On July 13, 2024, we had the great pleasure to greet Chef Ponsaty as Guest chef for a memorable guest chef dinner.
Maître Cuisinier de France Chef Patrick Ponsaty: From a Duty of Transmission to a Cuisine of Inspiration
Sylvie: Chef Ponsaty, please give us a retrospective of your background.
Chef Ponsaty: I am a native of Cazères, a pretty village located close to Toulouse in the southwest of France, where the accent is already a harbinger of a good life. My culinary journey began with my father André Ponsaty. My parents had a hotel-restaurant called the “Suckling Pig”. From the age of 10, during my free time, I took pleasure in following my father into his kitchen.
Sylvie: Can you share with us souvenirs that you have of your dad?
Chef Ponsaty: My Dad, André Ponsaty was a perfectionist. One of the best heritages I have received from him is what we commonly call in France the Duty of Transmission. It is seen as a duty, therefore perceived as it, and a serious matter. It is a philosophy, and each chef I have worked with carried the duty to transmit, it is not commercial. A transmission is a mental and psychological accompaniment, of knowledge not only culinary but on oneself. The duty of transmission from a father to a child goes beyond the understanding of all education. We lived on site in the hotel, we worked on site, my life and my brothers’ lives were punctuated by this environment. It was impossible to escape our destiny as chef or maître d’hôtel. I could never regret the way I merged with this profession. It absorbed me. It was the best introduction to this profession. It was inexorable, I must now pass on this education, my knowledge, to the future generations. And it’s not a simple thing. This is the generosity of this profession. To be a cook or chef, you must be generous. Being a motivated person, eager to develop skills without counting hours and other personal life issues.
Sylvie: Who are the Chefs you have been working with?
Chef Ponsaty: I have worked for a myriad of Michelin Star chefs (and other stars, like the New York Times) I worked with Pierre Darroze, Firmin Arambide, Michel Rochedy, Alain Ducasse, Jean Michel Diot (in New York – I was barely 24 years old- and later on in La Jolla), Didier Oudill, Martin Berasategui and more. In San Diego I have occupied several functions like Chef at “El biz” “Best Restaurant in San Diego” four years in a row and achieved a Mobil Five-Star Rating. Rancho Bernardo, at Bernard’O, Loew’s Coronado, Executive Chef Restaurant Mistral “Best Hotel Chef in America by James Beard Foundation”, 1500 Ocean – the Hotel Del and am still working there in an Executive position.
Sylvie: Who is your mentor? and what attracted you to him to take the place of mentor in your career?
Chef Ponsaty: Didier Oudill had worked for many years with Michel Guérard. He was the leading chef of this magnificent house which served classic gourmet cuisine and cuisine “Minceur”. The character of Didier Oudill, his creativity, the attention he paid to details. There were only six of us in the kitchen for a two Michelin star. We worked a lot, with a close-knit team who loved the work, and especially the way of executing our functions. The ambience with his unusual sense of humor. He shortened my name to “Ponsa” and gave us beers during the service to help us get through. He had a frantic pace of work. He also had a very human being behavior. His creativity that he pushed every day, his spontaneity, this made him an extraordinary person, one who was going in the right direction. It was THE future 3 Michelin star of the time. And for us, we had to adapt and follow his rhythm. He pushed us every day to be the best. We had dishes of two or three macaroons made from simple products. But works with a lot of research. His recipes were sophisticated. He was very strong with the spices. For me Didier Oudill is a genius. Chef Oudill is also the mentor of Martin Berasategui, Michel Nickey (Chez Mattin in Ciboure – Pays Basque) and many others. Didier Oudill was not only a chef, but he was also a teacher in his own kitchen.
Sylvie: Was there a point in your career when you thought about changing direction, ending it to a less physical and intensive work?
Chef Ponsaty: NEVER
Sylvie: What is the best memory you have? A moment in your career when you felt immense joy.
Chef Ponsaty: When I won the cooking competition in Spain “Best young Chefs in Spain. The second place was the 2 chefs from El Bully including Andoni Luis Aduriz who is now one of the best in the world. And the big check too. The organization of the congress of Master Chefs of France in San Diego, with 80 chefs visiting, an event that I organized and designed alone but still with a fantastic assistant Kristina Miller. The day the chefs left, I cried with joy at having accomplished this challenge. A year of preparation. We often talk about these memories. We spent six days together. I had prepared a dish that still makes the headlines in our conversations: a Fresh Catalina Sea urchin stuffed with a cauliflower mousse and some florets, toasted hazelnut, shiitake mushroom, smoked eel, uni, lemon butter sauce and Finish with Italian parsley foam. When you look at this contingent of chefs arriving, of all ages, all with classical training, coming to discover the region where I live, what I do, the house in which I work, how I use my knowledge and background with my current team. All guided by a common passion, it’s rather unique. We are all very attached to our courteous, humble and human values with this desire to give people the best of us with the best products.
Sylvie: What was the most difficult moment(s) during your apprenticeship?
Chef Ponsaty: Chef Pierre Darroze was 72 years old; he was very strict, he scolded me a few times because I could not find the chive in the cooler. I was going to school in the morning, then after school, I was running to the restaurant for the dinner service, very long days.
Sylvie: Expand a little on the conditions of your learning. Certainly, the long hours, the composition of the brigade, the atmosphere and other relevant information on important moments at the start of your career.
Chef Ponsaty: It was a family restaurant, very short team 5 or 6 in the kitchen, that way I had to learn fast and avoid mistakes. The Darroze Family put me in the right
direction and took the time to teach me the classic cuisine, butcher fish, rabbit, lamb…and pastries. I am still in contact with the family.
Sylvie: Why did you go abroad? What has this brought you from a professional point of view?
Chef Ponsaty: I was working in Biarritz with Didier Oudill, and one day he approached me and told me that it’s time for me to go away in a different country like the US. I answered right away OUI CHEF! The time to prepare the visa and in a very short time I was in New York to start my new adventure at Park Bistro with Jean Michel and Sylvie. My English speaking was very limited to “Yes & No” only. My first products order by phone was very interesting, half of the order showed up wrong because of my accent and my English, It’s the best way to learn. I remember we were 5 or 6 in this small kitchen and all different nationalities. It was hard to communicate in the beginning but after a couple of weeks it was better. It took me 3 months to start feeling more comfortable, The Irish Pub cross the street, with staff late reunions helped a lot.
Sylvie: How did you adapt to the service: I used to love the rush service, working next to Jean Michel who was finishing the plates with the sauces and herbs.
Chef Ponsaty: There was a solid team working there, many are now chef leaders, and a lot of them became Maîtres Cuisinier de Frances, or Michelin Stars chef like Yoann Conte, who is one of them. His Hotel Restaurant is located on the lake of Annecy. I can say about him that he has understood everything about becoming a chef, and a brilliant one.
Yoann was already crazily passionate and a machine in the kitchen, I am still close to him and proud to be one of his teachers.
Sylvie: What, in your opinion, is the future of French classic cuisine? Technical equipment has changed as well as working methods. In your opinion, is classicism disappearing? Does this represent challenges for chefs to continue to follow this cuisine or to break away from it out of obligation due to changing tastes for so-called “Fusion” cuisines? which have entered current vocabulary… is it just a trend? Can you explain what this means to you?
Chef Ponsaty: Classic cuisine will never disappear; it is our foundation. There were fashionable cuisines like Molecular cuisine which “exploded”, and is now on the decline. The new chefs are not inventing anything, they are adjusting Classic cuisine with a touch of modernity, lighter, less fat, and focusing on presentation first and taste second. What I really appreciate is Asian cuisine, South American cuisine, Peruvian cuisine that I love and Mexican.
Fusion cuisine is not enticing, “fusion-confusion”, the fault of this cuisine is the education of a certain culinary school which teaches all the cuisines of the world without starting with the foundation of a specific basic cuisine.
Sylvie: The cuisine of classic chefs from the 60s, 70s and 80s revolved around game, fish direct from hunters and fishermen. Did you work this way?
Chef Ponsaty: The “wild” had its own places on the menus. I think I have touched all the game, deer, wild boar, hare, woodpigeon, woodcocks, Ortolans and all that in the southwest of France. The animals sometimes arrived whole. On the sea and river sides, I went fishing with my dad, crayfish, pike, gudgeons…
Indeed, the cuisine of that time was not only “Farm to table”, it was also “Des Bois ou de la Rivière, à la table” cuisine. My father fished in the river, particularly the Garonne which passed through the village, collecting mushrooms from the woods, trout in the streams, crayfish hidden behind the trees.
The duck and foie gras were provided by the neighbor, the wild boars were the trophies of the neighborhood hunters. All these provisions were within our reach. Arriving in the kitchen without placing orders. They were the catch of the day. The menu had a strong influence from fishing, hunting, local vegetable gardens and “Vergers”.
Sylvie: Did your father have culinary specialties?
Chef Ponsaty: He had two signature dishes
– Love-dressed trout, cooked whole and covered with a sauce made from candied garlic and tomato
– Tirous (duck in Catalan) Cazérien, duck leg cooked in a deep red wine sauce.
Sylvie: What is the best book to read that you recommend to the young generations who want to enter or young people who are already in this profession?
Chef Ponsaty: Thuries Magazine and of course the gastronomic Larousse
Sylvie: The title of Alain Chapel’s book “Cooking is more than recipes”. And what is it for you?
Chef Ponsaty: For me it’s not that at all, I cook based on the feeling in relation to the product I have in front of me. I only use the scale in baking
Sylvie: Chef(s) with whom you would have liked to work?
Chef Ponsaty: Joel Robuchon
Sylvie: And to conclude, French cuisine/pastry and baking has/have crossed centuries, oceans, lands, they merged even before the current movement. They were written and continue to be reinterpreted. San Diegans flirt with French cuisine. What is your part in this heavy and magnificent responsibility that Transmission is?
Chef Ponsaty: San Diegans that I trained like my former protégé Jonny Freyberg respect French cuisine without transforming it. French cuisine has become fashionable again and celebrity chefs are opening French restaurants. My word is that it is not to play with. It is a serious and fun matter if you are aware of the perfect interpretation of it.
Sylvie: Thank you, Patrick, for sharing this with us. It has been a pleasure to go deeper into your passion.
MENU SERVED: Bastille Dinner 2024
