David Bouley


David Bouley is an American chef and restaurateur with restaurants in TriBeCa, New York City. He is best known for his flagship restaurant, Bouley.
Early in his career, Bouley worked in restaurants in Cape Cod, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and, eventually, France and Switzerland. While in Europe, after studies at the Sorbonne, he had the opportunity to work with chefs Roger Vergé, Paul Bocuse, Joël Robuchon, Gaston Lenôtre, and Frédy Girardet. Bouley returned to work in New York City in leading restaurants of the time, such as Le Cirque, Le Périgord, and La Côte Basque, as well as spending time as sous chef in a restaurant opened by Roger Vergé in San Francisco. In 1985, he became chef of Montrachet restaurant. In 1987 he opened his own restaurant, "Bouley," in TriBeCa overlooking Duane Park. The restaurant earned a four-star review in The New York Times and won James Beard Foundation awards for the Best Restaurant and Best Chef, among other Beard Awards. In 2015, Bouley was awarded the "Best Restaurant Award in the United States" from TripAdvisor's Traveler's Choice Awards, ranking #15 in the world. Bouley also received 29 out a 30 rating in Zagat.
In 1991, Zagat's asked its 7,000 diners, "Where you would you eat the last meal of your life?" Respondents "overwhelmingly" chose Bouley. In 1997, Bouley restaurant moved location and opened up as the Bouley Bakery. In September 1999, Bouley opened Danube, a Viennese-inspired restaurant, located on Hudson Street, and authored his first book East of Paris: The New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube.
Following the September 11 attacks, Bouley Bakery served as a base to feed rescue and relief workers at Ground Zero. Known as The Green Tarp, over one million meals for Ground Zero relief workers were prepared in conjunction with the Red Cross. Bouley Bakery re-opened in 2002.
In the summer of 2006, Bouley married collaborator Nicole Bartelme, pioneer of the TriBeCa Film Festival, artist and photographer.

Restaurants

Bouley Bakery earned two Michelin Stars before it changed locations in 2008 and was renamed Bouley Restaurant. His other restaurant, Danube, also initially received two Michelin stars. The Danube location was transformed into a new entity called Brushstroke Restaurant.
Brushstroke Restaurant, located at 30 Hudson Street and opened in April 2011, was a combined effort between Bouley and the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka, to share Japanese food culture and products while integrating American ingredients.
Bouley Test Kitchen is a private event and testing learning center for visiting guest chefs and for developing recipes for the Bouley enterprises. The facilities were used by the American Team for the Bocuse d'Or Competition 2011. It was relocated from TriBeCa, lower Manhattan, to the Flat Iron District in October 2017.
Bouley Botanical, on another corner in TriBeCa, located at 281 Church Street, is an event space dedicated to cultivating nutrient-rich plants, served in the flagship Bouley Restaurant. It also serves as an educational forum to develop creative healthy eating lifestyles through its lecture series: The Chef & The Doctor.
Bouley at Home, a fine dining restaurant, is Bouley's first venture in Manhattan crossing Canal Street. Located at 31 West 21st Street in the Flat Iron District, Bouley at Home is a collaboration with Bulthaup Kitchen Design group based in Germany, with divisions across the United States and Europe.

Awards

Bouley was presented with the Gohan Society's Washoku Ambassador Award. Washoku means "harmony of food" in Japanese, and it is associated with an essential spirit of respect for nature that is closely related to the sustainable use of natural resources.

Books