Adrian Hoffman: Yankee ingenuity keeps European-style food relevant

Nation's Restaurant News, May 6, 2002 by Alan Liddle

American cuisine innovator Bradley Ogden says Adrian Hoffman, his young executive chef and partner at One Market Restaurant in San Francisco, has made the menu "a little more Mediterranean than I wanted." But keeping an open mind and mindful of the critical acclaim garnered by Hoffman, Ogden is quick to add,

"That isn't necessarily a bad thing." Ogden and One Market co-proprietor Michael Dellar are not alone in their appreciation of the 30-year-old Hoffman's talent and work ethic. The San Francisco Chronicle dubbed him a "rising star" in 2001, and the New York-based James Beard Foundation named him a 2002 Rising Star Chef Award nominee.

A native of Boston who started working in restaurants as a teenager; Hoffman admits that he never considered a career in foodservice until after he graduated from college. He recalls that his desire to become a chef crystallized while he was turning out rustic Italian food that made him "proud" at Rocco's in Beantown.

Hoffman's culinary wanderlust led him through kitchens in San Francisco and New York, where he met the Maccioni family of Le Cirque fame. He helped the Maccionis open Osteria Del Circo, and the family helped him become a stagiare at the Michelin one-star Ristorante Romano in Viareggio, Italy. Similar two-week work-study stays followed at three-star Chez Nico at Ninety Park Lane and two-star Aubergine, both in London.

After his travels abroad Hoffman returned to Boston, where he worked for Todd English as a sous chef at Olives. English, in a consulting capacity, later named Hoffman on-site chef at Tamarind in Eilat, Israel.

A summer working in the South of France and a six-month stay in Tokyo at Restaurant Canard preceded his arrival at One Market in October 2000, Hoffman says.

Title: executive chef and partner, One Market Restaurant, San Francisco

Birth date: March 4, 1972

Education: bachelor's degree in philosophy, with minors in studio art and economics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.

Career highlights: joining One Market Restaurant and being nominated as a James Beard Foundation "Rising Star" chef

How do you describe your food?

It's American food with a contemporary regional European focus. If I'm cooking a dish inspired by Normandy, it will have shellfish, butter or cream or other things the region is known for. If I'm inspired by Provence, there will be no butter or cream; it will be strictly olive oil based. At the same time whatever I do is American food because the way we put things together here is unlike anything done in Europe.

What menu items would you use to create a spring meal representative of your style of cooking?

Steamed Delta asparagus with Maine crab hollandaise and fried spring onion "blossom"; Rouget "vinaigrette," young artichokes and fennel cooked with white wine, vinegar and olive oil and served with cod-roe crostini; marjoram-scented and seared ahi tuna with cucumber cream, black mussels, country ham and marble-sized potatoes; and whole, roasted coriander-glazed Liberty duck for two with green olive-candied lemon ragout, apricots and cilantro flat bread.

What kind of family did you come from, and how has that shaped your cooking?

I grew up vegetarian, and my parents were not the best of cooks. On top of that I was a pretty rebellious kid who started working in restaurants at 13. It seemed like I should know about the foods I was cooking, so I began eating meat.

Was operating a restaurant in Israel different from running one in America?

It was a kosher hotel, so I had to abide by kosher law. One of the rules is that you can't have meat and dairy in the same kitchen. The use of substitute products, like soy milk for cooking, was really big [in other restaurants] there, but I thought they were so gross that I used olive oil and meat fats.

What was the strongest impression left by your time in Italy at Ristorante Romano?

It was a Tuscan fish restaurant. They wouldn't prep up any mise en place. If there was an order for fish on potato, they'd pull a fish, scale it and prep it and pull up a potato and peel it and cut it. It would take the whole evening to dine there. It was honest food.

What was memorable about Chez Nico?

The chef, Nico Ladenis, was one of the first highly opinionated London chefs. His book, "My Gastronomy," impressed me. His presentations were very, very clean, and he gave you a little of this and a little of that.

How about at Aubergine?

The chefs name was Gordon Ramsay, now of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. His food was brilliant, but his approach [to management] was "hard core." I couldn't run a kitchen like he did [here] in America.

You've worked in New York and San Francisco. How do the experiences compare?

In New York there is a higher level of discipline among chefs and cooks that I miss here. In San Francisco we have a lot of fantastic produce, and you are an hour from wine country and that results in a different kind of inspiration. Manhattan is one of the busiest cities in the world, but a lot of people get burned out there. In San Francisco there is more of a balance [to life].