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Will's Fargo Chef de Cuisine Jerome Viel Meeting the charming and refined Chef de Cuisine Jerome Viel of Will’s Fargo will erase any preconceptions about the stern and arrogant knife-wielding French chef. When told of the French chef who refused to remove the feet from a chicken dish for a customer, he exclaims, “Oh no! I am not like that. I am here to give the customer what they want.” Nonetheless, Chef Viel has the credentials to pull rank if he wants to. At age 15 he contracted with a school in his native Brittany (home of the world’s richest butter and cream, perhaps not coincidentally), where his three-year training entailed alternating two-week periods studying in school and working in a restaurant. Graduation brought a position at the prestigious Beaulieu Sur Mer near Nice, from which followed a series of cooking stints at one- and two-star restaurants in Chamonix, Corsica, and Switzerland. In addition to exposing him to world-class cooking, these exceptional locales induced him to pursue life beyond the kitchen. “At Meribel [an Alpine ski resort] we worked from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., then went skiing until 5:00, then worked until 11:30. “I first learned to ski, then later snowboarding. Now, I will leave after work on Saturday night, get to Lake Tahoe at 2 a.m., ski hard for two days, and be back at work by noon Tuesday.” Now living in an area resplendent with horses and stables, Chef Viel has learned to love horseback riding through his fiancée, a veteran equestrienne. Their joint pursuit has only enhanced his already full life. “I love my work, but there is so much more to life than cooking. Many chefs say they are married to their work. Not me. I am married to my life: surfing in Santa Cruz in the morning, horseback riding on the beach, snowboarding. Life here is good.” His fiancée’s mother is also from France, so with that Gallic hand-and-eye gesture that wonders, resignedly, what can we do?, Chef Viel says, “We may be forced to get married twice; once here and then again in France.” Given that snowboarding, horseback riding, and wonderful food abound in France, Chef Viel will find much inspiration to bring back to the Carmel Valley. |
