Another last night

Chef Jean-Pierre Moullé, center, with his wife Denise (left) and daughter Maude

Berkeley, April 28, 2012—

ABITTERSWEET NIGHT at what in our family is simply called The Restaurant: after an attachment reaching back into the middle 1970s, Jean-Pierre is retiring: this is his last dinner as chef downstairs at Chez Panisse.

It is impossible to overestimate his contribution to the restaurant. Alice Waters is of course the founder of the restaurant and the heart and soul of its kitchen and dining room; Jeremiah Tower was the first star to emerge from the stoves; Paul Bertolli brought his fine Italian hand to the kitchen for a decade and perhaps more. In all those years — not so much perhaps in the Bertolli interregnum — J-P, as we all call him, was the quiet maître available when needed, or in service as sous-chef but actually keeping things together. And since the early 1990s he has been downstairs chef. (It's not quite that simple, as there has long been a co-chef system in place; for years J-P has been in charge November through April: but the position is a full-time year-round responsibility.)

I've heard from many cooks and waiters, over the years and of course especially recently, how important Jean-Pierre's mentorship has been, and I must say I have watched him mature from a young man riding to work on his skateboard, in the mid-1970s, to the distinguished, patient, capable and quiet master he is today. French, he trained the old way, apprenticed to professional restaurant chefs in his ’teens. His mechanical skills are impeccable and his palate finely tuned. Over the years he adapted this old-school, old-world approach to Alice's new approach, which brought simple bonne-femme methods and fresh local ingredients to his knowing repertoire of classical techniques and fundamentals.

More than anything else, I think, this explains the unique synchrony of simplicity, elegance, and focus that characterizes so many of the courses coming from this kitchen. They are often understated, sometimes to the extent that less discerning patrons don't get the point.


Tonight's dinner was a perfect example of this. We began with an apéritif: verveine, mint, and Cava, in a splendid and surprising balance; then vegetable salad with ricotta toast. But the salad was subtle and complex: marinated artichoke, asparagus, fresh favas, white carrots (and a few yellow), and frisée, in an unctuous vinaigrette with only a whisper of acid to bring out the soft olive oil, leaving me delighted by the dialogue between the vegetables and the herbed ricotta on the toast.


Then came an amazing fish mousse, soft and delicate but well structured and assertively flavored, on a bed of wilted Savoy cabbage surrounded by a pool of butter sauce — lobster sauce for those lucky enough to be able to eat crustacea. These two courses followed one another logically: textures, green leaves, sauce; each completely different, but each responding to a similar grammar. This kind of menu planning is ingenious, intelligent, thoughtful, artistic; yet it responds to the exigencies of the market and the season. And the execution — particularly of the mousse! — leaves nothing to chance: savory cooking here has the exactness, the precision you associate with the pastry kitchen.

The main course was Entrecôte bordelaise aux sarments, a fairly thin rib-eye beefsteak grilled over grapevine wood, served with marchand du vin sauce — red wine, shallots, and butter — and accompanied by crisp potatoes cooked in duck fat, a handful of roquette tossed atop the serving. Piemontese beef, raised in northern California, the meat was tasty, tender, and sound.

Dessert: blanc-manger with strawberries and a few sliced almonds in Sauternes, with a puff-paste twist — again, home bonne-femme cooking, with extraordinary technical skill and, needless to say, superb ingredients.

Jean-Pierre's wife, Denise, is from the Lurton wine family in Bordeaux, and we had a different Lurton wine with each course (except the dessert, whose sauce spoke for itself).

Merci, cher maître, mon chef; best wishes for a long and happy retirement!

Château Bonnet (Sauvignon blanc, Semillon, Muscadelle), 2010; Rueda (Verdejo), Hermanos Lurton, 2010; Château de Rochemorin, Pessac-Léognan, 2005

• Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley; 510.848.5525