Inside the Kitchen: Seven Questions with Jean-Georges Vongerichten

It has to be based on a coconut, no? I have to climb up that tree and get that coconut, get some water and that meat. Maybe I can use that coconut shell to cook something in it like a casserole. I’m trying to be like a castaway. I would take some seawater, catch some crabs from the island or fish and make a sashimi or a fish soup. Coconut water is very good for you.

I remember my first food memory ever. I was a kid. I probably had no teeth. It's a crushed banana with some orange juice from my mom. You take banana, sweet, and then some juice, which is all more tart. It's the best combination. It's my first memory of a food which is sweet and sour. Think about it: fresh banana mashed with a fork, then squeeze fresh juice by hand on top. It’s magic. Simple. Two ingredients.

You’re not getting crushed banana with orange juice! Fine dining is very personal. Every chef has his own balance, his own way of cooking. For me, it's best-in-class ingredients cooked in the most natural possible way, but with an elegance—something to surprise people. Yes, it's a piece of seabass or lobster, but without touching it too much, with an element of surprise—like a little grated ginger, a little wasabi, a touch of vinegar that I’ve never heard of.

It's creating a meal that is memorable for the palate, for the eyes. If we create food and people remember one thing, then you come back for it. That’s fine dining. Of course, the service and the elegance of whatever you touch: the silverware, the chopsticks, the glassware. Fine dining is the highest level of dining—whatever you taste and touch. And if you stay local. If you fly something from 24 hours away, it's not going to be as good as a small boat bringing it into Montauk.

The number one goal is to get the star back, and I’m working on that very hard with the team. And to be inspired by doing things that surprise people. A new ABCV or whatever we create—to stay relevant is important for the group and for me.

We opened Four Twenty Five a year and a half ago, and this year we're bringing new ABC Kitchens to Dumbo in Brooklyn. It’s the same menu but for the Dumbo zip code. We need to take care of the locals there. A lot of people live in Brooklyn, and I think the food scene is very inspiring. A lot of people are looking at Brooklyn for inspiration. This is going to be amazing!

I want to keep going and create some new things—and I want to be a little bit more lifestyle now. I’m creating a building in midtown Miami—Miami Tropic, on the edge of the design district. We’re building a residential there and I’m going to design all the kitchens, and people can call and we will give them whatever they want. So it's a new JG lifestyle that we haven’t done before. I want to design. It’s similar to the kitchen—it’s all about layers and textures. I’m doing plateware and tableware. We can even stock your fridge if you want. You go to work, and when you come home, we can stock some stone crab or chicken, and champagne. It’s a residential Jean-Georges lifestyle.

It’s an endless list. It goes from a gas station burger in Copenhagen to a restaurant next to Mt. Fuji—I forget the name—to Sardinia. I have a dozen places I need to go.

It has changed a little bit over time. When I was young, I tried to put everything on a plate. You know, I tried to impress everybody, so I was putting ten ingredients on the plate.

Today, I’ve been cooking for fifty-one years. I take all the superfluous away and I'm going back to the essentials—two or three ingredients. I’m going back to the crushed banana with the oranges. I’m going back to my childhood.

When I go home late at night and I say, ‘Oh my God, I forgot to eat.’ I never miss a meal. I put a pot of boiling water on the stove and I boil some pasta. After two minutes, I put an egg in there, a whole egg—it cooks with the pasta. So pasta cooks about eight minutes, so after three minutes I put my egg in there. I drain the whole thing. I put some butter, some pasta water, I do a little cacio e pepe. When you break that soft egg with the yolk running on top of the pasta—oh my God!