Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten Dishes About His Craft, New Ventures

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — Foodies were buzzing when it was announced Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who has been pleasing the palates of New Yorkers since 1987 as the head chef of Lafayette, was bringing his culinary expertise to Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton this summer.

After two months on board, he came to dish at Guild Hall’s Culinary Celebrities @ Guild Hall event in East Hampton Sunday morning — where he revealed news about two new projects in New York.

At the event, hosted by Florence Fabricant, food writer and contributor to The New York Times dining section — she's also on the Guild Hall board — Fabricant and audience members asked him a number of questions about his career.

Vongerichten opened up about working in the Hamptons, running 35 restaurants worldwide, and the two new ventures he’s set to launch.

Vongerichten has been at the helm of Topping Rose for the past two months and is most impressed with the fresh sustainable land and sea produce available there.

“At Topping Rose we have a one-acre garden,” he said. “We planted so many tomatoes that we have too many now. We’ll have to put a farm stand in front of Topping Rose,” he joked.

The East End's farm-to-table movement has brought local fare home, he said.

“Locally sourced food makes a difference,” he said.

Vongerichten told the crowd his snails are sourced from a snail farm about five miles from Topping Rose.

Vongerichten, born in France, has long believed in locally sourced produce.

When he opened his first restaurant in China years ago, and found a dearth of much of the produce needed, Vongerichten took the reigns, cultivating his own farm, he said. Today, the chef has three farms in China.

At Topping Rose, seafood dishes come straight from local waters, Vongerichten said. “We only get fish from small boats. They catch it in the morning, they come back in the afternoon and we serve it that night.”

While he's been focusing on the Bridgehampton eatery, Vongerichten said he does travel five to six days a month to check on all of his restaurants worldwide, including his flagship, Jean Georges in New York City.

All of the locales were strategically chosen, he said. " “I try to go to a city that is growing. I opened an Italian restaurant in Shanghai five years ago that’s doing well, but I would never do one in New York City. “They’d throw me in the river."

With 10 restaurants in New York City and 25 globally, Vongerichten said he needs to be a chef and a businessman. “You have to think of the bills, too; not just the food."

Looking ahead, Vongerichten said plans are in place for a vegetarian/vegan spot near his ABC Kitchen at ABC Home & Carpet in New York.

So far, a chef has been hired, with a menu to feature fermented foods such as sauerkraut. “There are so many nutrients in pickled food," he said.

The chef also shed light on a new project aimed at the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan.

His vision? "What Mario Batali did with Eataly.”

His vision involves recreating the once venerable Fulton Street Fish Market. “It’s 44,000 sq. feet. The old one had to be dismantled and raised off the ground” after Hurricane Sandy’s destruction, he said. His hope is that "it will become a market filled with some retail and some restaurants."

Patrons can expect a timeline of about two years before the South Street Seaport project is slated for completion.

Reflecting on the mercurial nature of the business, Vorgerichten was pragmatic. "Restaurants come and go in New York. That’s the way it is.” His best advice to anyone new restauranteurs? “Don’t spend over your head.”

And key, he added, is to remember that above all, eateries are "a people business."