A Quebec Chef’s Fairy Tale

(New York) His name is Dominique Roy, he comes from Gatineau, and he is the chef of one of the greatest restaurants in New York.

Better yet, for the past year, he has been a partner. Not bad for a young man who came down from Canada by coach not so long ago and literally knocked on the door of Eleven Madison Park, a chic three-Michelin-starred restaurant located across from the equally chic Madison Square Park.

“It’s a bit crazy! », humbly recounts the main interested party, met earlier this year, to tell us the story of his fairy tale. “I arrived in New York with nothing, without a visa, as a tourist! », he recalls with a laugh, with his “Franco-Ontarian” accent of a Franco-Ontarian who no longer speaks French so often.

He clearly can’t believe it. He thought he would stay for a month. He practically never left. He was 25 years old. It will be 10 years next year.

The Eleven Madison may not mean anything to you, and yet it does. In 2017, the restaurant topped the prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurantsa ranking that has crowned the El Bulli, Noma and other Mirazur of this world over time. This year, it was a restaurant in Barcelona, ​​Disfrutar, that won the title, awarded by a panel of 1,000 independent experts. That’s not all: since 2021, Eleven Madison Park has offered an exclusively plant-based menu, making it, according to the Eater website, the only three-starred Michelin vegan restaurant in the world.

In any case, Dominique Roy has known the cuisine of Daniel Humm, the chef and owner (and, incidentally, Demi Moore’s partner) for a long time now. It must be said that in the industry, as already summarized by the New York Times, Eleven Madison is a bit like the Harvard of ambitious young chefs. That gives you an idea of ​​the caliber. Perfectionism involved. In short, talent can be found here per square meter.

We will understand that for a young chef, working in the kitchens of this almost mythical address is a dream, but not nearly so. And Dominique Roy, who asked Santa for cookbooks when he was a child, had dreamed of it for a long time.

A quest for perfection

For the record, it should be noted that after working with Jérôme Ferrer in Montreal and then with George Blanc in France, Dominique Roy landed at Château Montebello. Prestigious, certainly. Except that what has always excited the young chef is something else: competitions. He was part of the Canadian team for the Coupe du Monde de Cuisine, as well as the Culinary Olympics. “And in competition, it clicked,” he explains. “I saw how much you could push your career to a level that I didn’t know about…”

And it is this high level, combining structure and competition, without forgetting an unrestrained “adrenaline”, that he seeks, a quest that ends up bringing him here, therefore, to this great New York kitchen.

At the time, he tried everything. He sold his house, left his family and friends, and set off with only his backpack as luggage. When he arrived in the Big Apple, he bought a bicycle. A knife. And a chef’s jacket, which he washed every evening when he got home, to wear again the next day. “I knocked here,” he says, “I asked to speak to the chief.” [Christ Flint à l’époque]. He said to me: “OK, come spend a day.” »

The latter appreciated the audacity, probably also the nerve, the story does not say, but he especially put him to the test: on the appointed day, he gave him an hour and asked him to cook a dish. Dominique Roy still remembers it: “I made a piece of fish, a sea bass. I had to show that I was well organized, fast, capable of making a good sauce, with a good garnish. I presented it to the chef and he said: “Wow, it’s delicious!” […] And then he made me an offer.”

“It was crazy!” he still marvels. “I had nothing. I had to print my CV in a shop!”

A few trips back and forth to Canada to get the right visa later, and our man realizes his dream. He starts at the bottom of the ladder, but quickly climbs the ladder. As proof, the following year, during a friendly competition between cooks (there are several dozen of them here), he won first place, and his dish (a variation on the theme of broccoli with cheese) found itself on the menu of the restaurant. But he doesn’t brag about it. “I have a very creative side, I always have my head in the clouds,” he says rather modestly. This is good news, since within a few years, Dominique Roy was appointed head of research and development from deputy chef. “And here, full time, I work on creating new dishes for the menu! »

Gastronomy, like a sport

The thirty-year-old, who had just finished the Boston marathon when we met, draws several parallels between sport and gastronomy. “It requires training and rigor. And to learn to be comfortable in discomfort, he summarizes. It’s a lot of work and discipline. » His mantra: “ Run the mile you’re in », which gives an idea of ​​his determination, on the asphalt as in the kitchen. Now a chef in the kitchen, he clearly takes nothing for granted. “You have to really focus on what you’re doing,” he sums up.

Which doesn’t stop him from being oddly grateful.

On this subject, when we know that they banned poultry stock, fish sauce, even butter from their kitchens overnight in 2021, eliminated all their signature dishes from the menu, to literally start from scratch, we understand this. what he is referring to. They push the limits, in fact, for the better… but not for the cheaper!

Part of the cost of this trip was paid by the New York Tourist Board, which had no control over the content of this report.