On March 16, two local chefs — Philippe Verpiand (photo below, left) of Étoile Cuisine et Bar in Houston and Frédéric Perrier (photo below, right) of Aura Brasserie in Sugar Land — will have traveled to France along with seven other North American chefs to be named a Master Chef of France.
Verpiand and Perrier will join Philippe Schmit (namesake of the one-time Philippe Restaurant and now in the kitchen at Drexel House) as the only Texas chefs to have received the honor. To be inducted into the society, candidates must be French between the ages of 28 and 55, working as a chef in their current position for at least two years with a “mastership of cooking technique, superior qualification and professional culture.” Candidates must also have two “godfather” Master Chefs provide letters of recommendation.
Verpiand, a native of Provence, has worked at seven Michelin-starred restaurants in France, including Le Café de Paris in Biarritz. He moved to San Diego in 1997 and worked at Tapanade Restaurant in La Jolla before opening his own Cavaillon Restaurant in San Diego in 2005. After visiting his wife’s brother in Houston in 2012, Verpiand and his wife Monica moved to Houston and opened Étoile.
Perrier, a native of Lyon, worked at numerous Michelin two- and three-star restaurants before spending a year on the island of Saint Barthelemy in the French West Indies. He moved to New York City, where he gained recognition as executive chef of La Cité, an acclaimed French restaurant in Manhattan. After meeting his wife Michelle — a native Houstonian — in New York City, the couple moved back to Houston, where Perrier co-owned and worked as executive chef at Grille 5115 in the Galleria’s Saks Fifth Avenue. Down the road, Perrier opened Aura Restaurant in Missouri City and then moved the restaurant to Sugar Land and renamed it Aura Brasserie. Perrier also owns Hoggs n’ Chicks, a fast casual concept serving food that Perrier describes as “Southern fried with a French twist.”
“Two Master Chefs of France walk into a Texas restaurant…” sounds like the beginning of a joke, right? Luckily for Houston, it isn’t. Our restaurant scene is full of quirky talent and unexpected culinary surprises. We caught up with the two chefs and asked them about their upcoming honors — and we may have gotten a bit nosy.
To be named a Master Chef of France, one of the requirements is to possess “mastership of cooking technique.” What is your most masterful cooking technique?
Verpiand: Game cooking. I’ve been around it my whole life. My family were hunters and butchers, so we were always cooking any kind of game: venison stew, venison roast, woodcock, partridge, pheasant, rabbit, deer, wild boar, wild ducks. The duck we cook at Étoile is obviously different, but it’s probably not a coincidence that the Magret de Canard is our best-selling entree.
Perrier: Butchering — either fish or meat. I love it and became quite good at it. As well as sauces, I really have a passion for sauces.
Why did you want to become a chef?
Verpiand: When I was a kid in Cavaillon (Provence, France), I was going to be a butcher after my dad, but he oriented me to the pastry and culinary world because he saw that the rise of supermarkets was going to start bringing down the butcher industry. I entered culinary school and liked it, so that’s where it all started. I was already in the food business, so it was always part of the plan, pretty much. In three years, you’re going to see my oldest son in the kitchen, too.
Perrier: I don’t think I could help myself. At age 13, I decided to jump in while still asking myself why. Part of it was also because of my grandfather, who was a great cook and I admired him so much.
What was your favorite food growing up?
Verpiand: Duck. My parents were selling all types of really good-quality meat in the butcher shop. My dad was a great butcher, and my mom was a great cook. My grandfather was a butcher before my dad. We had the butcher shop in family from 1934 to 2006, and duck was always my favorite.
Perrier: Croque Monsieur and saucisson [a variety of thick, dry cured sausage that originates in France].
What is your favorite dish to prepare?
Verpiand: Woodcock. I am a game-lover. For me, this is the best of any game I know. There are some on the planet I haven’t tasted, like moose or caribou, but of all the birds, the European woodcock is the best. It’s a long process to age and to cook it, and you don’t clean it – you cook it all with the intestines inside and everything. It looks funny or disgusting — you have to be French to do this. But you roast it and extract the sauce from the bird – it’s a crazy good sauce – and put it with a nice mashed potato or wild mushroom porcini. Then you need to open a crazy good bottle of big Bordeaux wine to go with it, and you’re all set.
Perrier: Rabbit civet, because I remember doing it by my mom and my grandpa’s side. I guess it’s a comfort food for me.
Besides a good set of knives, what is one kitchen gadget you cannot live without?
Verpiand: Maybe a sous-vide machine. I like to use that for a few of my dishes – pork chops when we offer them, short ribs, foie gras.
Perrier: My mandoline.