FOR ten days people from across the world descended upon Gourmet Abu Dhabi 2009. I was fortunate enough to cover this event for three days. I began with a grand dinner at the Emirates Palace Hotel, where a thousand Swarovski Crystal chandeliers are suspended below high ceilings. It is perhaps the most opulent and glamorous of all hotels in Abu Dhabi.
I began my search for the hotel’s flagship restaurant Etoiles by navigating my way across the reflective and incredibly glossy marble floors glistening in the light from above. Across the hallway I made out the entrance to the restaurant where I would soon be meeting celebrity chef Charlie Trotter.
For those of you who don’t know Trotter, he could be described as the US version of Gordon Ramsay.
Trotter’s most famous (and eponymous) restaurant in Chicago has been hailed as one of the best in America. He also owns a high-end delicatessen and carryout in Chi-town. He also has interests in Las Vegas, and has a couple of other projects on the burner.
A 20-year-veteran of the kitchen, Trotter is one of the few self-taught chefs to have made it to the top tier of the culinary world. He was the subject of a public television program in 1999, but he disputes any suggestion that he is a celebrity chef.
He met me at Etoiles dressed in his white chef’s uniform, a smile on his face and a firm handshake. He was not what I had expected. He was formal, polite and soft-spoken. In just under an hour or so, 80 diners were destined to descend on the restaurant to sample his world-famous cooking.
How are you finding Gourmet Abu Dhabi?
It’s a wonderful event, to bring different chefs in and have chefs featured from different countries: Italian chefs, French chefs, and then someone from another place, and America; to feature them in different venues, then to have demonstrations and pastry chefs, and full blown meals ... I think it’s great.
Is this your first time to the UAE?
I’ve been to Dubai, but only on holiday.
What influence do your travels have on your cooking and recipes?
Wherever I go, I’m inspired by what I eat. When I go to places out of my country I don’t try to just visit the grand restaurants, I also try to eat the street food, real food and I try to take away many ideas.”
I read that your restaurants focus primarily on fresh and seasonal food.
Beyond that it’s not just fresh and seasonal its mainly organic.
Have you made any special preparations for tonight’s menu based on the local ingredients?
Well I think local here is a little tricky, so we haven’t brought anything; we’ve specified certain things, and I know they have sourced things.
Is it organic?
Well, I don’t know if its 100 percent organic, but I do insist upon at least naturally raised — you know, not using pesticides or things like that — but I wouldn’t classify everything here as organic per se.
I read that you studied political science, how did that prepare you for a career as a chef?
I did study philosophy and political theory — when you study something in the field of humanities or liberal arts, you read the great books, you learn how to juggle your thoughts, most importantly you learn how to think critically and analyze everything you do. So I wouldn’t be where I am today regardless of the field that I may have chosen without that kind of background, I think it’s important not to have to figure everything out overnight at such a young age, I think there’s too much pressure on young people now and by the time they are 18 they almost sort of have to make a choice, and decide what they want to do. I was brought up in a family where my parents said to me: “You just find out what you would like to do — if you want to deliver mail, paint houses, or start your own business, or go to law school, whatever you want to do, if that makes you happy, then you should do that,” so there was never a pressure there to figure something out.”
So, I read you’re entirely self-taught, how did you go about training yourself in cooking?
I used to cook for my roommates in college, but it was a hobby. And then I worked at a couple of restaurants along the way as a bartender and a waiter and different positions, and it never occurred to me I would go into that as a line of work. But after college I thought: “You know, I love cooking, I like the idea that it’s a physical thing, but it’s also a cerebral thing where you have to contemplate things, measure things, be aware of things. It’s also a sensual thing; you wrap these things together. And I thought to myself that I would really like to do this. Food and eating and pleasures of the table are so important for a family, if I go into this for the next three or four years and I’m either not very good at it, or I don’t like it, what will I have lost? At least, I will have learnt how to better cook for my family and friends. I can always go back to law school or business school or graduate school, and I think that’s maybe uniquely American, in that you can start and restart a livelihood, you can be 25 or 29 years old and think “I now want to go and do this.” You don’t have to feel locked into something.
What would you say to an aspiring chef, who is looking to developing a career in the culinary arts?
Well, I would say read as much as you can read: philosophy, history and practice, practice, practice. Being a great chef has less to do with being an extraordinary tactician or technician. I should say where you learn how to perfectly master how to cook or making sauces or pastry those things are very important no doubt. But the most important thing that the chef needs to be able to do is understand the palette of flavors and tasting things over and over again. It’s ... for example, Michael Jordan showing up two hours before the rest of the team shows up, playing as hard in practice as he plays during a championship, and staying two hours after practice and shooting basket after basket after basket when no one’s around. So when he’s in the game he can do it at an unconscious level. Or a musician: Miles Davis was asked how did he learn to play the trumpet, and his response was: “I just got on the horn and played and played.” A chef must taste over and over and over again, so it just becomes intuitive, you can look at ingredients and already know what they are going to taste like before you even touch anything.
You likened cooking to be-bop jazz, where two riffs will never be the same. How does that affect your cooking?
Well our style is very different from most chefs’ styles. A number of the great chefs, they develop certain dishes over their career — let’s say a repertoire of 20 or 30 signature dishes — that get written about, that the chef becomes known for. People seek those dishes out. You want to go to this restaurant because this guy makes the world’s greatest crème brûlée or chicken anglaise or whatever the dish may be. Our style is the very opposite of that: No dish is ever done the same way twice.
I also heard that you are quite involved in cooking education too, and that you were honored by former US President George Bush and Colin Powell for the Charlie Trotter Education Foundation.
Yes we are very involved with charity and philanthropy.
And what does the foundation actually do?
The foundation raises lots of money to provide scholarships for young people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to go to culinary school. We’ve raised about $2 million for the fund over the past 10 years. And the other part though is we host young students, grades 8 through 12, where they come and actually have a full dinner and hear from staff members, pastry chef, fish cook, different people talk about excellence and how they try to pursue excellence.”
I also heard you helped create the menu for United Airlines. Can you tell me a little about that experience?
We do business-class selections and first-class selections, for overseas flights, not domestically. You have to think differently, because they don’t have trained cooks on the plane and the flight attendant has to work really more on safety than serving food. People want to eat and on a long flight you look forward to food that is at least ok. So you devise dishes that are resilient, and dishes that will stay moist. We also devise things that are light that don’t make you feel full.
How is the economic meltdown affecting your business and how do you see the future?
I’ll be honest with you: In our 21-and-a-half year history this is the first time we’ve ever seen a downturn, 21-and-a-half years. It’s not horrific, you take note of it, find ways to adjust, bear down. You get better at what you do. Certain people, we’ve had to cut their hours a little bit. Some of our competitors have it much, much worse. We know that in the next couple of weeks, in Chicago at least, there will be blood. Some people are not going to be able to make it.
You’ve been running restaurants for over 20 years, what are your plans for the future?
Just trying to refine the restaurant. We’re opening a new restaurant in Manhattan in about 15 months. We have a restaurant in Las Vegas. I’ve considered opening something here, maybe in Abu Dhabi, a lot of people have approached me with the idea. You know it’s great being here. I would have to look at it more. It’s a virgin economy, and folks like the ones at this particular festival help heighten awareness even more. For people that are already living here, or that might be traveling, it never hurts to highlight gastronomy to the culture. It’s not just showing off cuisines from a visiting chef, but local cuisine, local culture, it’s a win-win for everybody.
