Word: soltner
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Lutece has changed in 25 years, so have conditions of running a restaurant. It may be easier in some ways to please customers, but in others it is more difficult. For one thing, Soltner feels, Americans have become more sophisticated and know about food and products, and he finds that rewarding. Yet a surprisingly large number of specialties remain from the original menu, among them the creamed pea soup, creme Saint-Germain, the mignonettes of beef in puff pastry, the salmon in crust, and snails in tiny terrines with shallot and garlic butter. Recently Soltner worked...
Most at home in his kitchen, Soltner starts work between 8 and 9 in the morning, checking on the ingredients delivered by suppliers. "It is pointless for me to go to market. Everything is too far apart in New York and, anyway, I would be a small purchaser, and so not get first choice. But my wholesalers are important purchasers and I am important to them, so I get the best of the best. If not, I call them fast -- like this," he said, phoning his fish wholesaler of 25 years to complain about a batch of less than fresh...
Even the most dedicated chef who has fun in his kitchen needs some recreation and for Andre Soltner that means skiing. When Saturday dinner ends, he and Simone, who welcomes guests and monitors the Lutece dining room, drive 2 1/2 hours to their home at Hunter Mountain, north of New York City. Simone is content to tend to her plants, and he skis. "I have a weekend dog too," he says. "He is a Labrador retriever and belongs to an American family all week, but on Sunday he comes to see me. If I am not there, he comes...
...Would Soltner ever want to do anything else? "What would I do if I sold Lutece?" he asks almost rhetorically. "I would love to have a little Alsatian restaurant where I do the cooking of my childhood, but really it would be silly. If I am going to have a restaurant, it might as well be Lutece. But maybe someday I would love to work with young people...
...vacations during August, Soltner may do cooking demonstrations on a cruise ship, taking his wife and mother along, or they visit Alsace and Simone's native Normandy. There she catches up on what she calls "real" apple cider and dishes her sister-in-law prepares with rabbit and lamb. Do the Soltners ever argue about the relative superiority of their regional kitchens? "That was settled long ago. We decided that the best food is Alsatian," says the husband. Soltner is "bien attache," say relatives, well attached to family, food, and language. "He has never lost this sense of his roots...