Jean-Louis, Greenwich, Conn

Nation's Restaurant News,  April 25, 2005  by Erica Duecy

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As Jean-Louis Gerin celebrates the 20th anniversary of his restaurant--Jean-Louis in Greenwich, Conn.--he notes that his culinary philosophy remains constant even as his food continues to change.

"The food is constantly evolving, but it has always been contemporary French," says Gerin, who hails from Annecy, a lakeside town in the mountainous region of Haute Savoie, France. "I was in Paris, and I was very surprised to see that the techniques I'm using here in Greenwich, as well as the spirit of my menu, are very much in line with what's happening in Paris right now."

Although the chef-owner says his favorite dish is "'the one I create tomorrow," he points out as illustrating his style the espadon et crumble on his current menu. The dish features pan-seared swordfish in a reduction of meat juices, sherry, shallots and ginger, served over a tomato-and-caramelized-onion crumble.

For spring, Gerin is topping the dish with a dollop of parsley sorbet. "It's fun and not pretentious," he says. "That's the entire theory behind my food. It's very clean, and it doesn't scream 'French.' "

Since he started cooking professionally 30 years ago, Gerin has used ingredients such as curry, fresh ginger and cardamom. "This whole fusion movement now is just cute to me, but it doesn't amuse me," Gerin says. "All of those bozos who are pretending to make fusion cuisine now are just a couple of centuries late," he notes, referencing the spice trade between Europe and Asia that has continued for centuries and the cuisine that came out of it.

Another of Gerin's favorite selections from the menu is a dish he created for his wife soon after they married in 1986. The dish, caviar Tendresse, features American caviar and sour cream spiked with lemon and cayenne pepper, which is layered on endive.

"We had decided we wouldn't have kids for a long time because we had the restaurant to take care of," Gerin says of those early days. "Therefore, Linda got pregnant right away, and she developed an incredible craving for caviar." So Gerin created the caviar Tendresse recipe to satisfy Linda's cravings. "She loved it and the customers loved it, and I've never been able to take it off the menu," he says.

For dessert, the signature offering at Jean-Louis is "our famous super-thin apple tart," Gerin notes. The tart has a thin crust, almost like a crepe. "It's baked with about a pound of butter on top, but of course we lie and tell people it's low-cal," Gerin says.

Gerin's cuisine has evolved along with kitchen technology and the food supply, he says, but his style has remained constant. "I am one of the dinosaurs of French cuisine. I was trained by the old guys, and, therefore, I am one of the last ones to have seen techniques the way they are supposed to be done."

The regular menu at Jean-Louis changes four times a year; the five-course tasting menu changes nightly.

As part of the 20th-anniversary celebration, Gerin is remodeling the restaurant, giving it a new interior layout and new floors, tables and lighting, and selecting new attire for the staff. The restaurant also will feature an art gallery component, offering for sale the artists' works on the walls.

A new glass wall at the entrance can be moved to accommodate parties of various sizes. The back wall, which divides the kitchen from the dining room, will become French-door-style panels that will open for cooking classes and other occasions that call for an open kitchen.

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