A Chef Like an Artwork

The Alsatian Gabriel Kreuther is the chef at “The Modern,” the restaurant in New York’s MOMA, and this physical proximity to art carries over to his cooking. In February guests at Hangar-7’s Ikarus restaurant can enjoy a sample of his culinary artistry.

Gabriel Kreuther has been the chef at “The Modern,” the restaurant in New York’s freshly renovated Museum of Modern Art, since February 2005, and it didn’t take him long to start drawing praise. The Miami Herald named Kreuther’s new workplace the “Best New Restaurant of 2005,” Esquire magazine called it the “Restaurant of the Year” and Zagat voted it “Top Rated Newcomer.”

Being the head chef in a restaurant like “The Modern” is probably one of the most demanding challenges in a business that’s not exactly lacking in exhausting jobs: the restaurant has 300 employees, 80 of whom are cooks, and has to coordinate five seatings a day. How does Kreuther cope with the stress? “I would rather work 18 hours a day at something I like than to put in 15 hours a day at a normal job.”

From Alsace to New York

Gabriel Kreuther first learned to cook from his mother, a housewife, and then at the École Hôtelière in Strasbourg. In 1987, at the age of 18, he won the “Concours National Meilleur Apprenti Cuisinier de France – Ferdinand Point,” making him France’s best apprentice chef. After spending several years gathering experience in restaurants in France and Switzerland, he moved to New York in 1997 and did a stint as chef de cuisine under fellow Alsatian Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In 2002 Gabriel Kreuther became the chef at “Atelier,” the restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton New York, where he also achieved immediate success: Food & Wine selected the Alsatian as one of “America’s Best New Chefs of 2003.”

Modern Cooking

The artistic atmosphere that today surrounds Kreuther’s kitchen matches his culinary agenda: creating a modern and light version of French-American cuisine – complete with slightly tongue-in-cheek dishes from Alsace (such as braised pork cheeks with sauerkraut).

The surrounding modernism inspires Kreuther to a strikingly spare, clean, even compact presentation of his food: “I eliminate things more often than I add them,” he says. Accordingly, creations like the lobster salad served with finely grated black celery and celery sorbet is almost Japanese in its purism, and the sautéed Sullivan County foie gras with “beereweka” fruit chutney and Trappist beer essence is the epitome of concentrated French-American culinary artistry.

“People who go to a modern museum are open-minded,” Kreuther remarks. “They’re not going to be shocked if you do something that’s outside the norm.”