Brilliant Rémi Lauvand: from Restaurant Chef to Store Culinary Director

We met Executive Chef Rémi Lauvand through his food at the now-shuttered Le Ka in downtown Los Angeles. I still dream about his food.  Now there is an opportunity for him to reach grocery shoppers.

Chef Lauvand will be the Culinary Director at Vintage Grocers’ third location to open this September in Caruso’s Palisades Village.  Joining other supermarkets, such as the upscale Bristol Farms and Gelson’s, as well as the upgraded Pavilions, the store will offer not only grocery shopping, culinary experiences, such as chef demonstrations, product tastings, holiday workshops.  In this case, it will have the focus and depth of Chef Lauvand.

And what an experience this promises to be.  Every refined, flavor-layered bite of the chef’s refreshingly meaty and mostly-French menu at Le Ka was memorable.  And this included just about all of our favorites: pork short ribs, braised rabbit leg, glazed bone marrow with garlic flan, terrines and rillettes, and onion soup gratinée, with a few wild boar albondigas thrown in.

Sadly, this white tablecloth restaurant opened just as LA diners decided to go more casual and it was located in a former bank site with a strangely uninviting seating configuration. I also recall walking up the garage driveway as the only way to park and enter the place.

Born and raised in southwestern France, Lauvand began his culinary career in Germany (shades of Chef Bernard Guillas!).  He then traveling Europe on the famed Orient Express before landing a role at Gerard Pangaud’s in Paris. Moving stateside in the mid-eighties, Lauvand held posts at New York’s La Grenouille, Le Cirque and Montrachet, during which he earned a nomination for the James Beard Foundation’s “Outstanding Restaurant Award” and a New York Times’ three-star review as executive chef.

After several ventures on the West Coast, including the opening of Miro as the signature fine dining restaurant at the Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara, Citrus at Social Hollywood, and Manhattan Beach’s Café Pierre after consulting on Rivera restaurant.  Lauvand then took on more than 30 distinct culinary venues throughout Universal Studios Hollywood as director of culinary operations.

The chef has drawn accolades from publications such as Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, and Bon Appétit.

In one interview the chef  attributed his work with Chef Daniel Boulud and Sotta Khunn as “having a major impact on the way I cook and think about food.”

He added, “I am not so much into reading new cookbooks anymore. There is so much to learn from old ones and reinterpret. I love getting back to my old Ali-Bab “Gastronomie Pratique: Etudes Culinaires Suivies du Traitement de l’Obésité,” and from time to time still Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking” is one of my favorites.

Apart from his work at Vintage Grocers, Louvain enjoys spending time outdoors an contributing to organizations including No Kid Hungry and Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

For more details, please see: //www.vintagegrocers.com///www.vintagegrocers.com/