NEW YORK, March 23 — Antoine Westerman is the latest French chef to step into the New York restaurant trade, following the likes of Dominique Ansel, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Eric Ripert. This accomplished chef from the Alsace region of France is bringing another taste of the country’s fine gastronomy to the Big Apple’s growing French food scene. With the recently opened New York outpost of his Parisian bistro “Le Coq Rico,” the chef puts poultry on the menu in a series of dishes that bring new facets and flavours of chicken-based cuisine to American diners.
Although New York is already home to a number of renowned French chefs, cooking up a storm in the city’s restaurants, the arrival of Antoine Westermann can’t go unnoticed, as his long list of prizes and unique personality roll into town. Westermann is one of the rare chefs courageous enough to hand over the reins of his triple Michelin-starred restaurant while at the height of its success. In 2007, he turned his award-winning restaurant, “Le Buerehiesel,” in Strasbourg, over to his son, Eric Westermann. This marked the start of a continued commitment to nurturing the talent of young, up-and-coming chefs, whom Westermann often called upon to take over the running of his various gourmet eateries.
Far from the usual codes of Michelin-starred chefs, Antoine Westermann focused on opening bistros and restaurants dedicated to specific products. His style of cooking is often hearty and down to earth, as reflected in his former signature dishes, including pâté en croûte, foie gras with truffles and brioche made with beer. Still, the chef didn’t shun his status as a figurehead of high-end cuisine, taking over the emblematic “Drouant” restaurant in Paris (established in 1880), and opening the “Mon Vieil Ami” bistro on Paris’ île Saint-Louis. Here, vegetables are served in all their forms, prepared raw, cooked, preserved. In 2013, Antoine Westermann opened “La Dégustation” in the French capital in the neighbourhood of Montmartre, with a wine and champagne cellar, a counter serving up a variety of tapas and a deli store.
Flying the flag of French cuisine
The recently opened New York “Le Coq Rico” — Westermann’s first establishment in the USA — marks the start of a new chapter in the chef’s career. A stone’s throw from the Flatiron Building, Antoine Westermann has found another prime location to extol the virtues of poultry in the finest of dishes. Before opening the restaurant, the chef travelled America in search of small farmers and producers sharing his views on local produce and animal welfare. Westermann found just what he was looking for in the Hudson Valley and Pennsylvania, selecting chicken breeds including the New Hampshire and the Plymouth Barred Rock. In a nod to his homeland, the restaurant also serves the Brune Landaise.
In its location between Broadway and Park Avenue, the American Le Coq Rico is on a mission to bring the full range of succulent flavours and ways of cooking quality poultry to a land where fast-food-format fried chicken reigns supreme. Here, chicken is glazed, served on horseradish toasts and tasted in terrines. Its juices are worked into a creamy parsley soup or savoured in the clarified bouillon of a consommé, while the crispy skin of grilled chicken cracks with satisfying bite. American diners can also sample the traditional French dish “poule au pot,” a poached chicken with vegetables and herbs, or tuck into a whole chicken, picking the breed of their choice. Antoine Westermann even puts a stateside slant on chicken dishes, serving up the bird with Maine’s famous lobster and giving it in pride of place in a brunch menu.
Le Coq Rico
30 E 20th St, New York — AFP-Relaxnews
