A Guide To The World's Best Fine Dining Restaurants

                        

  • Dined at most of the top restaurants in Europe and almost all of the top 30 in the U.S.A over the past 30 years (see 'Travel - Top Restaurants' under 'About').
  • Author of 'A Guidebook To The Worlds Best Fine Dining Restaurants: To Better Understand the Elements & History of Fine Dining Plus Reviews of the Michelin and Gault & Millau Ratings Systems'. Also author of 'Ratings & Profiles Of The World's 130 Best Chefs: How The French Dominate The World's Best Fine Cuisines; Rating The Top 30 Restaurant Designs & Chef's Cookbooks'.
  • Developed, owned and managed Latour, a top 10 restaurant at the time in the USA in Coconut Grove, Miami Florida. It was the first restaurant to offer nouvelle cuisine and to fly in fresh products from Europe in Southeastern U.S.A.. Chefs in the kitchen had experience working at the top restaurants in the world including L'Archestrate, Le Vivarois and Maxims in Paris, Moulin de Mougins in Mougins, Comme Chez Soi in Brussels and Le Perroquet in Chicago. One chef was recruited to be the executive chef to open Le Relais a Mougins in Palm Beach for Andre Surmaine who founded Lutece in NYC, which was considered to be the #1 restaurant in the U.S.A for many years. Considered to be the most beautifully designed country French restaurant in the US. Villeroy & Boch china in Luxembourg used Latour for their national ad campaign. All menu items were presented on silver trays by multiple waiters prior to ordering while guests were having cocktails. All bottled wine over $50 was served in Baccarat stemware. Caviar and goose liver dishes were served in 120 year old family Haviland Limoge and Christofle.
  • Divisional F&B Director for 35 private clubs from Florida to Hawaii before age 30.  Member of the Corporate F&B Advisory Board.

  • Consultant to numerous high end private clubs, resorts and boutique luxury hotels including the Cat Cay Club, Mayfair House Hotel, ClubCorp and American Golf.
  • B.S. in Hotel & Restaurant Management

           


Influencers
French chefs (in historical order):
Escoffier (the Aristotle of cooking)
Ferdinand Pointe (father of Nouvelle  cuisine)
Roger Verge (trained Alain Ducasse, Daniel Boulud & Jacque Maximin)
Freddy Giradet (arguably the #1 chef in the world during the 1980's)
Jean Banchet (Le Francaise- Chicago)



Fine Dining Experience Summary

  • Spent eight years in kitchens, including as chef. Spent time with one of the top four chefs in the world- Roger Verge, in Mougins, France, as did chefs Alain Ducasse and Daniel Boulud.


Chef Roger Verge & S. Larsen 1981