Let's talk about your childhood. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, living there until I was 18. I got into a lot of trouble during high school and didn't really know what I wanted to do about a career until I discovered cooking, which didn't happen until the summer before my senior year of high school. I liked it well enough, and discovered I could make decent money doing it, at least what was decent to me at the time. I realized I enjoyed being in the kitchen and it grew from there.
How did your family impact your perception of food as a young person?
Not tremendously. Both of my parents were very hard working. My mom owns a business and my dad is an electrical contractor. I got more of my work ethic from them then anything from a culinary stance. My mom enjoyed cooking very much and my dad enjoyed eating very much (laughter), but it was never like lessons in the history of culinary arts.
Do you have a memorable childhood kitchen moment?
One funny moment was when I was about nine (9) or ten (10). I was very critical of my aunt's spaghetti and she never let me live that down. Ever since, I've been very critical of everything.
You said you realized you wanted to be involved in the food industry as a chef in high school. What happened that caused you to come to that decision?
Like I said, I fooled around a lot in high school. Fooled around with 'grass' and experimented with a lot of different things, like many teenagers did. I was lacking a path. I did well enough in school to get by but never was never really concerned enough to prepare for a future. I never really saw myself going to a four year school anyway. I just happened to get a job in a local diner, it's where I made my first grilled cheese sandwich. I did very well at it, working in the kitchen, and they offered to pay for my education at the Milwaukee area vocational school.
At that time I had already gotten another job working in the evening at another restaurant. The owner of that place told me about the Culinary Institute of America in New York. He said that was where I should go. I relayed that information to my mom, who insisted that was where I should go.
It must have been a culture shock for you. Where you came from isn't, what we would consider the fast-paced lifestyle of New York City. How old were you?
Eighteen, the school was 2 hours outside the city.
Yes, in Hyde Park, but still the pace there isn't like Milwaukee.
I was happy to get away. I never felt strongly tied to Milwaukee. Getting away was something that I had wanted to do anyway. It turned out to be perfect, going to school somewhere else.
For many creative people, they feel stifled. It's necessary to get away, to allow the creative channels to open up. There are those who feel trapped and need a change in environment to blossom.
It allows you more opportunity to dream, you know you want to go somewhere, but it's not within the boundaries of where you are.
Parents love their children, however, I think that sometimes their best intentions stifle the potential creativity of their children. Especially when the child wants to take a path that is outside what the parent feels is what their child should be doing. Sometimes what they feel is the best thing doesn't allow them to discover their talents. I tried to be cognitive of that with my children, but that innate parent 'thing' sometimes just kicked in on its own. (Laughter)
I'm a new parent myself and I often think of those things. One thing I have to say is that my mom has always been incredibly supportive of anywhere that I've traveled. I know there are a lot of parents out there that don't want to see their kid leave home and move away.
Literally cutting the apron strings.
Right. There are a lot of different perspectives about that for sure but having my mother be able to let go, it was easier for me to go away.
Do you have an unforgettable moment from culinary school?
It was probably when my high school girlfriend dumped me. (He laughing at this memory.) It was the first break from culinary school and I went back home for Thanksgiving. She had been away at school and we got together and I got the bad news that she had another boyfriend. We chefs have big egos and I took that one pretty hard. How that affected me was that I just threw myself into school and cooking. The more I got into food the more I realized I enjoyed it.
Sounds like it was a life changing event for you. It forced you to make a choice.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I've had a lot of those blessings in disguise. I realized that I was paying a lot of money for a culinary education. If I screwed that up, it was something that I was paying for.
It takes a certain level of maturity to acknowledge that, and the fact that you recognized it at that point in your life says a lot about who you are.
It still bugs the hell out of me. (Laughter) I think I tell myself that to rationalize it.
Other than training in France, which almost anyone training in your career dreams of, New York City has to be one of the best places in the U.S. to launch into a culinary career.
I wouldn't have traded New York City for anywhere at the time. For me it was just perfect. I really got my first job and decided to move to New York, a week before graduating from culinary school. I got really lucky with the places I wound up working at.
Your first job was working at Lafayette under Jean-Georges?
He was just leaving as I got there. I got to see what happens in a restaurant when a star like that departs.
He had made his mark on the restaurant where you worked.
Without a doubt.We crossed paths, the tail end of his time there.
I can hear the admiration and respect you have for him. I recently posted on my blog about his influence. The idea of juicing, his carrot ginger broth, his cooks were pretty much juicing everything. It was a new and different way, it was colorful and a breath of fresh air on the culinary scene. I think it still resonates today.
That contribution, which many take for granted today, became this cutting edge technique. Personally, I look at my juicer differently as I continue to explore what chefs like Jean Georges and yourself are doing.
 He revolutionized it in my eyes. Lafayette was a very traditional French restaurant. From what I remember, I think he asked himself why people were leaving their sauces and sauciers, sending them back to the kitchen, sometimes untouched. Asking himself what he could do to get people to enjoy them. He started looking beyond the traditional demi-glace sauce. Even after he left, his sous chefs were pretty much juicing everything they got their hands on, all different types of emulsions.
At one point in your career, you had the good fortune of working at every station in the back of the house.
I did, in a couple of different places. Lafayette, I was the en Garde Manger (responsible for preparing cold foods, including salads, cold appetizers, pates and other charcuterie items) and was only there for about 6-9 months. I moved over to the Quilted Giraffe Restaurant and worked my way through to the Tournant (also referred to as a swing cook, filling in as needed on any station in kitchen), it was a wonderful experience. I still didn't feel like it was in my niche. We were using Kobe beef before it was all over the place. It was a Japanese-American restaurant with French touches. It was a wonderful opportunity to really get my feet 'wet.'
What better place to get your feet wet then in a restaurant getting accolades on a national level.
Indeed and that's what I meant by being really fortunate with my whole time in New York. Each place I worked was really well known, on a national, and international, level. When those restaurants are mentioned today, they still bring out that same kind of awe. I'm still awed myself about them.
That's good to hear, there's nothing wrong with realizing how fortunate we are, even if at the time we didn't realize it. Was there one station that you enjoyed working?
I enjoyed working at the saucier (responsible for all sauteed items and their sauce, usually the highest position of all the stations) station at Le Cirque. I was building consommes, making soups, cooking bouillabaisse and meats. I enjoyed that very much. It's hard to separate one station from the next. I think that the saucier station at Le Cirque, the amount of work that had to be done, for me was extremely challenging and extremely engaging.
That's important for creativity. The average person may not understand the scope and depth of commitment that's necessary to master haute cuisine. You've worked with and for several highly respected and well known chefs. Which one of them transformed your attitudes about food? I realize this is a tough question because I'm asking you to pick one.
Wow, you're right, this is a tough question. I could easily say Jean Georges but I really didn't spend a lot of time working with him. Then there is Daniel (Boulud), the same story there, he left Le Cirque right after I started, to open his first restaurant Daniel.
 Okay, pick one you spent a good amount of time working with and one you worked with for only a short period of time.
One that I worked with who really influenced my career, I have to say is Sottha Khunn, the Executive Chef of Le Cirque 2000. To a huge degree, he really carried Daniel's repertoire for quite some time. The other, I'd have to say, is Daniel Boulud, even though I didn't work with very long, his style has really influenced me greatly.
Our executive chef, Brian Roland, did a stage under Daniel. The passion with which he speaks when referring to his time working for Daniel, told us how much this man impacted him with respect to food.
There's a passion that he (Daniel) has that when you work for him, it gets into your skin. People are willing to sit on a train track in front of moving train for him. If you're on his bad side, he's just going to run you over, that's the other side of him. I've seen grown men crying and you are looking at them helpless, you pity them. But in New York, especially, it's a very cut throat environment. You're either going to be a predator or the prey.
And you don't want to be the prey. What Brian did share with us was how much love Daniel puts into every single ingredient he uses. The average diner doesn't always understand or are even aware of that.
True, absolutely not. The average diner really has no clue what's going on in the back of the house.
Our goal is to demystify talented individuals like yourself, and get to the heart of who you are and what you are doing. The internet allows the public to find out professional information and accolades about chefs, but doesn't get to the heart of who you are. We feel that is very important in understanding a chef's cuisine.
That was another reason I started a blog.
We'll touch base on that momentarily. As a lead member of the team that opened Le Cirque 2000, that was a huge honor....
 It was only myself and one other who were maintained from the closing of one to the opening of the next. I became a sous chef at Le Cirque about 6 months before they closed and they kept me on to open the new one (Le Cirque 2000). I really felt like that was the greatest honor of my career. It was extremely unusual for an American to be a sous chef at Le Cirque.
You got to experience both, Le Cirque and Le Cirque 2000.
The first Le Cirque, to me, there is never going to be a restaurant like that again. There was such an electric feeling in the dining room and in the kitchen. It was literally a circus. I think that is exactly why I thrived so much there. You had to have a really good sense of humor, you had to work your tail off and you had to entertain the guests. It's exactly what Le Cirque was about. .jpg)
| I believe guests who went there, really did appreciate what you were doing in the back of the house and their expectations were just as high as what you were creating.
Absolutely. The other thing about Le Cirque, there was a 'never say no mentality.' The guest was the king. Whatever they wanted, if it was an omelet on a Friday night, we'd make it. A chef had to put his ego down a little bit. The guest was coming in and not everybody is going to be getting what you're doing, so not everybody there is experiencing you. If you go to Alinea, you're going to be taken for a ride by Grant.
That is why you go there.
It is one restaurant in a thousand.
Recently a chef said to me, "When a patron comes into my restaurant, they're not coming in for me, even though I want them to and I have some items on the menu, I'm really there for them."
That's true and a lot of chefs lose sight of that or their egos get in the way. They forget what the business is about in the first place, it's a hospitality industry. That's a lesson I learned from Sirio Maccioni and I try to take it with me everywhere I go.
What is your most memorable moment during the transition from Le Cirque to Le Cirque 2000?
God, I have so many of them. If I have to pick out one evening, it would have to be from the original Le Cirque, when we had a dinner with Alain Ducasse, Girard Boyer, Paul Bocuse, and Roger Verge. We had them all in to do one dinner, it was just amazing being around that much talent. They all brought their sous chefs with them. It was just an exciting night to be there.
On a more down to earth side that I will never forget, this is probably the best story. We hadn't opened Le Cirque 2000 yet, we were doing a $1200/plate black tie event. Bill Cosby, who was one of our regulars, came in one evening, right after his son had been killed. I don't know if you remember.
It was a senseless, random act of violence. I do remember.
I believe it was the first time he had taken the family out after this had happened. It was this black tie event and we sat him in our private dining room, inside the kitchen. I made this chicken filled with black truffles and I swear on my life I babied this chicken like I never babied one before, taking care of his dinner. Usually the breast might be a bit dry or you don't coat th e leg enough, this one was just perfect. The sous chef even commented that it was a perfect chicken.
After the dinner, Bill Cosby came along and was making jokes and laughing with everybody. It was just remarkable how somebody who had just gone through this incredible personal ordeal was able to renew himself and just be that person........still. At the end of the night he even put on an apron and was putting sauce on the plates for us as we were sending out the dinner. That is an evening I will never forget.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
I'm glad I remembered it.
You set a goal for yourself to share the personalities of your kitchen with your guests. How are you doing that and do you feel you are accomplishing that goal? There are challenges working in a union environment.
I'm doing that through my blog The Pickled Tongue. I find it easier to do sometimes more than others. I like to have my staff involved, sharing their ideas. I'm proactive about that especially with my sous chef, typically through amuse bouche. It's a team effort but I share those accolades.
What is your opinion of the current trends? Do you have a favorite?
You can't ignore molecular gastronomy. I'm fascinated by it. It's an exciting aspect of culinary arts these days. I'm a little bit old school in my ways, but my sous chef, Yenz, is a bit more cutting edge. Most things in molecular gastronomy you need to follow a recipe and I've never been the kind of guy to follow a recipe.  Buffalo wing with Corona & lime foam
It's formula driven by the science, so you have to follow it.
I'm a big advocate of it and it's an exciting trend to me. I'll be interested to see where we are at 10-20 years down the road. I like keeping one foot in the future, following the current trend, but myself, I'm a little more old school.
You've traveled quite extensively. Which country's cuisine has made the biggest impression on your cooking style?
Without a doubt it has to be French cuisine. I love the southern French cuisine. My ideal meal would be a bowl of Soup de Poisson with a cold Pastis sitting in a Provence village with my beautiful wife with me.
What is the biggest challenge in making a dish that allows the freshness and flavors of the ingredients take center stage?
Over complicating a dish. You need to keep it simple. Certain ingredients pair up well with each other, so pair them up, but don't let anything mask the other.
Layers of flavor.
Yes. If you have the most brilliant piece of fish, serve it with something super simple. There's no need to over complicate.
The industry is like a pendulum and I think it's swinging back towards simpler preparations.
I think it's progression and growth in a chef. When I first started cooking, I kept notes of my ideas. When I look at some of my earlier notes, I can see where I was coming from, but I could take away 3 or 4 components of that and still have the same idea carried through.
What, if any, limitations did you have when you were a personal chef?
I missed the action of the kitchen, the production of preparing a meal. The regiment of it, the brigade system. You can't get that feeling as a private chef, where you have to go to the grocery store or market. You're at somebody's beck and call. I like the creativity of what I want to do versus what somebody else wants me to do.
Let's talk about your kitchen at the Lockwood. What do you expect from your staff?
 To take ownership of the food they are cooking. You've been quoted as saying that cooking is a combination of art and science. To us, chefs are the artist and your canvas is the plate. You've painted some amazing masterpieces, what's involved in creating one of them?
It's a lot about keeping it simple. We try to present the dish on the blog the way the guest will be receiving it. There's an artistry to it as well, you have to think of several things. You have to think of practicality, how it will be eaten, something in a bowl or on a plate. How will a guest who may not care anything about my art, who isn't a foodie, get the flavors they need to get onto their fork or spoon, at the same time?
Marcus (Samuelssen) took a plate and walked us through what goes on in his head when he develops his final presentations. When we create recipes, I count on Louis's creativity as an artist for food presentation. His question to you is, "When you get ready to work on plating, do you have an image before you begin?"
I have an image in my head. Nine times out of Ten, that image isn't how it winds up on the plate. (We laugh.)
What happens?
It used to frustrate me. There are some chefs that are great with a pencil and draw the image on paper. I can only draw stick men. I'd get an idea in my head, and usually it's not going to work out like that. I've learned to stand back from it a little bit. When it comes time to put it on the plate, I take the advice of other people, I work on it. Even if it doesn't come together right away, I keep an open mind about it.
I've done a dish a certain way for a week or two and think to myself, "Why am I doing it like this?" Usually it's a work in progress.
You're always tweaking.
Yeah, absolutely. The sous chef and I will attack it together and I ask my cooks what they think. Today I can do it a lot quicker, experience plays  a large part of that. Now that we are photographing for the blog we are much more ambitious with it. Very cognizant of how it looks on the plate. The pictures are not always how it's going to arrive for the guest. Sometimes you are trying to convey something different in a photo.......
Then you have during your dining experience.
Exactly. Are the flavors and the ingredients going to be the same? Absolutely. There's a difference between something you want to jump out from a photograph and something you want to jump off of a plate.
Do you get inspiration from other chefs?
I get more inspiration from other people's creativity. Even from other forms of art and artists and what it is that they do.
There is some extremely great talent here in Chicago. I go and eat at Curtis Duffy's 'Avenues,' who in my eyes is probably the best new chef in the country right now. He just sees food in a whole different light. There are so many people who see it so many different ways. Not that it is ever a copycat thing, it's just that extra juice.
You have wonderful publications at your disposal that show what your peers are creating and doing in the kitchen. Those images are stored in your memory and contribute to the creative process. You may have seen something years ago and an ingredient, or color, or whatever, brings up that image. You may not even recall where you saw it.
That's very true.
When you referred to Lockwood, you used the phrase perpetual innovation. What do you mean by that?
We change our menu pretty much every single day. Not the entire menu, but if there's a dish I feel like I'm done seeing it, we move it off and put something else on the menu. Almost every day there is something new going onto the menu. We try to keep it constantly new.
With the high level of creating going on in your kitchen do you have a favorite gadget? The Pacojet is incredible. If you can get over the miracles of vegetable peeler, there are just so many things you can do with it.
I've been asked, "Why do you ask this question." I ask it because a lot of average people think that chefs of your caliber are interested only in high-end, expensive pieces of equipment that the home cook doesn't have access to. I've discovered through this process that 9 times out of 10, they're wrong.
I take that back, my greatest gadget is my Swiss Army Knife. (Laughter) It is without a doubt my best gadget. This isn't an advertisement (More laughter).
What's on the horizon for you?
I would love to own a place. It's really not on the immediate horizon, but if the opportunity presents itself it's the next step. It would be the key to my family's future.
If you were to realize that dream, what would your philosophy be about food for your diners?
I want young people in my dining room. Young people are regenerating all the time. I want it to be fun, not too stuffy and reasonably priced. I don't necessarily want filet mignon on the menu everyday. I rather have lesser cuts and do more exciting things with them.
Do you cook sous vide?
It's funny, in our funds we were to get either a Cryovac machine and thermal circulator or liquid nitrogen. I submitted them both at the same time and they got me the liquid nitrogen. Now I wish I had the sous vide machine and circulator. I've become resourceful and have found alternate ways to cook sous vide.
What one statement describes who you are?
I'm a fluid individual. I know I have a good sense of humor and can be a miserable bastard at times too. I don't stay any certain way for any period of time. If I'm going to explode, I explode and it's pretty much over.
Any regrets?
Not a single one. It might be a trite statement, but I feel pretty fortunate, even the times where I've gone a little backwards in my career , it's only been temporary and a step to get to the next stage. The only thing I regret is I should have broken up with that girl when I was in cooking school. (Laughter) I have absolutely no regrets! |
You could consider cooking an innate calling for Lockwood executive chef Phillip Foss. As a two-year-old, Foss was always in the kitchen watching his mom cook. Aware that young Phillip wanted to get in on the action, Foss’ father built him a cardboard stovetop and let his son’s imagination and future career take him away. Years later, Foss got his first restaurant job as a short order cook in his hometown of Milwaukee. With a passion for the behind-the-scenes speed and intensity of a kitchen, Foss quickly worked his way into better restaurants. And then came a break. An employer noticed Foss’ cooking talents and referred him to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. 
French cuisine. Foss then went to the Quilted Giraffe, another four-star New York Times-rated restaurant, and under the tutelage of Barry Wine, worked every station in the kitchen. Here he learned how unique food presentations can make conceptually simple dishes more innovative and ethereal.
for Pope John Paul II, whom he served lobster bisque. Bill Cosby was his favorite celebrity. "His charisma was amazing. He sat in the kitchen and we made him a private dinner with roast chicken and truffles. To date, that was the best roast chicken I ever made."
where he worked at the King David Hotel serving dignitaries such as Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair. Foss’ time with three-star Michelin chef Maximin made a lasting impression. "Maximin’s uncompromising attention to detail and the quality of the products he used were incredible. Most everything came straight from the farmer to the plate." Foss also worked as a private chef in Palm Beach, Florida where the families of Winston Churchill and Donald Trump enjoyed his cookery. In addition, Foss also ‘hung his toque’ in the kitchens of Bistro Margot in Chicago (which earned three stars in the Chicago Tribune), the Four Seasons in Maui, and the AAA five diamond Newport Room in Bermuda. 