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Active Restaurateur : Michel JacobAs a young apprentice in Strasbourg, France, under Chef Johnny Letzer of Zimmer, Michel and his fellow chefs were often taken to restaurants for first hand experience of the local dining scene. One momentous day, Chef Letzer took the entire brigade to Restaurant Au Crocodile. The chefs were served a meal, "like nothing they had ever seen or tasted before". Everything was under the expert hand of Emile Jung, who came out personally to explain the philosophy of his cooking. It was at that meal that Michel Jacob set the standards for his own culinary path. Chef Emile Jung became his 'inspirational culinary mentor'. Following his apprenticeship, Michel worked with Pierre Gaertner at the celebrated Aux Armes de France in Ammerschwir. Further travels took him to Ireland at the famed Ashford Castle (then owned by the Guiness Family), Lausanne, Switzerland, and a stage in Belgium and Corsica. Impeccable service with flair, never pretense or fanfare. This fine dining French restaurant blends traditional French cooking with innovative Westcoast style. Twenty-two years later, with some of the original staff still here, Le Crocodile still remains in Vancouver as one of the city's most acclaimed and visited restaurants. This understated, elegant restaurant has been host to some of the world's most famous people such as: Jean Chrétien, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Al Pacino and Cindy Crawford ... to name a few. All business people alike will tell you that Le Crocodile is at the top of their list when you want to impress a client. You will never be disappointed and Michel's culinary expertise will always make you look great. With everything else aside, Michel is most proud of one accomplishment - Family Loyalty. Over the past 22 years, Michel has cooked for and seen generation after generation of families pass through the doors of Le Crocodile and, most have made Le Crocodile part of their family. Interview with Michel JacobWhat was your first job in the industry? I was a chef’s apprentice in France when I was 14. What is the most memorable moment of your career? Wow. As you can imagine I have been cooking for the past 40 years. I would say to see customers having pleasure when you serve them a meal – that gives me personal happiness and satisfaction. What advice do you have for people just starting out in the industry? You have to be committed, driven and have a passion. Do it for the love of cooking because if you just do it as a job, it won’t last. There is no social life, no private life – you work New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day. What do you think is the biggest issue facing restaurateurs today? Staff: that’s number one for sure. But only for the past five years, the reason being that the economy is doing so well and there are so many jobs. We have lots of young people and 50 per cent stop cooking after two or three years because it’s just too much for them. It’s not easy, you know? It’s not like when you’re a waiter in uniform in the dining room with nice music and air conditioning – in the kitchen, you’re back there and it’s tough. The money is not that good when you first start either. After a while people are going to say, “Why should I do that when I could be a carpenter or a painter or work on a construction site and make double the amount of money and be off on the weekend and home at six o’clock at night?” If you’re a chef, you come home at midnight. What’s the next step for raising the bar in the B.C. foodservice industry? I would say, we’ve been open here for about 25 years, so when we started, Toronto and Montreal were way ahead of us food-wise and restaurant standards. But for the past 10 years now, Vancouver has surpassed Toronto and Montreal in standards and restaurant quality and in terms of food, as well. Personally, I don’t see really what those top 10 restaurants in Vancouver have to do to be better than they are today. I think that Vancouver is on the map as far as top restaurants in Canada. Interview by Jessica Scharien Click on the images below to start videos Introduction movie shown during the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame Gala, April 2008. Interview and award acceptance speech recorded during the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame Gala, April 2008. |