Photograph by Catherine Viox
Jean-Robert de Cavel. The Frenchman who took Cincinnati by storm. He arrived in 1993 to become chef de cuisine at the Maisonette, the city’s longtime Mobil 5-Star rated fine dining establishment. Over the course of the next two decades, de Cavel opened a plethora of restaurants—including Pigall’s, JeanRo Bistro, Pho Paris, Greenup Cafe, Lavomatic Café, Jean-Robert’s Table, Frenchie Fresh, and Restaurant L—working his way into Cincinnati’s heart.
Even after his death in 2022, his restaurants Le Bar à Boeuf and French Crust Café live on. Chefs David Falk (owner of Boca, Sotto, and Nada), and Bridget and Jeremy Lieb (owners of Sacred Beast) sat down to talk about de Cavel’s influence on their lives, the city, and our dining culture today.
Falk: I met Jeremy and Bridget at the Maisonette in 1996. When did you start, Bridget? In ’92?
Bridget Lieb: 1994. When I was 17, I started in garde manger during our crazy Christmas lunches. I will never forget my very first day. I had to ask which one was the artichoke and which one was the asparagus.
Jeremy Lieb: I started in 1992 with [former head chef] Georges Haidon. I felt pretty lucky that I got to see the old crew. And then how it changed, how it evolved.
Falk: I always said he was kind of somewhere between a father and an older brother to me. Maybe more of an older brother, because he could be as passionately pissed at me as he could passionately cheer me on.
J. Lieb: He was my first true inspiration in cooking.
Falk: Three Ps pop into my mind. Passion: the guy was insanely passionate in every way. Pioneering: I don’t think he gets enough credit for how much he pioneered dining in Cincinnati. He was the tip of the spear. And people: he just loved people. His greatest strength was that he would do anything for anybody. And it was also his weakness in the sense that I don’t think he ever said no to anybody. Just an absolute Energizer Bunny, a French Energizer Bunny. I look back at those years [as] some of the best years in my life.
B. Lieb: Absolutely. Also, even though he was a mentor and we’re all saying he was so nice, he wasn’t afraid to tell you exactly what you were doing wrong. Even to me, the little girl in the kitchen. I was a kid, but he wasn’t afraid to do that to me because he knew he was sending me to New York, and I had to be ready to take on a kitchen in New York.
J. Lieb: Let’s face it, Maisonette had been on top for a long time, but it was old. I mean, all the plates were garnished with the same garnish. The food was delicious. I’m not mocking it or anything, but when JR came and what he did, every plate was different, it had his own identity. It was like, Wow.
Falk: That’s what I mean, pioneering. You see how dining in Cincinnati is right now, think of how much he pioneered that.
B Lieb: It took him a while to warm up Cincinnati.
Falk: Oh, for sure. I mean, that’s amazing, right? It took him a while to warm up, but there’s never been ever in my life anybody who was such an ambassador. Not just for dining; he became this personality that was larger than life for the city as a whole.
B. Lieb: When we worked at Maisonette, The Enquirer did an article on him. Somebody followed him around for a day, and they described him walking into the kitchen like Kramer from Seinfeld.
Falk: One thing I love about him, is that you could never compliment him. Do you remember? I’d be like, Hey chef, I just want to be a nice guy and tell you something nice and he would always do this. [Falk lifts his hand to his mouth in an obscene gesture and makes kissy sounds] I’m like, OK, chef. Never mind. You’re an asshole. He would not take a compliment.
B. Lieb: I was going through a box of stuff last night; I noticed I have a lot of letters from him. For my 18th birthday, he gave me a copy of Larousse Gastronomique and he wrote a note inside. Every single one he wrote to “my little sister in the kitchen.”
Falk: I never got a note. But let’s be real. You were like his first daughter.
B. Lieb: I think it also had to do with my mother. My mom came on the interview with me and was asking questions like How is she going to get to her car at night?
Falk: Remember how we all met in New York and helped him with the James Beard dinner?
J. Lieb: Oh yeah.
Falk: I’ll never forget that. You guys [the Liebs] were in New York. I was at Trotter’s in Chicago. He did whole roasted foie gras that we sliced and served. He had a bag of winter black truffles like I’ve never smelled before or since.
B. Lieb: Even at that event, at the end when the chef goes out and talks, he didn’t spend any time talking about himself. He was saying, Oh, these are my kids.
Falk: His life cycle started as this pioneering chef, but then it grew into something so much bigger to where he was this ambassador and bright light radiating out of this little town that he started off hating but grew to love and call home.
J. Lieb: In a sense, he’s like the Godfather of Cincinnati cuisine. Look at how many people have worked through his kitchens and gone on to do other stuff. How many people work through your kitchens? Our kitchen? He really laid the groundwork.
B. Lieb: Every city has the father or mother of cuisine.
J. Lieb: The Godfather of modern cuisine. I feel like Jean-Robert is that in the Midwest.
Falk: [At Maisonette] I would love when we heard patrons say, _I can’t believe this is in Cincinnati. My personal favorite thing is it still happens. We get people come from L.A. or New York or whatever, they come, and we blow ’em away.
J. Lieb: I enjoy us being the underdog.
B. Lieb: I started knowing nothing and he really took that chance on me to mold me into something that would be a good base for going to culinary school, for moving to New York. During all those times, he was so proud. He was so proud of not just me, but all of us.
Falk: I know plenty of people who have passed away. But there’s nobody in my life that I still wake up every day and can’t believe that he’s not here. Everything about him seemed immortal. I can hear him now. Busting our chops.
Facebook Comments