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Always bustling with creativity, chef Daniel Boulud is at his best<br />
in remaking the Manhattan icon Le Pavillon // By Bill Knott<br />
Photography by Thomas Schauer<br />
UPDATING<br />
THE<br />
CLASSICS<br />
ON 19 MAY THIS YEAR, after many months of restrictions,<br />
restaurants in New York City were allowed to open their doors<br />
once more. On the same day, one restaurant – Le Pavillon,<br />
on the second floor of the ambitious new One Vanderbilt<br />
skyscraper in Midtown – opened its doors for the very first time.<br />
Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Bill de Blasio,<br />
Mayor of New York City, paid tribute to Marc Holliday,<br />
chairman and CEO of SL Green Realty, the building’s owners<br />
“for believing in the people of New York City and investing in<br />
them,” and to Tim and Nina Zagat, founders of the eponymous<br />
restaurant guide, for their continued promotion of the city.<br />
But his most fulsome praise was reserved for Daniel Boulud,<br />
chef, restaurateur and the culinary mastermind behind Le Pavillon.<br />
“Daniel, New York City has always loved you,” he proclaimed. “This<br />
is a symbol of New York City coming back, right here, right now.”<br />
De Blasio went on to reference the original Le Pavillon, which<br />
opened for the World’s Fair in 1939 and continued as a bastion<br />
– for a while, New York’s only bastion – of classic French cooking<br />
until 1972, acknowledging Boulud’s homage to the original,<br />
but saluting the chef’s determination to reinvent. It managed, he<br />
thought, to encapsulate the spirit of New York: “Amazing history that<br />
we honour, but a place where we always create something new.”<br />
Recalling the event, Boulud sounds a little uncomfortable<br />
with what he calls “the hoopla of celebration,” but he<br />
appreciates de Blasio’s central point. “If I am known<br />
for anything, it is the modern interpretation of classics.”<br />
One dish on the menu at Le Pavillon is a case in point. “I<br />
asked Jacques Pépin [the veteran French chef, writer and TV<br />
presenter, who worked at the original Le Pavillon in the late<br />
1950s] what he remembered from the menu, and he said<br />
that the most celebrated dish was poulet au champagne.<br />
SEA BLISS<br />
Halibut, Martha’s Vineyard shiitake,<br />
consommé, cabbage and barley<br />
from Le Pavillon<br />
NetJets<br />
65
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