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| Chef Joël Antunes: Joel Restaurant by Laurel-Ann Dooley When Joël Antunes opened his eponymous restaurant in late 2001, the self-described “chic yet simple brasserie” was eagerly welcomed by excited Atlanta gourmands. The buzz extended well beyond city limits and, with raves rolling in, the restaurant was crowned one of Esquire Magazine’s Best New Restaurants in the Country. A year and a half later, that early hoopla has settled into a steady stream of praise for Antunes. Wondering if the unremitting admiration is justified, I make arrangements to meet him and have lunch. Aware of Antunes’ top-shelf credentials, intense nature and dashing good looks (“Is he as cute as they say?” friends want to know), I half expect to find an egomaniacal star chef and an overrated restaurant. But what I discover is a spotlight-avoiding anti-star and a restaurant that deserves the accolades. “I don’t wear a tie and walk around talking,” says Antunes, making clear his disdain for the celebrity chef trend. “I am a cook.” His customers want to know that he is in the kitchen, he says, and it is important that he continuously hones his craft. “Discipline -- I learned that in France. I am in the kitchen every day cooking.” The habit started early. As a young boy, Antunes went to live with his grandparents in the south of France while his father was away in the military. Following his grandmother around her farmhouse kitchen, he learned “the way to make a cake from the beginning and to make fish and meat. From this time [on], I liked to cook.” At 14, he got his first job, an apprenticeship at the Michelin two-star restaurant Belle Meuniere in Royat. From there, he worked in a series of other Michelin-starred restaurants – Leyoden and Duquesnoy in Paris, the Hotel Negreso in Nice – and trained under some of France’s greatest chefs, serving as poissonier for the legendary Paul Bocuse in Lyons and sous chef for Michel Troisgos in Roanne. In 1987, at 26, he became the chef cuisinier at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. Four years later, as partner and executive chef, he opened Saveur in London. Although the restaurant was a success, earning its own Michelin star in 1994, Antunes learned in 1997 that his investment group was pulling out. At the time, Atlanta’s Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, was looking for a replacement for its chef, Guenter Seeger, who was leaving to open his own restaurant. With Daniel Boulud and Alain Ducasse recommending him, Antunes soon found himself stateside. “It was my dream to come to the U.S.A.,” he says, “and the Ritz gave me the golden hand.” But having tasted what it was like to run his own show with Saveur, he dreamed of launching another restaurant. “When you open your own place, it is your personality 100 percent,” he says. And so after five years at the Ritz Dining Room, Antunes left to realize his vision of a modern brasserie with “clean and simple food.” His hand-picked cast includes sous chef Robert Guillou from the Chevre d’Or in the south of France and pastry chef Philippe Givre from Fauchon, Paris’ highly-acclaimed food emporium. Together, they create a sumptuous Mediterranean and Asian-influenced French cuisine, featuring items such as oysters with cauliflower tapenade, gazpacho with tomato sorbet, and roast lobster with fried vermicelli, snow peas and Thai sauce. The day I meet with Antunes, I decide that man could live on bread alone, after cracking the crisp hot crust of a roll and biting into a steaming white cloud of buttery softness. Happily, though, there is more to come, and I proceed to enjoy with increasing delight a pumpkin and Parmesan tart, a filet of turbot and Portobello mushroom ravioli. Joël Antunes has made his grandmother proud. His restaurant combines the high- quality cuisine of France with flavors from around the world, topped with a dollop of Southern graciousness. The result is fusion at its best. I take another piece of bread, and vow to come back – many, many times. Joël is located at 3290 Northside Parkway at the Piazza at Paces in the Forum Building. |
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| Chef Joel Antunes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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