# Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Jean-Georges Vongerichten (German:; French:; born March 16, 1957) is a French-American chef. Vongerichten owns restaurants in Miami Beach, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Shanghai, Philadelphia, and Tokyo, as well as New York's Jean-Georges restaurant and Tangará Jean Georges in São Paulo's Palácio Tangará, by Oetker Collection. He is head chef of Eden Rock, St Barths. Vongerichten is the author of five cookbooks, two with Mark Bittman.

## Early life and career

Born and raised on the outskirts of Strasbourg in Alsace, France, Vongerichten had a family life centered around the kitchen, where each day his mother and grandmother prepared lunch for the almost 50 employees of their business. His love of food cemented his choice of career at the age of 16, when his parents brought him to the three-star Michelin-rated Auberge de l'Ill for a birthday dinner.
Vongerichten began his training soon after in a work-study program at the Auberge de l'Ill as an apprentice to Chef Paul Haeberlin. He went on to work with France's top chefs, including Paul Bocuse and Louis Outhier at L'Oasis in the south of France.
Often working with Outhier, Vongerichten opened ten restaurants around the world from 1980 to 1985, including the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, the Meridien Hotel in Singapore, and the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong.

## Relocation to America

Vongerichten arrived in the United States in 1985 under the auspices of consulting chef Louis Outhier, opening the Le Marquis de Lafayette restaurant in Boston. A year later he arrived in New York to take over as executive chef at Lafayette in the Drake Swissôtel, earning four stars from The New York Times at the age of 29. There he met financiers Bob Giraldi and Phil Suarez. Vongerichten, Giraldi and Suarez opened a bistro, JoJo, in 1991. JoJo was named Best New Restaurant of the Year, and earned three stars from The New York Times.

## Lawsuit

In September 2008, Vongerichten agreed to settle a lawsuit for $2.2 million filed by staff who claimed tips from several of his restaurants had been redirected to managers.

## Influence

In 2005, New York magazine wrote that in the past two decades, no single chef has had more influence on the way New Yorkers dine out—or on the way other chefs cook and other restaurants look. "He invented America’s answer to nouvelle cuisine," says Mario Batali. "When I first came to New York, his book Simple Cuisine was the holy grail for young chefs, and JoJo was the hottest ticket in town."
Vongerichten claims to have invented molten chocolate cake in New York City in 1987, but the French chef and chocolatier Jacques Torres has disputed that, arguing that such a dish already existed in France.

## Personal life

Vongerichten resides in New York City with his wife, Marja, a Korean-American/African-American actress and model (née Marja Dominique Allen; born 1976). The couple has a daughter.
Vongerichten also has two adult children, Cedric (who is the executive chef of Perry Street) and Louise (who recently opened a restaurant called Chefs Club in NY), from his first marriage. His daughter Louise is married to Hamdi Ulukaya. Vongerichten has three grandchildren. He spends weekends at a house in Waccabuc, New York

## Community activism

Vongerichten serves on the Food Council at City Harvest, and runs his own foundation called Food Dreams.

## Books

* Home Cooking with Jean-Georges (co-authored with Genevieve Ko) (November 2011), ISBN 978-0-307-71795-5
* Asian Flavorings of Jean-Georges (October 2007), ISBN 978-0-7679-1273-0
* Simple to Spectacular (co-authored with Mark Bittman) (October 2000), ISBN 978-0-7679-0360-8
* Jean-Georges: Cooking At Home with a Four-Star Chef (co-authored with Mark Bittman) (September 1998), ISBN 978-0-7679-0155-0
* Simple Cuisine: The Easy, New Approach to Four-Star Cooking (1991), ISBN 978-0-13-195059-7

## Television

In 2011, Vongerichten and his wife, Marja, debuted a PBS television series, Kimchi Chronicles, a travel and cooking show set in South Korea and New York City.