Word: soltner
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Soltner's little boy Andre is still cooking, and how! Now 53, he has spent almost half of his life in the kitchen of Lutece, the luxury town-house restaurant on Manhattan's East Side that this year is celebrating its 25th birthday. The chef since Lutece opened on Feb.16, 1961, and the sole proprietor since 1972, Soltner has cooked his way to culinary glory. Despite a $100-a-person average check for dinner, and a $50 counterpart at lunch, reservations for one of the 29 tables must be made one month in advance...
Despite such accolades, and the attendant financial success, Soltner remains modest and has a tendency to run scared. "I worry most about the high prices we have to charge because our costs keep going up. Even rich people have a breaking point. I tell my staff to be very, very careful with customers. Today we are on top, but tomorrow who knows...
Because he worries, Soltner almost never leaves his kitchen for publicity performances, whether to pick up an award or do demonstration cooking. He appreciates the efforts of French superstars like Paul Bocuse because he thinks they have given chefs a better place in society, but he is uneasy if he cannot oversee the kitchen and walk through his dining room to help guests order. When he has to trim costs, though, he usually does it in the dining room, choosing very simple flower arrangements (two or three roses in bud vases at most tables) and even allowing woebegone potted palms...
That mix is something Andre and his wife Simone cherish as well, and they try to seat newcomers near celebrities when possible. Soltner also takes pride in remembering what he served to each guest on each visit. "I have one couple who has come for dinner every Monday night for 18 or 20 years," he says. "They never look at a menu, and I never give them the same thing twice. Others like familiar dishes and order them in advance. I try to please them and often serve dishes like choucroute (Alsace's national dish of sauerkraut, sausages and assorted...
...wanted not a restaurant, but the restaurant. And to become famous, it had to have a short name without the word restaurant in it," he says, explaining that he finally chose Lutece from the ancient name for Paris, Lutetia. When he was making his | plans he heard of Soltner, then the chef at Chez Hansi, an Alsatian brasserie in Paris. Surmain went over, tasted Soltner's food and offered him a job with the promise of a partnership if they succeeded. "It sounded like a crazy idea, but I thought that at least I'd learn English," says Soltner...