October 31, 2002
Head chef wants no ‘fake food’ at UW
Some might consider it unthinkable to give up being a chef who opens fancy restaurants in hotels all over the world for a job as food service chef on a major college campus.
That’s not how Jean-Michel Boulot sees it. “Look at the HUB. We’re serving 11,000 people every day. And we’re doing it properly, with food that is fresh and appealing. I believe we’re doing something special here.”
Boulot became executive chef for Housing and Food Services less than three years ago. He began almost immediately by refining the designs for the dining facilities slated for remodeling. The first fruit of his labors was the HUB.
“I had opened lots of hotel restaurants, but I never opened nine at one time,” he says, referring to the nine separate food services.
When he began to plan the meals that would come out of his kitchens, Boulot was unimpressed with what he saw in the institutional food service industry. “They’re putting fake food in front of the customer. It has been processed too much. I refused to go that way. In our operation, we hardly use a freezer. We don’t use canned vegetables. Our customers get the real thing, fresh food. We’re able to achieve our quality because of the talent and creativity of our staff.”
Boulot has quickly assembled a group of chefs that encompasses what he calls “the biggest culinary curriculum in Seattle.” No one, he says, has a team that is as knowledgeable in the kitchen. They come with impressive backgrounds from fine restaurants:
• Eric Lenard, chef at the HUB, formerly worked at the popular Six Degrees near Green Lake and also worked at the Sorrento Hotel.
• Jim Watkins, chef at 8, was at Café Flora in Madison Park, one of Seattle’s celebrated vegetarian restaurants.
• Tracy MacRae, chef at 8, was at the trendy Kingfish restaurant on Capitol Hill.
• Kent Roundhill, executive sous chef, was the training chef at Buca de Beppo, a unique Italian restaurant in downtown Seattle;
• Andrew Simmons, Husky Den chef, was a chef at Zinc Bistrot in Portland and the Heathman Hotel in Portland.
• Jacob Valentine-Moyer, Terry Café chef, worked at Kaspar’s Restaurant and Wine Bar.
• Kathy Hanken, Terry Café chef, was sous chef and kitchen manager at the Third Floor Fish Café.
• Jennifer Boisoneau, Boss Tucker chef, was at the beloved Honey Bear Bakery, where she developed vegetarian and vegan dishes.
• Max Gerspacher, Portage Bay Galley chef, has developed and runs Oodles, the Asian noodle bar in the galley.
• Dave Fagan, catering chef, has helped UW catering sales triple in the past seven years.
• Robert Nash, temporary chef in catering, was corporate executive chef for Columbia Hospitality.
“These people were used to working in restaurants where the price point was $40 to $60,” says Boulot. “Now, they’re creating high-quality meals in the range of $5 to $8. It’s their creativity that makes this all possible.”
Boulot has brought his own creativity to the mix. Born in a French village of 250 people, he became interested in fresh food at an early age. “My grandmother was the milk lady of Normandy. She made her own cheese and butter, and we ate everything fresh from village farms.”
His career in food began at the age of 14 and has taken him to Paris, Vancouver, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Hawaii, Palm Beach, Phoenix and New York City.
After opening three hotel restaurants in the space of three years — the last was at the W Hotel in Seattle — Boulot was ready to leave the hotel business behind. “My wife sent my resume to Housing and Food Services,” he says. “I came to be interviewed, but I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t sure I wanted to enter the cafeteria world.”
The timing was right, because Housing and Food Services was bent on leaving the cafeteria world. “Our push is to continue to produce meals that are fresher and better,” he says. Boulot’s search for fresher foods extends well beyond the usual sources. He plans to contact Washington farmers to see if there are ways to get produce direct from the fields to the UW. And he has persuaded the campus landscapers to plant an herb garden on McMahon’s plaza.
