Food & Wine

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America's Best New Chefs
1998

Laurent Tourondel

BLT Fish
21 West 17th Street
New York, New York
212-691-8888

BLT Steak
106 East 57th Street
New York, New York
212-752-7470

BLT Prime
111 East 22nd St.
New York , New York
212-995-8500

BLT Market
1430 Avenue of the Americas, in The Ritz-Carlton
New York, New York
212-521-6125

BLT Burger
470 Sixth Avenue
New York, New York
212-243-8226

Other restaurants: BLT Burger, Las Vegas; BLT Steak, Washington, DC and San Juan, Puerto Rico; bltrestaurants.com.

25 Recipes by Laurent Tourondel

Where are they now?

After leaving Las Vegas, Tourondel returned to New York City to open Cello in 1999. When it closed in late 2002, he spent the next year-and-a-half traveling, then returned to New York in 2004 to open BLT Steak. His expanding empire includes BLT Fish and Fish Shack, BLT Prime, BLT Burger and BLT Market in New York City, along with BLT Steak locations in San Juan and Washington, DC, and a BLT Burger location in Las Vegas. Tourondel's second cookbook, Bistro Laurent Tourondel: Bistro Cooking at Home, was published in fall 2007.

Won Best New Chef at: Palace Court, Las Vegas (closed)


Buy Books by Laurent Tourondel

Go Fish
Laurent Tourondel Andrew Friedman
John Wiley & Sons
1998 Best New Chef Award Profile
Restaurant at the time of award
Palace Court

Las Vegas, Nevada


Age 31

Background Born in the Auvergne, France. Worked at Ledoyen, Paris; Potel & Chabot, Moscow; Troisgros, Roanne, France; C.T., New York City.

How he got into cooking "I was very bad at school; I had no choice."

First food memory "Grandmother's quail with raisins and foie gras, my favorite dish when I was eight."

Favorite equipment Peppermill.

Favorite cookbook The 1870 edition of Brillat-Savarin's Physiology of Taste.

Favorite place to eat Brasserie Lipp, Paris.

Favorite cocktail Caipirinhas, the potent Brazilian drink made with sugarcane liquor and lime juice.

Weirdest food he's ever eaten Snake, in Africa.

Food forecast "Russian food will get really popular one day."

Favorite 1 A.M. meal Country bread with melted mozzarella and tapenade.

Food vice Spicy chicken wings.

Recipe tip When you crush garlic, cover it in plastic wrap first to keep your cutting board from smelling.

Info Tourondel recently left Palace Court and will open Cello on New York City's Upper East Side this fall.


Featured Best New Chef Recipe

Tourondel's Semi-Smoked Salmon with Apple Broth

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