YEAR: 2007
Being responsible for feeding your brothers and sisters is not a job that many eight year-olds would relish. But as the eldest of five children growing up in Brittany, France, Richard did, so that his mother, a single parent, could support the family. From that responsibility was born his life-long love of cooking. Advised by his mother to begin as a pastry chef, Richard apprenticed at bakeries during his teens before moving to America. Without a single culinary class, Richard relied on the experience he gathered during apprenticeships and counsel from greats in the field such as Paul Bocuse and Roger Vergé. He opened his first of many restaurants in 1987, featuring causal bistro-style American cuisine, blending seamlessly the tastes and heritage of his native home with his new one. (During one of his earliest trips in the U.S., he became fascinated with the juxtaposition of moist, juicy chicken encased in a crunchy fried exterior that he found at…Kentucky Fried Chicken.) His love of food is often playful: one of his signature dishes appears to be a thick fettuccine in parmesan sauce, but is actually ribbons of onions sliced to resemble pasta.