Chef Michael Anthony
Gramercy Tavern | New York

Biography
Michael Anthony grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Indiana University with degrees in Business, French, and Japanese. After graduating, he moved to Tokyo to hone his language skills, but ended up developing an interest in the local culinary scene. He worked in a bakery and a farm and eventually a restaurant: Bistro Shima, a small French bistro in Tokyo, with chef Shizuyo Shima.

Heeding Shima’s advice, Anthony moved to Paris in 1992, enrolled in culinary school at Le Ferrandi, and began a rigorous apprenticeship with Chef Jean Delaveyne at Le Camélia in Bougival. By the time he had completed his training, he had a job waiting for him in the kitchen of Jacques Cagna. Anthony would later return to Paris to work in the kitchens of both L’Arpege and Pascal Barbot’s L’Astrance.

After his Jacques Cagna stint, Anthony left Paris for New York, working first at Daniel and then as chef de cuisine at March, where he also played an integral role in the restaurant’s redesign. After March, Anthony returned to Paris for a summer to work for Chef Michel Guérard at Le Prés d’Eugénie. Upon returning to New York, he joined the team of Blue Hill, first as co-chef of the Manhattan outpost and later as the opening executive chef at Blue Hill Stone Barns, located on a farm in upstate New York. There Mike and chef/owner Dan Barber had the opportunity to build a restaurant that embodied the “farm to table” concept, thanks to the abundance of farm-fresh ingredients they had at their disposal.

After four years at Blue Hill Stone Barns, Anthony returned to New York in September 2006 as executive chef of Gramercy Tavern. From this base, he's an active part of the local community, giving tours to students from nearby elementary schools, trying to start a greenhouse project at Washington Irving High, and arranging visits to local farms for his staff, teaching them first-hand how and where the food they serve each day is grown.

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Interview Cont'd

HS: Where have you worked professionally as a chef?
MA: The restaurant in Tokyo was called Bistro Shima, and the chef was Shizuyo Shima. In New York, I have worked at Daniel, March, Blue Hill and upstate at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. I was able to go back to Paris almost every year (not these past three years though), and I spent a summer working for Chef Michel Guérard at Le Prés d’Eugénie between my time at March and Blue Hill, and spent weeks working at L’Arpege and L’Astrance.

When I left Blue Hill, I had a business plan and went to Danny Meyer for advice. After having a few conversations, he suggested that I just come work at Gramercy Tavern. It made sense – we had a natural fit in cooking and dealing with people, plus stylistically – there’s a comfortable and similar approach to cooking. Gramercy has always set the standard for excellence in fine dining, though Tom Colicchio originally set out to have a French bent. What we’re doing is very, very American, but we’ll never get away from our French influences.

HS: Who are some of your mentors? What have you learned from them?
MA: The people that I’ve worked for and the people that I’ve worked with have all been mentors to me in one way or another. In New York, it was Daniel Boulud and Wayne Nish. Daniel was the first restaurant I worked at in NYC and I had my first sous position under Wayne at March. They couldn’t be any further apart in personality or style but they both influenced me a lot. Also the guys I worked next to at Daniel – they’ve all gone on to own their own places or have become executive chefs. I still talk to them and learn from them every week.

HS: What question gives you the most insight to a cook when you’re interviewing them for a position in your kitchen? What sort of answer are you looking for?
MA: I ask them to visit the kitchen and I make sure they taste the food. After we spend two days working together I ask them if they found what they expected – I’m curious to hear how people see it from the outside. I also ask about commitment – I ask them to give me at least year. 

HS: What advice would you offer young chefs just getting started?
MA: Be devoted and patient.

HS: Is there an ingredient that you feel is particularly under appreciated or underutilized?
MA: Onions, cabbage, carrots – modest ingredients. When I sketch out a menu, the first thing that hits the paper is the vegetable, and then the rest sort of fills itself in. I love to promote modest ingredients over luxury ingredients. Foie gras and truffles find their way into the dishes, sure, but as a celebratory, height of the season-type thing.

HS: What are a few of your favorite flavor combinations?
MA: Cauliflower and briny seafood, like lobster or langoustine reduction. In the spring we buy as many ramps as we can get our hands on – pickling the stems but going crazy trying to use the greens – grilling them, sauteing them, pureeing them and serving them with lobster. In the lobster sauce we sweat the whites and deglaze with pickling liquid, splash with stock, and finish with a chiffonade of the greens. Ramps, like sorrel, have a fleeting flavor so we finish with the chiffonade and a splash of lemon.

HS: What’s your most indispensable kitchen tool?  Why?
MA: A Vita-Prep – I use it for everything.

HS: What are your favorite cookbooks?
MA: Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli, which is beautiful because it’s poetic, and The Zuni Café cookbook by Judy Rogers. I especially love Alain Ducasse’s Grand Livre de Cuisine – every single page of that book makes me both salivate and dream. It’s very technical, too.

HS: Where do like to go for culinary travel?  Why?
MA: Roanne, France because I’m dreaming of eating at Troisgros. Of all the places in the world that’s where I most want to eat.

HS: What are your favorite restaurants off-the-beaten-path in your city? 
MA: Sushi Yasuda – I always sit in the first 2-4 seats (that’s where Yasuda works) – we never walk out without having at least 5 mouthfuls of overwhelmingly delicious sushi. At Al di La in Brooklyn – you get a little sense of soul and it’s great.

HS: What trends do you see emerging in the restaurant industry now?
MA: The ability to trace the food that we use back to its source – it’s a passionate interest in the foods that we eat and the way they get to us. Everyone has always been interested in how foods are produced, and great chefs have always had amazing, mysterious contacts. But now there’s a sense of openness – and the information is there for the taking, and that’s cool. My diners are much better educated about what they’re eating, and their expectation levels are higher. The demand is not as much for the refined as for the real and soulful. And then there’s also a strong movement of chefs who are focusing their attention on experimentation.

HS: What is your philosophy on food and dining?
MA: The approach is celebrating rich flavors by leaning on the craftsmanship in cooking and layering with light seasonal flavors. I try to balance rich soulful flavors with lighter seasonal flavors. I’m very committed to seasonal cooking and very inquisitive about both searching out local sources and bringing those sources into a community that is eager to connect – both the restaurant industry and our guests.

HS: Who would you want to cook for you? Which person in history would you most like to cook for?
MA: I think I’d choose David Bouley to cook for me. He is all over the place but so unbelievably artistic. My most recent meal was one of the best I’ve ever had and it was so simple! I always joke to my cooks that they should cook like they’re cooking for the person they care most about. Or the King of Spain.

HS: If you weren’t a chef what do you think you’d be doing?
MA: I think I’d like to be a journalist.

HS: What does success mean for you? What will it look like for you?
MA: In 5 years I hope to be exactly where I am right now. There is limitless potential within the company right now.

HS: How are you involved in your local culinary community?
MA: We may be able to work with Washington Irving high school on 16th and Irving – they have greenhouse that’s out of use, and we may get to go in a revamp it and work on a curriculum with the kids and the teachers. We’ve been working with PS41 – we’ve had 3 groups of 1st graders come to the restaurant for a tour. Line cooks and managers give them a tour and introduce them to vocabulary and sounds and sights – we do a cooking demo and then we sit down and have lunch. It doesn’t take much to get kids talking about their food related memories. There are a lot of awesome causes to support, but kids are a great place to start. We can keep it on a very basic level, and it opens a window into what good eating is all about.

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