Page 11 - MENU Magazine - Jan/Feb 2018

DOMINIQUE CRENN ATELIER CRENN
Born and raised in the beautiful coun- t1ry of France, I came all the way to Califor- nia for the sunshine and now I’m cooking for people with love and passion.”
2 “I’m very proud of the team that I have around me. I’m proud to be a mentor and I’m very thankful for the people I work with. I’m also proud to have a voice, to be part of the conversation. It’s not just cook- ing; it’s much more than that.”
3 “Treating the sexes equally has been a problem, not just in my industry but in all industries. I think we need to bring that issue to the forefront. I was working at a restaurant in the ‘90s and one of the sous chefs was very inappropriate with me. So
I went to the chef and you know what the chef told me at the time? He said to me if you don’t like this, you can go and quit your job and find another job. Nobody thought anything wrong, you know? That has been a problem in my industry for a long, long time. And now it’s changing.”
4 “I think what excites me now is the consciousness of a lot of chefs who under- stand that to succeed in this industry is to really care about our environment and the people around us—making sure that every- thing we do is in line with what the farmers
need. That excites me. It’s not black and white anymore. I’m not going to use tomatoes 365 days a year, I’m going to be using produce that is good for the farmers. The creativity of chefs is going to be much more impactful.”
5 “I walk the dogs or sometimes I take the girls to school. I go to Petit Crenn to see what’s going on and sometimes I have to go to the market for Atelier. I get to Atelier around 12, 1 o’clock and then we do service at 5 or 5:30 pm. And that’s every day. We close twice a week—Sunday and Monday. It’s very excit- ing, every day is quite different, you know?”
6
“I’ve had a love affair with tomatoes since I was four years old. Tomato is very versatile, it can be a vegetable or it could be a fruit. You can do a lot of things with it, you can transform it into different ways, and there is so much sweetness. It reminds me a lot of my childhood.”
7
“Cream cheese sandwich. A lot of butter, a beautiful brioche and some comfort cheese. ”
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5 “I have like 5,000 jobs! It’s all over the map; every day is different. There are some repeating cycles. I wake up every morning and I have coffee and I go to the bathroom and I brush my teeth, I feed my cat...but after that my morning is spent prepping and my night is spent playing with food—that’s basically a day in the life.”
6 “Fennel. It’s delicious, bright and fresh. It’s very good for your digestion and there are many ways that I like to use it, like roasted
fennel or caramelized fennel on some fresh tuna. Or fennel seeds that are toasted and mixed with black peppercorn equal parts and used for seasoning—I use that religiously. Once you taste it and use it, you will never stop using it because it’s part of your reper- toire. I may have just changed your life.”
7 “Pierogies. Drowning in sour cream with some butter and fennel pepper. I love Eastern European food. It’s always soft and squishy and salty. It’s so good.” m
Photo credit: Matt Edge for the NYT