NEW YORK Restaurant chains shared equal ground with fine dining during a Culinary Institute of America event last night, with the Harvard of culinary schools giving the first round of a newly created award to Norman Brinker, the founder of Steak and Ale and a trailblazer for casual dining; Thomas Keller, chef-owner of the famed Per Se and French Laundry restaurants; Steve Ells, founder of the Chipotle Mexican Grill fast-casual chain; and Jonathan Benno, the chef of Per Se.
In announcing the inaugural winners of the Augie, named after the legendary Auguste Escoffier, CIA dean Tim Ryan noted that each had been selected for embodying the values espoused by the culinary academy, including quality and integrity. Ryan singled out Brinker for mentoring many current top executives within the ranks of casual dining, and for his key role in the development of the casual-dining sector. Among those one-time protégées are Chris Sullivan and Bob Basham of Outback Steakhouse, Rick Federico and Bert Vivian of P.F. Chang's, and Wally Doolin of Buca di Beppo. All of those individuals, like Brinker himself, are renowned for their business success rather than the sort of culinary prowess that is usually promoted and instilled by the CIA.
The awards were presented during a gala black-tie event here, before an audience whose seats were priced in four figures - a crowd presumably more familiar with Keller and Benno's Per Se than with Chili's, the workhorse of the casual-dining conglomerate that bears Brinker's name, Brinker International Inc.
Brinker joked that the CIA had started 60 years ago, and he'd been a foodservice executive for some 50 years, yet their paths had not crossed previously. "It took me 50 years to be recognized by them," he quipped, referring to his start in the business with Jack in the Box in the 1950s and a career spent almost entirely on the chain side of the business. "But that's okay. It finally worked out, didn't it?"
The CIA also paid tribute to chains with its presentation of an Augie to Steven Ells, the 1990 CIA grad who went on to found Chipotle and parlay it into a frontrunner in the fast-casual sector. In giving the award to Ells, Ryan noted that he is the first CIA alumnus to lead an initial public offering of stock. Chipotle went public last year in one of the industry's most successful IPOs.
Ells acknowledged that involvement with a chain did not fit his plan while he was a student at the Institute. "I was going to open a restaurant, a great restaurant," he said. But during his studies, "I learned an important thing, and that was about preparation. Preparation is everything." Among Chipotle's marks of distinction are its simple prep system, where meals are assembled to order as patrons look and director a counter staffer, and its reliance on fresh, hormone- or additive-free ingredients.
Benno is also an alumnus of the Institute, having distinguished himself prior to his graduation in 1993 with such creations as a squirrel risotto, according ot his introduction. Benno paid tribute to Keller, recounting the night he'd first cooked with his fellow award winner. "After that first night, I knew I wanted to cook like Thomas Keller," Benno said in accepting his Augie. "Twelve years later, I still want to cook like Thomas Keller."
Keller expressed his thanks for the award, and described it as validation of what the industry strives to do. He was introduced by former mentor Roland Henin, who stressed how the chef's humility belies his awesome talent. "How does he do it?," Henin recalled asking himself after seeing Keller cook in his early days. "He doesn't even have an accent.
The Augie was designed by the same firm that created the Oscar, the distinctive statute given in the Academy Awards.