Chef Grégoire Jacquet Campaign Materials and Media Coverage by Lyla Foggia

Chef Grégoire Jacquet

opens SOCCA OVEN in

Berkeley’s new Epicurious Garden

BERKELEY – March 18, 2006 – Chef Grégoire Jacquet has created another new concept

in takeout dining with the launch of SOCCA OVEN today in Berkeley’s new Epicurious

Garden.

A popular street food in Nice, soccas have been around since at least the mid-

1800s, when vendors would roll their wooden carts between job sites and cook them on

the spot in charcoal ovens as a mid-morning snack for workers. Traditionally, soccas are

rustic crepes or pancakes made exclusively from chick-pea flour, then baked quickly at

extremely high heat, much like pizzas.

Chickpeas were first grown in ancient Egypt, then spread throughout the

Mediterranean by the sea trade. Today, soccas can be found in such other countries as

Italy (where they’re called farinata), Spain (calentita) and even Argentina (faina).

For his new restaurant, Jacquet is giving classic soccas a new dimension by

topping them with marinated and grilled or sautéed vegetables, meat, chicken or fish.

Like Jacquet’s popular GRÉGOIRE Restaurant, the SOCCA OVEN will emphasize

certified natural or organic ingredients, including regionally-grown fresh produce and

wild-caught fish. In addition, Jacquet plans to use only the finest imported chick-pea

flour, olive oil, and cracked pepper.

To give his soccas a crispy, crusty, golden-thin bottom, Jacquet has equipped the

SOCCA OVEN with a hand-crafted gas-fueled Wood Stone oven designed to provide a

wood-fired flavor.

“Socca’s are an ideal food for healthy gourmet dining,” Jacquet says. “They’re low

in carbohydrates, they’re gluten-free, and they contain no yeast or eggs. I personally love

the nutty taste of chickpeas. The flavor is amazing.”

A classically-trained French chef, Jacquet has been at the forefront of re-

inventing takeout food since June 2002, when he opened the critically-acclaimed

GRÉGOIRE on Cedar Street, around the corner from Chez Panisse.

A dining hit with both restaurant critics and customers, the tiny restaurant has

become regionally-famous for its signature Crispy Potato Puffs – which San Francisco

magazine named as one of “The 125 Best Things to Eat” in the Bay Area and East Bay

Express critic Jonathan Kauffman selected as one of his “Top Ten” favorite dishes in

2003.

GRÉGOIRE offers unique high-end sandwiches and entrées meticulously

prepared using classical French cooking techniques. With an emphasis on the finest

natural and organic ingredients, the menu changes monthly to feature locally-grown

produce picked at the peak-of-ripeness and fish and meats in their prime.

A second GRÉGOIRE opened on February 21, 2006, on Oakland’s historic

Piedmont Avenue..

Prior to founding GRÉGOIRE, Jacquet served as the Executive Sous Chef for the

Ritz-Carlton, in charge of the kitchens at their highly-rated San Francisco, Boston and

Puerto Rico hotels. He began his career in France at the age of 14, completing an

intensive apprenticeship that included two- and four-star restaurants by the time he was

18. In 1989, Jacquet immigrated to the U.S. to work for renowned Master Chef Jacky

Robert at Amelio’s in San Francisco – who elevated him to Chef de Cuisine within the

first year.

SOCCA OVEN Hours: 11 am – 9 pm, 7 days a week

Address: 1511B Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709

Phone: (510) 548-6001

Website: ww.SoccaOven.com

* * *

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lyla Foggia, (661) 259-6561 or [email protected]

GRÉGOIRE Restaurant opened in Oakland’s

historic Piedmont District today! BERKELEY – February 21, 2006 – Chef/Owner Grégoire Jacquet has expanded his

critically-acclaimed GRÉGOIRE Restaurant in Berkeley with a second location at 4001B

Piedmont Avenue in Oakland – which opened today.

Recently named one of the “Bay Area’s Top 9 Takeout Spots” by San Francisco

magazine, the new GRÉGOIRE is located in the historic Elsie L. Turner Building, a

Beaux Arts structure designed by renowned architect Julia Morgan.

Chef Jacquet has been at the forefront of re-inventing takeout since June 2002,

when he opened the original GRÉGOIRE around the corner from Chez Panisse in

Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto.

Since its debut, GRÉGOIRE has become a dining hit with both restaurant critics

and customers. Among its most popular items are the GRÉGOIRE Crispy Potato Puffs

($4.25), which have earned cult status around the Bay. San Francisco magazine

featured the Puffs in its “The 125 Best Things to Eat” issue last May, East Bay Express

critic Jonathan Kauffman has included them in his “Top Ten” list of favorite dishes, and

7x7 SF magazine made them an “Editor’s Pick,” among other accolades.





Prior to opening his own restaurants, Jacquet served as the Executive Sous Chef

for the Ritz-Carlton, in charge of the kitchens at their highly-rated San Francisco, Boston

and Puerto Rico hotels. He began his career in France at the age of 14, completing an



Robert at Amelio’s in San Francisco – who elevated him to Chef de Cuisine only a year

later.

Facts:

Website: www.GregoireRestaurant.com

Hours: 7 days a week, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Lunch served until 4:30 p.m.)

Menu: Changes on the first day of each month; available on the website

Advance Orders: Call or fax in the order form available on the website

New Oakland Location

4001B Piedmont Avenue

(at 40th)

Phone: (510) 547-3444

Fax: (510) 547-3555

Berkeley Location

2109 Cedar Street

(1/2 block off Shattuck)

Phone: (510) 883-1893

Fax: (510) 883-1894

* * *

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lyla Foggia Foggia+Associates PR

(661) 259-6561 [email protected]

http://www.gregoirerestaurant.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Chef Grégoire Jacquet Biography

Hard as it is to believe, Jacquet did not know there

were people who cooked for a living – or that

restaurants even existed – until he was 14, the

same year he began his formal training to become

a chef.

Cooking would not only become his

passion, a life in the kitchen would became his lifeline out of juvenile delinquency, as

well as his ticket to America.

After completing three years of intensive apprenticeships at two- and four-star

restaurants in France by the time he was 18, Jacquet arrived in San Francisco in 1989

with a single suitcase and a coveted job with the renowned master chef, Jacky Robert.

He knew exactly two words of English: “yes” and “no.”

A year later, Robert elevated Jacquet to Chef de Cuisine of the famed Amelio’s.

Four years later, Jacquet was appointed Banquet Chef of the Ritz Carlton San

Francisco, where he ultimately served as the Executive Sous Chef at three of their

highest-rated hotels. Then, in 2002, Jacquet reinvented takeout by opening his own

innovative restaurant in the heart of Berkeley’s famous Gourmet Ghetto.

*

Born just outside Paris in the historic city of Versailles, France, Jacquet was

about six when his father – a senior sales executive who traveled the world for

Caterpillar – quit his job and moved the family to Grazay in the Normandy region.

The small village had only 80 inhabitants (most of them elderly), a épicierie

(grocery story), boucherie (butcher), two schools, “and that’s it,” says Jacquet. There

was not even a boulangerie (bakery), much less a restaurant, movie theater or other

modern amenities. “It was a typical French village. Too small to have anything but a

church.”

In many ways though, it was an idyllic existence. Almost everything the Jacquet

family ate was raised on their small plot of land – from rabbits and chickens to fruit and

vegetables – or purchased from a neighbor’s farm.

Chef Grégoire Jacquet Biography - 2 -

“The chicken would be killed that morning. The tomato picked the day before.

We had a huge garden, with artichokes, endives, asparaguses, strawberries, raspberries,

pears and apples,” he remembers. “We didn’t have any money, so we would eat whatever

the garden was going to give us.”

At a young age, he learned how to make organic goat cheese and grow

mushrooms, while helping out on a friend’s farm. He also went along on the ten-hour

roundtrip drive once a week to deliver the cheese to shops around Paris.

Watching his mother in the kitchen, Jacquet just knew at the age of six that he

wanted to be a chef. Even so, he didn’t know there were people who cooked for a living –

and wouldn’t until he was 14, when he dined out in a restaurant for the first time while

attending the banquet held for his Catholic confirmation.

For a teenager, however, the simple village life could be boring. At 14, he began

getting into trouble with the law while hanging out with a local “gang” of six teenagers

who cruised the countryside on their souped-up mopeds. They’d do things like steal

cigarettes, pull down road signs and telephone poles, and throw rocks at glass bus stops

to watch them shatter.

Before long, the group was arrested and spent a night in jail. The two boys over

18 went to prison for two years. Because he was still a minor, Jacquet was sentenced to

house arrest until he reached 18, and allowed to leave his mother’s property only to go to

school or when accompanied by one of his parents.

He was also expelled from school. “So I had to decide on something, and I said, ‘I

want to be a chef.’”

In their search for a cooking school that would take him, Jacquet and his parents

drove around France. However, each one they visited declined, because of his poor

grades and trouble-making past. Fortunately, his father finally discovered one, a private

farming/cooking trade school only 50 miles away, which admitted anyone who could

afford the tuition.

Cooking school

Though only 14 at the time, Jacquet entered the rigorous three-year program for

which he would work six-day weeks for little or no pay in a series of regional restaurants

– including the four-star La Terrasse and two-star La Bonne Auberge.


Before he was done, Jacquet would accumulate a body of hard-earned knowledge

from working in every type of restaurant found in France – from fine dining to brasserie,

ferme auberge (farm inn) and restauration (high volume fast food).

As he would discover later, Jacquet lucked out on his very first assignment –

working directly for the 27-year-old chef/owner (also a master chef in sauces) of Au

Vieux Pressoir in Louvignié in the Mayenne countryside.

“He was so young, he took me under his wing and really gave me the love of

cooking. I worked so hard for him, more than I’ve ever worked for anybody,” Jacquet

says of the nine-month stint.

Au Vieux Pressoir also opened up a whole new world for the teenager. “When a

restaurant is good in France, people will drive long distances to get there. No big deal.

This was a world I didn’t know, because my parents never had any money. So I didn’t

know there were restaurants around.”

Jacquet lived with his father during the week and at the restaurant on weekends,

going to bed at 4 a.m. and starting again at 8 a.m. During the winter they hunted for

such wild game as grive, a French delicacy. When the owner had to be hospitalized over

a weekend for a hernia, he left Jacquet, who had just turned 15, in charge.

“I loved the fact that I felt important and needed, which never happened in my

life prior to that. This guy really made me love cooking. He really taught me a lot about

food and just respect of it, how to get it, how important it is. Everything about food. If

the Au Vieux Pressoir was not the first one – and with those people especially – I

probably would never become a chef. Because it is such a tough business in France,” he

says.

Jacquet’s second apprenticeship – at Orly Restauration in Lyon in the Vallée

du Rhone district – fortuitously lasted only one month.

“I wanted to try a little bit of everything,” he explains of his reason for choosing a

cafeteria attached to a factory that fed a thousand people per day. But he quickly grew to

hate it.

The equivalent of fast food in the U.S., nothing was made from scratch. Even the

mashed potatoes were whipped up from instant flakes. “The guy said to me, ‘You got to

cook pasta.’ I say, ‘Okay, how much?’ And he showed me two cases. I mean, I’d never

seen cases so big in my life! I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ I had no idea how to do it,” Jacquet

says with a laugh.


For his third apprenticeship, Jacquet joined the kitchen of Brasserie de la

Place, located in the town of Laval.

At the time, it was owned by a widow, who was “really crazy. She was really

crazy. I learned what not to do in the kitchen. I didn’t learn anything else. It was so bad.

Unfresh, nasty food,” he says of the spoiled ingredients he was forced to work with.

“The chef was awful. It was nine months of hell. I was under contract so I

couldn’t leave. But I really learned. Every job you really learn from.”

Jacquet’s fourth apprenticeship, at La Ferme De Cuzorn in the countryside

east of Bourdeaux, was a ferme auberge (country inn). Popular in France, this type of

restaurant raises and grows everything it serves, then offers patrons, who dine at

communal tables, one prix fixe menu per day.

“I learned a lot of original cooking from the Perigord region. They use a lot of

truffles. All the foie gras comes from there. They have excellent wine. A lot of chestnuts.

A lot of goat cheese. It’s very food oriented. I learned a lot about stuffing things,” he

says of his three-month tenure.

Jacquet next became a trainee for nine months at the two-star restaurant, La

Bonne Auberge in Laval, which specialized in classic French cooking. “It’s a really

good restaurant in the city I’m from,” he says.

Finally, his last apprenticeship before graduating was at the four-star La

Terrasse in Javron. “Really nice people,” Jacquet says of the wife, who was an English

pastry chef, and her husband, a French chef.

“I got to do things there I’d never done anywhere, like fresh escargot and lobsters

and a lot of things I’d never touched before. I loved to work there. It was a great, great,

great experience.”

Following graduation, Jacquet, now 18, immediately landed his first professional

job, as an assistant cook at the four-star L’Hotel Des Neiges in the Courchevel 1850

ski resort in the French Alps.

As miserable as he had been in several positions as a trainee, nothing compared

to the politics and personality clashes that raged behind-the-scenes in the Des Neiges’

kitchen. “There were about 20 people working in the kitchen and they were all out to get

each other. And I was nobody. I was a small, itty bitty cook.”

When he came in an hour late one day, Jacquet was ordered to clean the whole

kitchen during his break. “I was standing up on that stove, and it was so hot. The stove

had been working, so I have to be careful not to melt my shoes. And I decided I was not


going to take it any longer. I didn’t go there to clean. I go there to cook and learn how to

cook.”

Furious, he climbed down, walked straight to the dining room where the top

chefs were eating their lunch, threw down his apron – and announced that he was

quitting. It was the only time he would ever walk off a job.

“It was the conclusion of a lot of things that happened there,” Jacquet explains.

“France is very different from America, when it comes to personalities in the kitchen. By

nature, the French are jerks. They like to criticize everything. They like to bug

everybody. In the kitchen, you’re so criticized. It’s always about perfection and doing

things the way this one wants. It’s really hard, and if you’re not tough, you don’t make it.

During those years, I came home crying many, many, many times. And I saw many,

many, many people quit.”

Cooking in Paris

Soon after returning home, Jacquet received a call from a friend with a job offer

at the Hollywood Savoy in Paris’ Bourse district, where he would spend the next year and

a half.

A popular haunt with Americans, the restaurant featured singing waiters, “but

the chef was really, really good,” Jacquet says. “He came from two-star Michelin

restaurants, and he really loved his food. So it was a fun place to work. I learned a lot.”

Even so, he was working six days a week – from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. with only a one

hour break. Starting out as the Chef Garde Manger, responsible for all the cold food,

buffet and desserts, Jacquet was promoted nine months later to Chef Poissonnier, in

charge of ordering and cleaning all the fish, as well as pastry and food costs and control.

Ready for a change, Jacquet quit the Savoy and had a job lined up at a two-star

restaurant on the Champ d’Elysees when he took a month long vacation to San

Francisco.

Even though he didn’t speak a word of English, he spent some of the time trying

to meet Bay Area chefs, “to see what’s happening here.” One of them told him how

immigration works and said that if he needed a sponsor, to go see Jacky Robert at

Amelio’s, who was looking for a sous chef.

Robert hired him on the spot, and Jacquet returned to France to work for two

more months, while waiting for the INS to approve his application for a green card.


Moving to America

In September 1989, he arrived back in San Francisco, and began what would

become a defining period in his career.

Also originally from the Normandy region, Jacky Robert was one of only 200

Maitre Cuisinier de France (Master Chefs) in the world, and had been featured as one of

the elite on the “Great Chefs” PBS television series.

His restaurant, Amelio’s, had been honored with 4 stars from Mobil, four

diamonds from AAA, and 17 of 20 points from Gault et Millaux. Renowned for its

innovative French cuisine, Amelio’s featured a 9000-bottle wine collection and was the

first in the country to use high-end Villeroy & Boch fine china.

“It was impeccable. The best restaurant in San Francisco at the time. I started

tasting good wines and cooking great food. Ahhhh,” Jacquet sighs. “Amazing food. And

I learned so much with this guy. He was so good!”

Jacquet thrived under Robert’s influence. Starting out as Garde Manger, he was

promoted to Chef Pâtissier, then to Chef Entremetier in just the first year. When Robert

became the sole owner of Amelio’s soon after, he put Jacquet, then only 21, in charge of

his entire kitchen, as his Chef de Cuisine.

For the next four years, Jacquet’s responsibilities included development of the

recipes and oversight of personnel and purchasing. At the same time, the restaurant

became so prosperous that Robert decided to add a café with its own menu, which

Jacquet also designed and had constructed.

“Jacky really changed my whole approach to cooking. But after five years, I

figured I needed more management skills,” Jacquet says. “So I decided to go work for

the Ritz Carlton. I decided if I had to work in a hotel to learn management, it had to be

the best.”

Joining the Ritz Carlton Hotels

Although it meant a dramatic pay cut, Jacquet joined the Mobil 5-star/AAA 5-

diamond Ritz Carlton in San Francisco in May 1994. After waiting six months for an

opening, he accepted the position of Banquet Chef, even though he had never done

banquets. “I took it anyway. I just wanted to go there.”

Jacquet spent the next three years running the department, while working 17-

hour days, seven days a week. With a staff of only five cooks, they served three meals a

day to hundreds at a time, using only fresh ingredients and doing all their own prepping.


Entrees ran from beef tenderloin to swordfish, sea bass and monkfish. The secret to

feeding masses of people at one time? “Organization. It’s all organization,” he says

matter-of-factly.

He also worked closely with guest chefs brought in for charity fundraising events,

many of whom had no banquet experience. Together, they’d plan the menu, then Jacquet

would determine what volume of ingredients to order and organize the cooking.

While still at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, the corporate headquarters sent

him out to set up the kitchens (including hiring personnel) for their new hotels in Bali

and Jamaica, as well as the Algonquin Club in Boston and the Country Club of

Columbus.

In April 1997, Jacquet was promoted to Executive Sous-Chef of the Mobil 4-

star/AAA 4-diamond Ritz-Carlton in Boston – the chain’s oldest and most prestigious

property. It was a major leap up the management ladder. Suddenly, he was no longer

supervising a single department, but was second in command of the entire food

operation for the hotel’s four restaurants, catering department, 48 employees and sous-

chefs, along with ordering all the food and upgrading the employee dining room.

A year and a half later, Jacquet was moved back to the Ritz-Carlton in San

Francisco as Executive Sous-Chef, where he spent two more years – during which the

hotel received the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. Now responsible for a staff of 65, he

also upgraded the Club Lounge and supervised the catering department.

In November 2000, Jacquet was transferred to Puerto Rico to do a major

overhaul of the troubled food operation at the Ritz-Carlton San Juan Spa & Casino –

then a Mobil 4-star/AAA 4-diamond property. For six months, he served as the acting

Executive Chef, while replacing and training the entire 80-person kitchen staff –

including such key positions as the executive sous chef, dining room chef, and banquet

chef, among other managers.

In July 2001, after 16 years of working seven-day weeks in kitchens other than his

own, Chef Grégoire Jacquet was ready for change.

He resigned his position at the Ritz-Carlton and headed home to Berkeley with

his wife, Tara, a professional photographer who was expecting their first child.

Exactly one year later – on June 26, 2002 – Jacquet opened GRÉGOIRE, which

San Francisco magazine has named one of “The Bay Area’s Top 9 Takeout Spots” and

the San Francisco Chronicle has called “delicious food.”

Building the original GRÉGOIRE…



He resigned his position as acting Executive Chef for the Ritz-Carlton in San

Juan, Puerto Rico, and headed home to Berkeley with his wife, Tara, a professional

photographer who was expecting their first child.

It was the cumulation of a three-year apprenticeship in his native France,

beginning at the age of 14, and an intense professional career that included five years

with the legendary Master Chef Jacky Robert (including as the Chef de Cuisine at

Amelio’s), and seven years at the Ritz-Carlton (four of them in charge of the kitchens at

their top-rated San Francisco, Boston, and San Juan hotels).

During the first four months back in the Bay Area, they lived with Tara’s parents

while waiting for their furniture and car to arrive, and Jacquet spent the time

contemplating his options.

“I was looking for something. I had a lot of things in mind that I wanted to do,

including takeout. The only thing I knew for sure was that I was not going to work for

anybody,” he reflects.

By the time they moved back into their cottage on Rose Street, Jacquet had

worked out the concept and plotted the details of what would become GRÉGOIRE –

Building GRÉGOIRE - 2 -

from the menu and layout of the kitchen to the distinctive carry-out box and his now-

famous potato puffs.

He envisioned a small neighborhood restaurant on the order of the village

eateries found in the countryside of his native France – sort of a local gathering place

“where people come in and you know their names and what they like.”

By that November, Jacquet had the funding and was actively searching for a

location. The space didn’t need to be large – indeed, smaller was better, because it

allowed him to keep his overhead, and prices, down.

He finally found it – a 400-square foot, abandoned storefront, built around the

1920s. “It was no more than a hole in the wall,” Jacquet remembers. “Really grimy and

disgusting and gross.”

Why such a small space? “Because I wanted to make it a takeout, and at first I

didn’t think it was going to be so busy,” he says.

The long-time Berkeley eyesore had formerly been occupied by a bistro that was

rarely open and eventually disappeared. The back room was still being used by a florist

as a distribution center for the plants and flowers supplied to local shops.

There wasn’t even a ‘for rent’ sign on the building, so Jacquet tracked down the

owner. As soon as the lease was signed on January 1, 2002, he brought in Levitch

Associates Design/Build Architects, the family-owned Berkeley firm responsible for such

impressive retail projects as the Great Harvest Bread Co. in Oakland and four Bay Area

outlets for the award-winning Grace Baking.

“I thought it was a wreck, but that it had potential,” Maurice Levitch says of his

first impression of the space that represented challenges well beyond the typical

restaurant conversion.

Top of the list was it’s size – only slightly larger than an average bedroom –

which had to house the kitchen, walk-up counter and a large commercial refrigerator

filled with imported sodas.

Instead of enclosing the kitchen, Jacquet told Levitch he wanted to be able “to

look at the whites in people’s eyes” while cooking. “That was a very strong motivation for

how we designed the space. He wanted the grill to face the customers,” says Levitch.


For seating, they re-activated an existing permit that allowed them to place two

wooden tables with benches out front (which are removed at night). Jacquet says he

never wanted a dining room, because it would have required waiters, leading to higher

menu prices.

“It was basically taking a run-down, under-used space in a great location, with

some clever design and nice finishes,” Levitch says of the conversion that was completed

in only six months because his firm uniquely operates as both the architect and general

contractor.

On June 26, 2002, GRÉGOIRE opened just around the corner from Chez Panisse

in the heart of Berkeley’s famed Gourmet Ghetto.

The first day, it did only $400 in business – “$200 of it from my in-laws,”

Jacquet says with a laugh. “The came in and sat down, and stayed to make the place look

busy.”

Within a month, however, “I knew I was not going to be worried any more. My

first $1000 day was really hard, because it was just me, one cashier and one cook. And

then I started hiring people, because we were getting busier and busier.”

Indeed, in an industry in which 90% of new restaurants fail within the first year,

GRÉGOIRE has doubled its business each year since it opened.

“Nobody can believe it. I had no idea it was going to turn out this way. It first

became a neighborhood restaurant, but then it got busier and busier – and busier…and

busier…and busier.”

Finding the right ingredients…

Certainly, chefs in top-rated

restaurants have to be

discriminating about the

ingredients they put in their

dishes. But who would expect

it of a takeout restaurant

where the average price of a

sandwich is $7 and a dinner

entrée is $14.50?

Unless, of course, it’s offering

carryout entrées like “sautéed

duck breast, green olive &

onion sauce,” “orecchiette

pasta with Willie bird smoked

chicken and artichokes,”

“sautéed Dutch Valley veal

scaloppini, porcini sauce,” and

“sautéed pork T-bone, creamy

caramelized apple compote” –

or sandwiches that include “

king salmon with sorrel & onions on pantofolina.”

On June 26, 2002

grilled pork with spicy corn salsa on pantofolina” and “baked

, French-trained Chef Grégoire Jacquet transformed the

traditio

eart

n of carryout food by opening the first high-end artisan takeout restaurant –

called GRÉGOIRE – just around the corner from the renowned Chez Panisse in the h

of Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto.

Finding the Right Ingredients - 2 -

rom

et’s

At a time when 90% of new restaurants are either out of business or on life-

support by the first anniversary, GRÉGOIRE has doubled its business every year to

become one of the Bay Area’s most talked about culinary landmarks.

To say that GRÉGOIRE is unique would be an understatement. It’s possibly the only

exclusively-takeout restaurant in the country created and run by a full-fledged chef.

Jacquet not only spent three years in intensive apprenticeships in France (including at

two- and four-star restaurants) by the time he was 18, he previously served as the Chef

de Cuisine for a Master Chef (Jacky Robert at the famed Amelio’s) and Executive Sous

Chef in charge of the kitchens at three prestigious Ritz-Carlton hotels.

A step above

gourmet deli’s,

everything on

the menu at

GRÉGOIRE is

painstakingly

made from

scratch and

cooked to order

using the best

natural, organic

and imported

ingredients f

around the world. One hundred percent of the fish, meat, poultry and lamb on Jacqu

menu is certified natural or organic, along with seventy percent of the produce (a

limitation imposed solely by availability).

Even more unusual, every month is a new dining adventure at GRÉGOIRE. The

entire menu (with the exception of three side dishes) changes – in rhythm with nature to

take advantage of locally-grown produce picked at the peak-of-ripeness and fish caught

wild in their prime.

For Jacquet, it’s a continuing quest to find the finest, precise ingredients for his

evolving repertoire of original dishes (less than a half dozen have been repeated in three

years).


Making it possible are the long-term relationships he has cultivated with a dozen

or so equally-passionate purveyors – all small or family-owned businesses – who share

his zest for perfection and continually search the horizon for what’s new in natural and

organic products on his behalf.

Who they are and what they’ve done to help him follows…

Ports of Seafood

“I get a kick out of working with people like Grégoire. I really do. It wasn’t until I

started working with chefs about 13 years ago that seafood became a passion for me.

Before that, it was just a job. But I got taken under the wings of some of the best chefs in

the country – if not the world – who showed me what they were looking for, who cared

enough to teach me,” says Colin Lafrenz, who works with many of the finest restaurants

in the Bay Area.

Ports of

Seafood has

become the choice

of discerning chefs

like Grégoire for a

number of r

“We have the sa

products from t

same places as a

number of other

companies, but it

ends right there –

because of the way

we handle the product. If one were to walk into our place, they would see all the whole

fish, all set in a certain way, everything gets new ice, re-iced on a daily basis. The filleter

will do it however you want it. They don’t argue with it. They don’t know the word ‘no.’

Does Jacquet h

easons.

me

he

s

”

ave any special requirements? “He wants it looked at. He wants

quality

. That’s no problem. It’s not really out of the ordinary, but he expects quality.

And we expect to give it to him. He is one of the chefs that when it is nice, he’ll call us up


t-conscious restaurants who will take fish several

days ol

th, Jacquet calls him to say, “Colin, you let me know what’s going to

be on m

? “Just by virtual of

job so fascinating and

interes

Website: www.PortsSeafood.com

and say, ‘Hey, that was beautiful. Thank you.’ And he’ll also call us up and say, ‘Hey,

that’s really not Grégoire quality.’”

Lafrenz says there are budge

d for the discount, but not Jacquet. If anything, it’s the opposite. Lafrenz is so

attuned to Jacquet’s search for perfection that he doesn’t hesitate to alert him when an

order is not up to par. “I call him and tell him, ‘Hey, I can’t send you halibut today. The

halibut cheeks I saw are not Grégoire quality.’ He appreciates that. That’s what he

expects me to do.”

Once a mon

y menu next month.” “He likes to do what’s in season,” says Lafrenz. “And he

likes to stay away from farm-raised, only because of flavor – not so much because he has

an issue with how it’s raised. He just thinks wild has better flavor.”

How is it possible to know a month in advance what will be available

having been in the business, there are certain things that show up at certain times of the

year. But that one, though, gets tougher – because of quotas, as laws change based on

the health of the fishery. So we have to do our homework also.”

“Working with chefs like Grégoire – that’s what makes my

ting. Because I have customers that care. They care about the quality of product

they get. They also care about the quality of product they’re putting out,” Lafrenz shares.

Greenleaf Produce

“I think one of the main things I enjoy about working with Grégoire and chefs like

him is t

ay

ears, previously ran a catering kitchen and

cooked in small unique restaurants in Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco. She switched

hat: I know what I know – and I’ve been working in the business for a long time

and I bring a certain amount of chef knowledge to what to I do. I really appreciate it

when I meet someone such as Grégoire, who’s willing to listen to me and take what I s

as an important piece of information for their work. Because that’s all I’m trying to do is

to give people the best information for them to do their job – to make their creations

come alive,” says Greenleaf’s Paula Linton.

Linton, who’s known Jacquet for 15 y


to the p

the

best quality, peak-of-the-season

es

ut

’s

he

st that he uses them

lack of ego.

n

welcomes the information that I have and he com ting

akes

enleafsf.com

roduce business, because “I was becoming interested in farming issues, and I

really loved going and talking to chefs about what the world product is like and why

things are the way they are.”

Jacquet relies on Linton to find him

natural and organic lettuces, vegetabl

and fruits – all grown in California,

most of it north of the Bay Area.

To help Jacquet plan each month’s

menu, they discuss what will be in

season 30 days hence. “We talk abo

what vegetables are seasonal. What

going on in the growing areas. He’s

very well aware a lot of the farming

issues and very dedicated to getting

what’s in season.”

Is there anything unique about what

orders? “No, it’s ju

in a unique way,” she says.

What she particularly enjoys about

working with Jacquet is his

“Grégoire doesn’t need to make it

owledgeable about something. He

es to me and sort of says, ‘I’m coun

on you for the information. You’ll tell me what’s the best. I trust you.’ That really m

my day. It makes him in many ways unique.”

Website: www.Gre

known that he is highly trained and extremely k

Village Imports

amazing,” says Phillippe Lefour, part owner of this leading

specialty food importer who has also known Jacquet for about 15 years. “Gregoire is

“His creativity is


eally unique. I’ve been in this industry for 20 years, and we’ve been in business for 17

years, t

eal

, because he knows what he’s talking about.”

• Three differ

award-winning Zoe from Spain and Campello from Italy. Jacquet’s favorite, Lefour

and it’s always a problem if we

•

• Italy

the

ean sea water.

East Coast, that is made with 100% butter

• douillette, boudin

•

Six different Valrhona chocolates from France, including the fruity dark Manjari

Just how fussy is Jacquet? Lefour can still remember a recent incident with a bad

batch of Baleine sea salt from France. “We went through a problem, because the salt was

r

here’s no one who does a job like that.”

Because Village Imports services high-end restaurants and premiere hotels in the

Bay Area, Lefour has had the opportunity to work with many of the top chefs in the

region.

“Grégoire is very meticulous and particular on all the ingredients that he uses,”

says Lefour. “I would say that he’s extremely knowledgeable – and that’s really an id

customer

The degree to which Jacquet is committed to achieving perfection is apparent in

the items he secures through Village Imports – such as:

ent olive oils: the light-bodied and fruity Puget from Provence, the

says, is Puget. “It has a taste to it that Grégoire likes

run out of it. But we try not to.”

Two brands of Dijon mustard: Fallot and Maille, both produced for over a 100

years in the historic town of Dijon

Montecucco white truffle oil from

• La BALEINE Sea Salt from France, which is evaporated to a sparkling white by

sun and sea breezes, then washed in Mediterran

• Classic puff pastry, flown in fresh from the

(instead of margarine, like grocery store brands)

Fabrique Delices chicken livers with truffle, mousse truffle, an

blanc, and merguez – as well as Castaing goose mousse

Plugra butter, which is churned in the old world tradition

• Kendall crème fraiche, a favorite among top chefs like Thomas Keller

• The award-winning Le Village natural juice beverages from France

• from the best beans in Madagascar and Caraibe from the Caribbean with its hint of

coffee aroma and roasted dried fruit


wen

me e problem that we had with the salt?” He had

iscovered that it was a manufacturing problem with that particular lot. “I couldn’t

believe h

knows quality products.

When something isn’t up

let

ggested that Jacquet could save money by buying, say, his olive oil at

staurants do), he explains: “I don’t think money is an issue. I don’t

Website: www.MadeInFrance.net

too fine and it was creating some kind of dust that he really didn’t like. And he even

t to the extent of calling and e-mailing the company directly. It’s amazing, he called

up one day and he said, ‘You know th

d

e’d done that. So when he has something on his mind, he will go all the way.

And when it comes to food, that’s the way he is.”

Jacquet is so

particular about what he

uses, because “he knows

what he is talking

about,” says Lefour. “He

to par and up to quality,

he doesn’t hesitate to

take the phone and

you know. And I

appreciate that, because

that’s the way to go forw

When it’s su

Costco (like many re

think we ever talked about price.”

ard.”

Mann

Jacquet began working with the founder of Manna Foods approximately 16 years

ago, while still at Amelio’s, where he discovered many of the natural meat products now

on his menu.

According to Karri Smith, who inherited the GRÉGOIRE account from her father:

at aren’t certified natural, but Grégoire only wants natural and

sh and the best ingredients available.”

a Foods

“We have products th

fre


e not pinned or anything like that.”

n

ains and allowed to roam free – giving them a

distinct

etic

s less calories, half the cholesterol of

regular beef, and far less fat than a skinless chicken breast, salmon or swordfish fillet.

“There’s is

ably, Australia’s Country Meadow has been awarded the American

Tasting Institute’s “Best Tasting Imported Lamb in America” each year since 1998.

arded

s.

ry

bel.

er

high quality natural foods and given range and forage space equal to or larger than the

shelters

d

ty of room to roam.

That means “no hormones, or any kind of chemicals are given to the animal,” she

explains. “They’re raised on grains and just natural food. They’re allowed to roam

around. They’r

The beef Jacquet uses exclusively is Montana Range Brand All Natural

Piedmontese Beef. Among the world’s elite stock, the protein-dense, naturally-lea

Piedmontese are raised on high quality gr

ively deep, succulent flavor. Imported into the U.S. in the early 1980s from

northwest Italy, this rare breed has been evolving for over 25,000 years without gen

alteration or growth hormones. And reportedly it ha

a lot of very, very good natural beef products out there,” Smith says, “but th

one is special.”

All of the lamb Jacquet serves is imported, “because it tends to be maybe not

quite as gamey as domestic lamb, and it’s also smaller,” says Smith. He uses only

Atkins Ranch New Zealand Fresh Lamb and Country Meadow Austral-

American Lamb, both of which are family-run ranches where the herds are moved

from pasture to pasture – eliminating the need for artificial feed additives and growth

stimulants. Not

All of the chicken on the menu at the restaurant comes from two highly-reg

nearby Sonoma County growers – Petaluma Poultry and Fulton Valley Farm

Notably, Petaluma (home of the Rocky the Range chicken) pioneered organic poultry,

has been raising chickens without antibiotics for 15 years, and was the first in the count

to gain the USDA Free Range designation and receive the USDA certified organic la

Founded in 1925, Fulton’s chickens are also raised on a diet of the finest corn and oth

that protect them.

Smith notes how Jacquet is “really crazy about” the Maple Leaf Farms ducks

that Manna brings in fresh for the restaurant. Maple Leaf is famous for its White Pekin

duck, which the company grows on family farms – many of them in Amish and

Mennonite communities. The ducks are fed a natural, grain-based diet prepared by

Maple Leaf Farms feed mills, cared for by a staff trained in animal husbandry, and raise

in spacious barns with plen


a. These

er

acquet, when “we were going over

prices a

happy about that!

He is a

eps

ch a small space. It’s shocking, really. He keeps it so spotless in there,

it’s ama

unique thing around here, anyways. Just high quality takeout,

you kno eally

“He uses very high quality products. Always. That’s Grégoire’s main thing:

quality more than price,” she says. Is that unusual? “Yes, actually, it’s very unusual in

this business, because the restaurant business is very competitive in the Bay Are

guys are trying to pay high rent and stay in business, so they mainly are concerned ov

price. In fact, Grégoire’s probably our only customer who isn’t.”

She can still recall a recent meeting with J

nd he kind of freaked out. I was showing him a price and he thought he was

paying more than he was for this item, and he was like concerned he was ripping off his

customers,” she laughs. “That’s never, never, been an issue [with customers] before. He

really was concerned he was charging too much to his customers! I don’t think I’ve ever

experienced that before. Most of them [other chefs] would have been

mazing.”

Jacquet is also their only client who changes his entire menu monthly. “He ke

us jumping. And he’s very particular. If he doesn’t like something, we hear about – but

in a good way,” she says.

What does she think he’s doing that’s different or unique? “He’s very much

hands-on everything he likes to do. He doesn’t take any shortcuts. It’s amazing to me

what he does in su

zing to me. Because I see kitchens a lot bigger, a lot more space, that are just a

mess. And he keeps that little tiny space immaculate. He does a fantastic job.

“GRÉGOIRE’s is a

w. You have McDonald’s and whatever on every block, but what he does is r

special – everything is done to perfection.”

Websites:

www.MontanaRange.com www.AtkinsRanch.com

www.SuperiorFarms.com www.PetalumaPoultry.com

www.FultonValley.com

www.Redcoatpublishing.com/spotlights/sl_06_04_MapleLeaf.asp


V & C Dairy Products

It wasn’t until Jacquet asked this 60-year-old family business to seek out organic

products for him that V & C Dairy began carrying them.

Steven Herrera of V & C notes “that on the retail side, you’ll find a lot of organic

roduct. But on the food service side of it, it hasn’t hit the market as much because of

ly, organic products will cost sometimes 170% of what

e normal cost of a product would be. For the consumer, it’s not as much of a financial

com

ases double – that’s a real

com

m,

butter and goat cheeses. Notably, this family-owned farm just north of

San Francisco became the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi in 1993.

The

m, because it’s not homogenized – is

just

p

the price of the product. Typical

th

mitment to buy a half gallon of organic milk and pay a dollar more, but when you

operate a restaurant your menu costs are nearly in some c

mitment.”

Herrera notes there are some restaurants in varying degrees that will offer organic

products, or organic ingredients within a dish. But there are only a handful in the entire

Bay Area that do it to the extent of GRÉGOIRE.

Through V & C, Jacquet orders the Straus Family Creamery’s whole milk, crea

eggs, premium

ir European-style butter was named the best in America by House and Garden

magazine and called “extraordinary” by Martha Stewart on her television show. And

their whole milk – which comes topped with crea

as remarkable.

Website: www.StrausMilk.com

g, what Jacquet calls the best bread in the Bay Area is delivered to

his door. If there are a half dozen sandwiches on the menu that month, each one will

typically feature a different and lavash to

ciabatta, baquette, focacccia and pita.

emiffredi’s, founded in 1987, uses only organic flours,

hapes each roll and bun by hand, then lets it slow-rise before heading to the oven while

the city

Semiffredi’s Bakery

Every mornin

type bun or roll – na, rye from pantofoli

A true artisan bakery, S

s

sleeps. Unlike “bake-off” bread (frozen dough that’s baked on the premises of


er

g. We’re just passionate about the way our

breads

th

to

l

supermarkets and promoted as “fresh”), “we’re not taking shortcuts,” says co-own

Mike Rose. “We’re not freezing anythin

taste. And I can tell Grégoire is too, from the food I’ve had at his place.”

Jacquet’s exclusive supplier since the day he opened his doors in 2002, Rose says,

“We love working with restaurants like GRÉGOIRE. He has an amazing operation,

doesn’t he? His place is awesome. Ah, the taste of his food! And we try to do that wi

the bread – sort of take it to an edge of just where you crave it. Like Grégoire’s pota

puffs, we try to make each type of bread we do addictive.”

Article:

www.Progressivebaker.com/toolbox/profiles/semifred/semifre1.htm

Jeff Melendy, who started his career working at the front of restaurants, played

an o

search out new products and equipment on his behalf.

diligence that located the rare but essential

ylinder-shaped fryer baskets that make it possible for Jacquet to cook his signature

containers for condiments that

one of the key reasons why the potato puffs are like

“balls o

the

Birite Food Distributors

instrumental role in helping Jacquet bring his original vision to life, and continues t

For instance, it was Melendy’s

c

potato puffs without bruising them, the never-before-seen plastic silver cutlery that

customers love to save after a meal, the checkered paper inlay sheets that finish off

GRÉGOIRE’s trademark carry-out boxes, and the small

accompany many of the entrées.

“Grégoire’s always looking for something new that could be applicable,” says

Melendy, who thrives on the challenge. But he’s quick to point out, “I would never,

never go in and show him something cheap.”

Indeed, while the deep fry oils are one area where restaurants typically try to cut

costs, Jacquet opts for the best –

f smooth potato puree, deep fried until the insides are like custard and the

outside is crisp,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “He really takes pride in

oils he uses,” Melendy says.


.

in

I get something that’s organic, that can be applied to his

operati

ervice.com

And among the other ways Jacquet is exceptional, Melendy says, is that “he uses

the finest peppers that he can get. The whole black pepper. He does his own grinding

He makes his own seasonings. He uses organic flour from Giusto’s, the standard

Northern California (the highest quality chefs use their flours), and Israeli cous cous

and Barilla pasta. Anytime

on, he always wants me to bring that to him.”

Melendy can still remember how Jacquet told him in the beginning that he

wanted to provide the highest-quality food in takeout. “Now, he has set the standard –

definitely in the East Bay, if not the Bay Area. The consistency never drops, it only just

keeps elevating.”

Website: www.BiriteFoodS

All of the smoked salmon t’s menu is flown in

directly from the Sullivan Harbor Farm in Maine. Dean & DeLuca has called this

smokery “one of the finest in the U.S.” Specializing in old world methods, they start with

on that has been farm-raised in the clean rigid waters near the Canadian

border. Within hours, the fillets are cured using an artisanal Scottish technique that

Website: www.SullivanHarborFarm.com

Others

that frequently appears on Jacque

Atlantic salm

involves hand-rubbing the raw salmon in small batches with salt and brown sugar –

rather than conventional methods in which they’re injected with brine or soaked in tubs

of salted water.

And many of GRÉGOIRE’s cheeses come from a renowned Berkeley coop – The

Cheese Board Collective – just two blocks away.

Website: www.CheeseBoardCollective.coop

PRESS KIT

Chef/Owner Grégoire Jacquet

Official Websites:

www.GregoireRestaurant.com www.SoccaOven.com

Press Kit Contents:

(Please use “Bookmarks” tab to navigate)

• SOCCA OVEN press release (3/18/06)

• GRÉGOIRE press release (2/21/06)

• Q&A with Chef Jacquet about GRÉGOIRE

• Biography for Chef Jacquet

• Building GRÉGOIRE

• Finding the Right Ingredients

For More Information:

Foggia+Associates PR

(661) 259-6561 or [email protected]


http://www.soccaoven.com/


Chef Grégoire Jacquet

opens SOCCA OVEN in

Berkeley’s new Epicurious Garden

BERKELEY – March 18, 2006 – Chef Grégoire Jacquet has created another new concept

in takeout dining with the launch of SOCCA OVEN today in Berkeley’s new Epicurious

Garden.

A popular street food in Nice, soccas have been around since at least the mid-

1800s, when vendors would roll their wooden carts between job sites and cook them on

the spot in charcoal ovens as a mid-morning snack for workers. Traditionally, soccas are

rustic crepes or pancakes made exclusively from chick-pea flour, then baked quickly at

extremely high heat, much like pizzas.

Chickpeas were first grown in ancient Egypt, then spread throughout the

Mediterranean by the sea trade. Today, soccas can be found in such other countries as

Italy (where they’re called farinata), Spain (calentita) and even Argentina (faina).

For his new restaurant, Jacquet is giving classic soccas a new dimension by

topping them with marinated and grilled or sautéed vegetables, meat, chicken or fish.

Like Jacquet’s popular GRÉGOIRE Restaurant, the SOCCA OVEN will emphasize

certified natural or organic ingredients, including regionally-grown fresh produce and

wild-caught fish. In addition, Jacquet plans to use only the finest imported chick-pea

flour, olive oil, and cracked pepper.

To give his soccas a crispy, crusty, golden-thin bottom, Jacquet has equipped the

SOCCA OVEN with a hand-crafted gas-fueled Wood Stone oven designed to provide a

wood-fired flavor.

“Socca’s are an ideal food for healthy gourmet dining,” Jacquet says. “They’re low

in carbohydrates, they’re gluten-free, and they contain no yeast or eggs. I personally love

the nutty taste of chickpeas. The flavor is amazing.”

A classically-trained French chef, Jacquet has been at the forefront of re-

inventing takeout food since June 2002, when he opened the critically-acclaimed

GRÉGOIRE on Cedar Street, around the corner from Chez Panisse.

A dining hit with both restaurant critics and customers, the tiny restaurant has

become regionally-famous for its signature Crispy Potato Puffs – which San Francisco

magazine named as one of “The 125 Best Things to Eat” in the Bay Area and East Bay

Express critic Jonathan Kauffman selected as one of his “Top Ten” favorite dishes in

2003.





A second GRÉGOIRE opened on February 21, 2006, on Oakland’s historic

Piedmont Avenue..

Prior to founding GRÉGOIRE, Jacquet served as the Executive Sous Chef for the

Ritz-Carlton, in charge of the kitchens at their highly-rated San Francisco, Boston and

Puerto Rico hotels. He began his career in France at the age of 14, completing an



Robert at Amelio’s in San Francisco – who elevated him to Chef de Cuisine within the

first year.

SOCCA OVEN Hours: 11 am – 9 pm, 7 days a week

Address: 1511B Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709

Phone: (510) 548-6001

Website: ww.SoccaOven.com

* * *

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lyla Foggia, (661) 259-6561 or [email protected]


historic Piedmont District today! BERKELEY – February 21, 2006 – Chef/Owner Grégoire Jacquet has expanded his

critically-acclaimed GRÉGOIRE Restaurant in Berkeley with a second location at 4001B

Piedmont Avenue in Oakland – which opened today.

Recently named one of the “Bay Area’s Top 9 Takeout Spots” by San Francisco

magazine, the new GRÉGOIRE is located in the historic Elsie L. Turner Building, a

Beaux Arts structure designed by renowned architect Julia Morgan.

Chef Jacquet has been at the forefront of re-inventing takeout since June 2002,

when he opened the original GRÉGOIRE around the corner from Chez Panisse in

Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto.

Since its debut, GRÉGOIRE has become a dining hit with both restaurant critics

and customers. Among its most popular items are the GRÉGOIRE Crispy Potato Puffs

($4.25), which have earned cult status around the Bay. San Francisco magazine

featured the Puffs in its “The 125 Best Things to Eat” issue last May, East Bay Express

critic Jonathan Kauffman has included them in his “Top Ten” list of favorite dishes, and

7x7 SF magazine made them an “Editor’s Pick,” among other accolades.





Prior to opening his own restaurants, Jacquet served as the Executive Sous Chef

for the Ritz-Carlton, in charge of the kitchens at their highly-rated San Francisco, Boston

and Puerto Rico hotels. He began his career in France at the age of 14, completing an



Robert at Amelio’s in San Francisco – who elevated him to Chef de Cuisine only a year

later.

Facts:







(at 40th)

Phone: (510) 547-3444

Fax: (510) 547-3555

Berkeley Location

2109 Cedar Street


Phone: (510) 883-1893

Fax: (510) 883-1894

* * *

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lyla Foggia Foggia+Associates PR

(661) 259-6561 [email protected]



Q&A with Chef Grégoire Jacquet

You’re a classically-trained French chef. Why ‘takeout’ instead of a regular restaurant?

JACQUET: Because people are busy and they don’t always have the time to go to a sit-

down restaurant to get good food. My food is just like the food you would find in a fine

restaurant – but put in a box. The only thing missing is a big room out front and

waiters. If I had a dining room, I’d have to charge half again as much for my food. This

way, I can serve lamb chops for $16.50. In a dine-in restaurant, they’d be $25 to $30 for

the same quality of meat because I use only imported natural lamb. A 10 oz. veal chop at

GREGOIRE is only $18; elsewhere it would be $30 to $32.

Almost everything you serve is natural or organic. Isn’t that a lot more expensive?

JACQUET: Most restaurants spend about 33% of their total budget on ingredients.

Mine is 37%. I’m usually paying more wholesale than people pay retail in a regular

grocery store. But it’s worth it. Everything is tastier and healthier for you. It’s the way

I’ve always eaten.

Do you think your customers really know the difference? JACQUET: Oh, yeah. That’s why they keep coming back. People have told me, ‘What

we get at GRÉGOIRE, it’s Chez Panisse at half the price.’ Now, I’m not comparing myself

to Chez Panisse, but I am using many of the same food sources and techniques.

What’s the key difference between your sandwiches and those in an upscale

deli?

Q&A with Chef Gregoire Jacquet - 2 -

JACQUET: My sandwiches are really dinner entrees between two pieces of bread. When

I’m putting together the menu, I’m thinking about dishes, not whether it’s for lunch or

dinner. ‘What would I put with this? What would be good with that?’ Everything is

geared to flavor and intensity and perfection. Plus, I use ingredients that you usually

don’t see in sandwiches – like smoked trout, pulled pork, soft shell crab.

Your Crispy Potato Puffs have become the talk of the Bay Area. Where did they come from?

JACQUET: The puffs were inspired by something I ate while growing up in France. But

they’re completely original. We sell more puffs than anything else. What makes them

work is not just the batter, but how we cook them. I even brought in special equipment

to make sure they’re not bruised while we’re frying them.

How big is the restaurant?

JACQUET: The entire restaurant is only 600 square feet. Most of it is the kitchen out

front, which takes up 400 square feet.

How do you come up with a whole-new menu each month?

JACQUET: It’s a lot of work. The menu changes on the first day of the month. Plus,

almost everything on it is seasonal. So two weeks before, I call my suppliers to find out

what will be hot. The best fish catches. What’s being picked in the fields. Even some

meats, such as lamb, is better at certain times of the year.

Then I start thinking about the recipes I’ll use, particularly how I’m going to cook all

these ingredients, because I don’t want everything to be grilled. And I don’t want

everything to be sautéed. Because I have no space. I don’t want everything to go in the

oven, though I have a lot of things go in the oven. I can’t overload one piece of

equipment. Then I find the sauces and create the recipe for each dish and place my

orders.


The next step is organization. What and how you do things: the work load in the kitchen

for lunch, the workload in the kitchen for dinner. I have to break down all the

preparation for each dish, then I write up a preparation list for the staff. For instance,

we do a lot of marinating. Whatever is grilled is usually marinated or they do something

with it.

Three days before we change the menu, I start training the staff. That’s when they start

preparing the food. But they don’t actually cook anything until the first day of the

month. We make the sauces. We taste the sauces. My cooking is simple to some extent

– there’s a lot of braised things, things are cooked together. But it’s basically simple.

Is there anything on the menu that doesn’t change from month to month?

JACQUET: Just the potato puffs and the French fries. And I always have some kind of

bread pudding – just the flavor changes depending on what fruit’s in season that month.

Where do your recipes come from?

JACQUET: Everything is original every month. I try not to duplicate even the

sandwiches I do. The recipes come from me primarily, with ideas from my staff. It’s just

a matter of figuring how to turn a dish into a medley of flavors with what’s in season, and

then I work out all the recipes in my head.

As a trained chef, are you using classic cooking techniques on how you prepare your food?

JACQUET: Definitely. I’m using whatever high-class, high-fine dining restaurants

anywhere would use to do my food.

What goes into the preparation of your food?

JACQUET: There’s nothing fast about how we prepare the food. Restaurants – and I’m

sad about this – they don’t cook anymore, really. Everything today is about cutting

corners. Whether it’s time or money.


For instance, at GRÉGOIRE right now, I have a tomato braised chicken with melted

cheese sandwich on the menu. Other takeout restaurants would do just a regular chicken

breast with some tomato sauce over the top, and that’s it. We not only use leg meat –

because breast meat is dry and doesn’t have enough flavor – we sauté it with some secret

ingredients, then braise it for eight hours.

Another example is how we do French fries. We use only Kennebec potatoes, which are

hard to find and expensive. And we cook them in two stages. After we cut them into the

shape of fries, they go into the fryer and get poached in peanut oil at 300 degrees. At

that point, they’re breakable but not entirely cooked. Then they’re refrigerated. When

an order comes in, they go into the fryer again at 375 degrees for about five to seven

minutes. And what comes out is a French fry that is crisp on the outside and soft and

moist on the inside.

We cook meats for hours when we need to. For example, beef short ribs, we put them in

the oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours. Beef cheeks, they’re baked in braising juice for about 5

hours.

We also make all of our own stocks [veal, beef, fish and chicken] for sauces and braising.

The stocks take two days. I know there’s a lot of stocks on the market I could buy, but

this is the only way I can get the flavor I want and know what it will taste like. I mean,

that’s how I learned. I don’t know any other way.

So you’re not just buying cheaper cuts of meat and cooking it a long time to

make it tender?

JACQUET: Oh, no. One time I asked my meat supplier for some really tender, really

nice veal because I wanted to do some scaloppini. She brings me samples and one of

them has been tenderized. Unbelievable. Oh, my God, I didn’t even look at it. I didn’t

even touch it. You know what I mean? But anyway, no, I don’t buy cheap cuts of meats.

The beef short ribs I buy, for instance, they’re $4.75 a pound. Wholesale! That’s a lot of

money for a restaurant.


How do you handle all this preparation in such a tiny space? It must be

carefully choreographed.

JACQUET: First we come in the morning and we do everything that has to be cooked at

300 degrees, because we have just one oven. Otherwise, all day long the oven has to be

at 400 degrees. So in the morning, we cook things like the bread puddings and potato

Au Gratin. That takes an hour and a half to two hours to cook. We also do the French

fries in the morning, because the oil has to be a lower temperature than later in the day.

After we prep for lunch, then we get ready for dinner, such as cutting the meats. We

have to do that everyday.

You have patents on the GRÉGOIRE takeout boxes – which are octagonal in shape and made out of corrugated cardboard. How did they come about?

JACQUET: Before I opened the restaurant, I knew I wanted to do a takeout, so I knew

I’d need a takeout box. But Berkeley’s very strict about Styrofoam boxes. You can’t use

them. So it had to be cardboard, which I don’t like, because it doesn’t keep the food

warm. So I brainstormed for something that was different and easy to use, and I came

up with the idea for corrugated cardboard. It’s rugged and sturdy, but beautiful and

good for the food. And they can be recycled. Customers also reuse them for other things.

Why are they octagonal?

JACQUET: It’s easier to fold than a square box. They come to us flat and we put them

together one by one in our kitchen. We go through over 10,000 boxes a month – so it’s a

lot of work.

Who designed your logo?

My brother, Nicolai, who’s a cartoonist in France. He designed it before the restaurant

even opened. It’s very funky and it’s a good illustration of who we are. And even though

we didn’t know who we were going to be when we made that logo, it’s just perfect.

Chef Grégoire Jacquet Biography

Hard as it is to believe, Jacquet did not know there

were people who cooked for a living – or that

restaurants even existed – until he was 14, the

same year he began his formal training to become

a chef.

Cooking would not only become his

passion, a life in the kitchen would became his lifeline out of juvenile delinquency, as

well as his ticket to America.

After completing three years of intensive apprenticeships at two- and four-star

restaurants in France by the time he was 18, Jacquet arrived in San Francisco in 1989

with a single suitcase and a coveted job with the renowned master chef, Jacky Robert.

He knew exactly two words of English: “yes” and “no.”

A year later, Robert elevated Jacquet to Chef de Cuisine of the famed Amelio’s.

Four years later, Jacquet was appointed Banquet Chef of the Ritz Carlton San

Francisco, where he ultimately served as the Executive Sous Chef at three of their

highest-rated hotels. Then, in 2002, Jacquet reinvented takeout by opening his own

innovative restaurant in the heart of Berkeley’s famous Gourmet Ghetto.

*

Born just outside Paris in the historic city of Versailles, France, Jacquet was

about six when his father – a senior sales executive who traveled the world for

Caterpillar – quit his job and moved the family to Grazay in the Normandy region.

The small village had only 80 inhabitants (most of them elderly), a épicierie

(grocery story), boucherie (butcher), two schools, “and that’s it,” says Jacquet. There

was not even a boulangerie (bakery), much less a restaurant, movie theater or other

modern amenities. “It was a typical French village. Too small to have anything but a

church.”

In many ways though, it was an idyllic existence. Almost everything the Jacquet

family ate was raised on their small plot of land – from rabbits and chickens to fruit and

vegetables – or purchased from a neighbor’s farm.


“The chicken would be killed that morning. The tomato picked the day before.

We had a huge garden, with artichokes, endives, asparaguses, strawberries, raspberries,

pears and apples,” he remembers. “We didn’t have any money, so we would eat whatever

the garden was going to give us.”

At a young age, he learned how to make organic goat cheese and grow

mushrooms, while helping out on a friend’s farm. He also went along on the ten-hour

roundtrip drive once a week to deliver the cheese to shops around Paris.

Watching his mother in the kitchen, Jacquet just knew at the age of six that he

wanted to be a chef. Even so, he didn’t know there were people who cooked for a living –

and wouldn’t until he was 14, when he dined out in a restaurant for the first time while

attending the banquet held for his Catholic confirmation.

For a teenager, however, the simple village life could be boring. At 14, he began

getting into trouble with the law while hanging out with a local “gang” of six teenagers

who cruised the countryside on their souped-up mopeds. They’d do things like steal

cigarettes, pull down road signs and telephone poles, and throw rocks at glass bus stops

to watch them shatter.

Before long, the group was arrested and spent a night in jail. The two boys over

18 went to prison for two years. Because he was still a minor, Jacquet was sentenced to

house arrest until he reached 18, and allowed to leave his mother’s property only to go to

school or when accompanied by one of his parents.

He was also expelled from school. “So I had to decide on something, and I said, ‘I

want to be a chef.’”

In their search for a cooking school that would take him, Jacquet and his parents

drove around France. However, each one they visited declined, because of his poor

grades and trouble-making past. Fortunately, his father finally discovered one, a private

farming/cooking trade school only 50 miles away, which admitted anyone who could

afford the tuition.

Cooking school

Though only 14 at the time, Jacquet entered the rigorous three-year program for

which he would work six-day weeks for little or no pay in a series of regional restaurants

– including the four-star La Terrasse and two-star La Bonne Auberge.


Before he was done, Jacquet would accumulate a body of hard-earned knowledge

from working in every type of restaurant found in France – from fine dining to brasserie,

ferme auberge (farm inn) and restauration (high volume fast food).

As he would discover later, Jacquet lucked out on his very first assignment –

working directly for the 27-year-old chef/owner (also a master chef in sauces) of Au

Vieux Pressoir in Louvignié in the Mayenne countryside.

“He was so young, he took me under his wing and really gave me the love of

cooking. I worked so hard for him, more than I’ve ever worked for anybody,” Jacquet

says of the nine-month stint.

Au Vieux Pressoir also opened up a whole new world for the teenager. “When a

restaurant is good in France, people will drive long distances to get there. No big deal.

This was a world I didn’t know, because my parents never had any money. So I didn’t

know there were restaurants around.”

Jacquet lived with his father during the week and at the restaurant on weekends,

going to bed at 4 a.m. and starting again at 8 a.m. During the winter they hunted for

such wild game as grive, a French delicacy. When the owner had to be hospitalized over

a weekend for a hernia, he left Jacquet, who had just turned 15, in charge.

“I loved the fact that I felt important and needed, which never happened in my

life prior to that. This guy really made me love cooking. He really taught me a lot about

food and just respect of it, how to get it, how important it is. Everything about food. If

the Au Vieux Pressoir was not the first one – and with those people especially – I

probably would never become a chef. Because it is such a tough business in France,” he

says.

Jacquet’s second apprenticeship – at Orly Restauration in Lyon in the Vallée

du Rhone district – fortuitously lasted only one month.

“I wanted to try a little bit of everything,” he explains of his reason for choosing a

cafeteria attached to a factory that fed a thousand people per day. But he quickly grew to

hate it.

The equivalent of fast food in the U.S., nothing was made from scratch. Even the

mashed potatoes were whipped up from instant flakes. “The guy said to me, ‘You got to

cook pasta.’ I say, ‘Okay, how much?’ And he showed me two cases. I mean, I’d never

seen cases so big in my life! I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ I had no idea how to do it,” Jacquet

says with a laugh.


For his third apprenticeship, Jacquet joined the kitchen of Brasserie de la

Place, located in the town of Laval.

At the time, it was owned by a widow, who was “really crazy. She was really

crazy. I learned what not to do in the kitchen. I didn’t learn anything else. It was so bad.

Unfresh, nasty food,” he says of the spoiled ingredients he was forced to work with.

“The chef was awful. It was nine months of hell. I was under contract so I

couldn’t leave. But I really learned. Every job you really learn from.”

Jacquet’s fourth apprenticeship, at La Ferme De Cuzorn in the countryside

east of Bourdeaux, was a ferme auberge (country inn). Popular in France, this type of

restaurant raises and grows everything it serves, then offers patrons, who dine at

communal tables, one prix fixe menu per day.

“I learned a lot of original cooking from the Perigord region. They use a lot of

truffles. All the foie gras comes from there. They have excellent wine. A lot of chestnuts.

A lot of goat cheese. It’s very food oriented. I learned a lot about stuffing things,” he

says of his three-month tenure.

Jacquet next became a trainee for nine months at the two-star restaurant, La

Bonne Auberge in Laval, which specialized in classic French cooking. “It’s a really

good restaurant in the city I’m from,” he says.

Finally, his last apprenticeship before graduating was at the four-star La

Terrasse in Javron. “Really nice people,” Jacquet says of the wife, who was an English

pastry chef, and her husband, a French chef.

“I got to do things there I’d never done anywhere, like fresh escargot and lobsters

and a lot of things I’d never touched before. I loved to work there. It was a great, great,

great experience.”

Following graduation, Jacquet, now 18, immediately landed his first professional

job, as an assistant cook at the four-star L’Hotel Des Neiges in the Courchevel 1850

ski resort in the French Alps.

As miserable as he had been in several positions as a trainee, nothing compared

to the politics and personality clashes that raged behind-the-scenes in the Des Neiges’

kitchen. “There were about 20 people working in the kitchen and they were all out to get

each other. And I was nobody. I was a small, itty bitty cook.”

When he came in an hour late one day, Jacquet was ordered to clean the whole

kitchen during his break. “I was standing up on that stove, and it was so hot. The stove

had been working, so I have to be careful not to melt my shoes. And I decided I was not


going to take it any longer. I didn’t go there to clean. I go there to cook and learn how to

cook.”

Furious, he climbed down, walked straight to the dining room where the top

chefs were eating their lunch, threw down his apron – and announced that he was

quitting. It was the only time he would ever walk off a job.

“It was the conclusion of a lot of things that happened there,” Jacquet explains.

“France is very different from America, when it comes to personalities in the kitchen. By

nature, the French are jerks. They like to criticize everything. They like to bug

everybody. In the kitchen, you’re so criticized. It’s always about perfection and doing

things the way this one wants. It’s really hard, and if you’re not tough, you don’t make it.

During those years, I came home crying many, many, many times. And I saw many,

many, many people quit.”

Cooking in Paris

Soon after returning home, Jacquet received a call from a friend with a job offer

at the Hollywood Savoy in Paris’ Bourse district, where he would spend the next year and

a half.

A popular haunt with Americans, the restaurant featured singing waiters, “but

the chef was really, really good,” Jacquet says. “He came from two-star Michelin

restaurants, and he really loved his food. So it was a fun place to work. I learned a lot.”

Even so, he was working six days a week – from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. with only a one

hour break. Starting out as the Chef Garde Manger, responsible for all the cold food,

buffet and desserts, Jacquet was promoted nine months later to Chef Poissonnier, in

charge of ordering and cleaning all the fish, as well as pastry and food costs and control.

Ready for a change, Jacquet quit the Savoy and had a job lined up at a two-star

restaurant on the Champ d’Elysees when he took a month long vacation to San

Francisco.

Even though he didn’t speak a word of English, he spent some of the time trying

to meet Bay Area chefs, “to see what’s happening here.” One of them told him how

immigration works and said that if he needed a sponsor, to go see Jacky Robert at

Amelio’s, who was looking for a sous chef.

Robert hired him on the spot, and Jacquet returned to France to work for two

more months, while waiting for the INS to approve his application for a green card.


Moving to America

In September 1989, he arrived back in San Francisco, and began what would

become a defining period in his career.

Also originally from the Normandy region, Jacky Robert was one of only 200

Maitre Cuisinier de France (Master Chefs) in the world, and had been featured as one of

the elite on the “Great Chefs” PBS television series.

His restaurant, Amelio’s, had been honored with 4 stars from Mobil, four

diamonds from AAA, and 17 of 20 points from Gault et Millaux. Renowned for its

innovative French cuisine, Amelio’s featured a 9000-bottle wine collection and was the

first in the country to use high-end Villeroy & Boch fine china.

“It was impeccable. The best restaurant in San Francisco at the time. I started

tasting good wines and cooking great food. Ahhhh,” Jacquet sighs. “Amazing food. And

I learned so much with this guy. He was so good!”

Jacquet thrived under Robert’s influence. Starting out as Garde Manger, he was

promoted to Chef Pâtissier, then to Chef Entremetier in just the first year. When Robert

became the sole owner of Amelio’s soon after, he put Jacquet, then only 21, in charge of

his entire kitchen, as his Chef de Cuisine.

For the next four years, Jacquet’s responsibilities included development of the

recipes and oversight of personnel and purchasing. At the same time, the restaurant

became so prosperous that Robert decided to add a café with its own menu, which

Jacquet also designed and had constructed.

“Jacky really changed my whole approach to cooking. But after five years, I

figured I needed more management skills,” Jacquet says. “So I decided to go work for

the Ritz Carlton. I decided if I had to work in a hotel to learn management, it had to be

the best.”

Joining the Ritz Carlton Hotels

Although it meant a dramatic pay cut, Jacquet joined the Mobil 5-star/AAA 5-

diamond Ritz Carlton in San Francisco in May 1994. After waiting six months for an

opening, he accepted the position of Banquet Chef, even though he had never done

banquets. “I took it anyway. I just wanted to go there.”

Jacquet spent the next three years running the department, while working 17-

hour days, seven days a week. With a staff of only five cooks, they served three meals a

day to hundreds at a time, using only fresh ingredients and doing all their own prepping.


Entrees ran from beef tenderloin to swordfish, sea bass and monkfish. The secret to

feeding masses of people at one time? “Organization. It’s all organization,” he says

matter-of-factly.

He also worked closely with guest chefs brought in for charity fundraising events,

many of whom had no banquet experience. Together, they’d plan the menu, then Jacquet

would determine what volume of ingredients to order and organize the cooking.

While still at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, the corporate headquarters sent

him out to set up the kitchens (including hiring personnel) for their new hotels in Bali

and Jamaica, as well as the Algonquin Club in Boston and the Country Club of

Columbus.

In April 1997, Jacquet was promoted to Executive Sous-Chef of the Mobil 4-

star/AAA 4-diamond Ritz-Carlton in Boston – the chain’s oldest and most prestigious

property. It was a major leap up the management ladder. Suddenly, he was no longer

supervising a single department, but was second in command of the entire food

operation for the hotel’s four restaurants, catering department, 48 employees and sous-

chefs, along with ordering all the food and upgrading the employee dining room.

A year and a half later, Jacquet was moved back to the Ritz-Carlton in San

Francisco as Executive Sous-Chef, where he spent two more years – during which the

hotel received the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. Now responsible for a staff of 65, he

also upgraded the Club Lounge and supervised the catering department.

In November 2000, Jacquet was transferred to Puerto Rico to do a major

overhaul of the troubled food operation at the Ritz-Carlton San Juan Spa & Casino –

then a Mobil 4-star/AAA 4-diamond property. For six months, he served as the acting

Executive Chef, while replacing and training the entire 80-person kitchen staff –

including such key positions as the executive sous chef, dining room chef, and banquet

chef, among other managers.



He resigned his position at the Ritz-Carlton and headed home to Berkeley with

his wife, Tara, a professional photographer who was expecting their first child.

Exactly one year later – on June 26, 2002 – Jacquet opened GRÉGOIRE, which

San Francisco magazine has named one of “The Bay Area’s Top 9 Takeout Spots” and

the San Francisco Chronicle has called “delicious food.”

Building the original GRÉGOIRE…



He resigned his position as acting Executive Chef for the Ritz-Carlton in San

Juan, Puerto Rico, and headed home to Berkeley with his wife, Tara, a professional

photographer who was expecting their first child.

It was the cumulation of a three-year apprenticeship in his native France,

beginning at the age of 14, and an intense professional career that included five years

with the legendary Master Chef Jacky Robert (including as the Chef de Cuisine at

Amelio’s), and seven years at the Ritz-Carlton (four of them in charge of the kitchens at

their top-rated San Francisco, Boston, and San Juan hotels).

During the first four months back in the Bay Area, they lived with Tara’s parents

while waiting for their furniture and car to arrive, and Jacquet spent the time

contemplating his options.

“I was looking for something. I had a lot of things in mind that I wanted to do,

including takeout. The only thing I knew for sure was that I was not going to work for

anybody,” he reflects.

By the time they moved back into their cottage on Rose Street, Jacquet had

worked out the concept and plotted the details of what would become GRÉGOIRE –


from the menu and layout of the kitchen to the distinctive carry-out box and his now-

famous potato puffs.

He envisioned a small neighborhood restaurant on the order of the village

eateries found in the countryside of his native France – sort of a local gathering place

“where people come in and you know their names and what they like.”

By that November, Jacquet had the funding and was actively searching for a

location. The space didn’t need to be large – indeed, smaller was better, because it

allowed him to keep his overhead, and prices, down.

He finally found it – a 400-square foot, abandoned storefront, built around the

1920s. “It was no more than a hole in the wall,” Jacquet remembers. “Really grimy and

disgusting and gross.”

Why such a small space? “Because I wanted to make it a takeout, and at first I

didn’t think it was going to be so busy,” he says.

The long-time Berkeley eyesore had formerly been occupied by a bistro that was

rarely open and eventually disappeared. The back room was still being used by a florist

as a distribution center for the plants and flowers supplied to local shops.

There wasn’t even a ‘for rent’ sign on the building, so Jacquet tracked down the

owner. As soon as the lease was signed on January 1, 2002, he brought in Levitch

Associates Design/Build Architects, the family-owned Berkeley firm responsible for such

impressive retail projects as the Great Harvest Bread Co. in Oakland and four Bay Area

outlets for the award-winning Grace Baking.

“I thought it was a wreck, but that it had potential,” Maurice Levitch says of his

first impression of the space that represented challenges well beyond the typical

restaurant conversion.

Top of the list was it’s size – only slightly larger than an average bedroom –

which had to house the kitchen, walk-up counter and a large commercial refrigerator

filled with imported sodas.

Instead of enclosing the kitchen, Jacquet told Levitch he wanted to be able “to

look at the whites in people’s eyes” while cooking. “That was a very strong motivation for

how we designed the space. He wanted the grill to face the customers,” says Levitch.


For seating, they re-activated an existing permit that allowed them to place two

wooden tables with benches out front (which are removed at night). Jacquet says he

never wanted a dining room, because it would have required waiters, leading to higher

menu prices.

“It was basically taking a run-down, under-used space in a great location, with

some clever design and nice finishes,” Levitch says of the conversion that was completed

in only six months because his firm uniquely operates as both the architect and general

contractor.

On June 26, 2002, GRÉGOIRE opened just around the corner from Chez Panisse

in the heart of Berkeley’s famed Gourmet Ghetto.

The first day, it did only $400 in business – “$200 of it from my in-laws,”

Jacquet says with a laugh. “The came in and sat down, and stayed to make the place look

busy.”

Within a month, however, “I knew I was not going to be worried any more. My

first $1000 day was really hard, because it was just me, one cashier and one cook. And

then I started hiring people, because we were getting busier and busier.”

Indeed, in an industry in which 90% of new restaurants fail within the first year,

GRÉGOIRE has doubled its business each year since it opened.

“Nobody can believe it. I had no idea it was going to turn out this way. It first

became a neighborhood restaurant, but then it got busier and busier – and busier…and

busier…and busier.”

Finding the right ingredients…

Certainly, chefs in top-rated

restaurants have to be

discriminating about the

ingredients they put in their

dishes. But who would expect

it of a takeout restaurant

where the average price of a

sandwich is $7 and a dinner

entrée is $14.50?

Unless, of course, it’s offering

carryout entrées like “sautéed

duck breast, green olive &

onion sauce,” “orecchiette

pasta with Willie bird smoked

chicken and artichokes,”

“sautéed Dutch Valley veal

scaloppini, porcini sauce,” and

“sautéed pork T-bone, creamy

caramelized apple compote” –

or sandwiches that include “

king salmon with sorrel & onions on pantofolina.”

On June 26, 2002

grilled pork with spicy corn salsa on pantofolina” and “baked

, French-trained Chef Grégoire Jacquet transformed the

traditio

eart

n of carryout food by opening the first high-end artisan takeout restaurant –

called GRÉGOIRE – just around the corner from the renowned Chez Panisse in the h

of Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto.


rom

et’s

At a time when 90% of new restaurants are either out of business or on life-

support by the first anniversary, GRÉGOIRE has doubled its business every year to

become one of the Bay Area’s most talked about culinary landmarks.

To say that GRÉGOIRE is unique would be an understatement. It’s possibly the only

exclusively-takeout restaurant in the country created and run by a full-fledged chef.

Jacquet not only spent three years in intensive apprenticeships in France (including at

two- and four-star restaurants) by the time he was 18, he previously served as the Chef

de Cuisine for a Master Chef (Jacky Robert at the famed Amelio’s) and Executive Sous

Chef in charge of the kitchens at three prestigious Ritz-Carlton hotels.

A step above

gourmet deli’s,

everything on

the menu at

GRÉGOIRE is

painstakingly

made from

scratch and

cooked to order

using the best

natural, organic

and imported

ingredients f

around the world. One hundred percent of the fish, meat, poultry and lamb on Jacqu

menu is certified natural or organic, along with seventy percent of the produce (a

limitation imposed solely by availability).

Even more unusual, every month is a new dining adventure at GRÉGOIRE. The

entire menu (with the exception of three side dishes) changes – in rhythm with nature to

take advantage of locally-grown produce picked at the peak-of-ripeness and fish caught

wild in their prime.

For Jacquet, it’s a continuing quest to find the finest, precise ingredients for his

evolving repertoire of original dishes (less than a half dozen have been repeated in three

years).