. “They were impoverished culinary students and had no spare, and had to wait a long time for someone to come to their rescue,” Henin continued, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“The instructor, being such a nice and understanding person, thought about it and agreed that, yes, they could make up the final exam the following day.”

Relieved, the students went back to their dorm and crammed for the test. When they showed up the next morning, the instructor put them in separate rooms and gave each of them a copy of the exam. The first question, worth five points, asked them to name four mother sauces, the ones that provide the foundation for just about any Western sauce you'd ever want to make—a layup if ever there were one.

“ ‘
Cool!
' ” exclaimed Henin, imitating the students, his voice shooting up about three octaves. “ ‘This is going to be easy, a piece of cake.' They answered the question and turned the page.” Henin abruptly shifted to a solemn, almost funereal tone. “They were, however, unprepared for what they saw on the next page.

“ ‘For ninety-five points,' ” Henin continued, taking a long pause before slaying his momentary pupils with the punch line: “ ‘
Which tire
?' ”

It had been half a century since he had wandered into that little pastry shop in Tarare, France, more than thirty years since he had flung that Frisbee at a young cook on the beach of Narragansett, Rhode Island. But even though Roland Henin was an older man now, well past the canapés and the main courses, he wasn't done with his dessert just yet, wasn't quite ready to sip his
digestif
.

There was still plenty he could teach everybody.

3 “Chefs who can step into
”: Edward, G. Leonard,
American Culinary Federation's Guide to Culinary Competitions: Cooking to Win!
, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006, page 1.

6 “Ten thousand people died”
: According to the National World War II Museum, there were about 10,000 Allied
casualties
on D-Day; of those, about 2,500 were American fatalities.

10 “a food competition without French participation”
: Paul Levy, “Culinary ‘Olympics': Eating Takes 2d Place,”
The New York Times
, November 5, 1980, page C3.

16 So while many European countries:
Florence Fabricant, “Tilting at the Bocuse d'Or,”
The New York Times
, May 28, 2009.

77 “You have to pursue”:
Gourmet Challenge
. Glénat, 2005, page 125.

124 The most outlandish drama:
Charles Bremner and Marie Tourres, “We were whipped by cheat chef, say the losing cooks.”
The Times
(London), February 20, 2007.

183 “Dear Timothy and Adina”:
Author's Note: This letter has been edited to correct
some
grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

222 “At restaurants considered much less exclusive”:
Frank Bruni, “New Sparkle for a Four-Star Gem,”
The New York Times
, January 21, 2009.

253 As it turned out:
Elaine Sciolino, “Curveball Cod,” Diner's Journal blog entry,
The New York Times
, January 28, 2009.

257 Unbeknownst to the team:
Elaine Sciolino, “With Cowbells and Oxtails, Culinary Olympics Begin,”
The New York Times
, January 28, 2009.

This book could not have been written without the generosity of both time and spirit of the following people, many of whom had never met me before I embarked on this adventure. My deep and abiding gratitude to:

Team USA. Timothy Hollingsworth, this story could surely have been told with other candidates at the helm of Team USA, but I don't know how many would have opened up their lives and their hearts to a stranger the way you did. Your kindness to a writer granted access by others was extraordinary, and I'll never forget it. Adina Guest, thank you for letting me watch you work and evolve, for making time for me during a very important time in your life, and for your openness, especially about your personal life. And Roland Henin, CMC, for teaching me about the world of culinary competitions and for sharing your passion and history with me. I know that it wasn't always ideal to have a writer in the room; thanks for not holding it against me.

The Bocuse d'Or USA, especially Daniel Boulud, for receiving my original proposition with such enthusiasm, for your help in Lyon, and for all of your time in the Skybox and elsewhere. Thomas Keller, the
self-described “cautious one,” for your trust and for the hospitality you and your extraordinary staffs showed me at The French Laundry, Bouchon, and Per Se. It was a privilege to spend time with you and with them, and it rubbed off on me: my kitchen has never been cleaner! Jérôme Bocuse, for your support of this book, for your invaluable assistance in Lyon, for always being a willing translator between me and your father, and for a memorable visit to Orlando. Jennifer Pelka, for inviting me to meetings, copying me on e-mails, sending me piles of documents, tracking down that FCI video, getting me a seat at all the right tables at all the right dinners, making time for interviews, and for everything else. And Gavin Kaysen, for your time, enthusiasm, insights, your brain's extra gigabytes of memory (seriously, you are a fact-checker's dream), for taking me under your wing in Orlando and in Lyon, and especially for that 6:00 a.m. taxi on Game Day, even though we got by without it.