Scene Last Night: Chefs Bouley, Humm Cook With Olympic Swimmer
On Saturday night, chefs Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, Daniel Humm, David Bouley and Florian Bellanger gathered in Bouley’s test kitchen in Tribeca to prepare a meal for 50 guests.
The occasion was the Gold Medal Dining Experience, a benefit for the USA Swimming Foundation, which supports athletes in training and teaches swimming to children in underserved areas. Tickets were $1,500; All-Clad was the sponsor, providing frying pans in the goodie bag.
While Humm, chef of Eleven Madison Park, is a marathoner, and Bouley a boxer and swimmer, the real athlete in the kitchen was Garrett Weber-Gale, an Olympic swimmer and amateur cook. Think of him as a budding Martha Stewart for the Maxim crowd: a handsome, affable 26-year-old who -- when he’s not training for the Summer Olympics -- posts recipes on his website, AthleticFoodie.com, and teaches cooking classes at Whole Foods stores.
At Weber-Gale’s request, the meal had to be healthy. So Boulud, of Daniel, offered peekytoe crab with apple and poppy- seed gelee. Bouley, whose latest venture is the Japanese eatery Brushstroke, grilled wild mushrooms; they clear toxins out of the body, he said. Humm poached loup de mer in citrus. Colicchio served venison (half the fat of beef, he said) rubbed with rosemary and juniper; on the side was a mix of quinoa, spelt, red bean and wild rice.
Weber-Gale’s contribution: butternut squash soup, made without cream.
‘Really Good’
“I used rice milk and infused the soup with nutmeg, some cinnamon and star anise,” Weber-Gale said. “I usually find a way to alter things. I’ll use less butter, less sugar and add vegetables. I’ll use whole grain rice.”
“The soup is good, the soup is really good,” Boulud said after tasting.
A native of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Weber-Gale won two gold medals in 2008 Olympics, swimming with Michael Phelps in the 4-by-100-meter medley relay and the 4-by-100-meter freestyle relay. He is now training for the Olympic trials in July in the hopes of competing in London in August. He is the first American to swim the 100-meter freestyle in less than 48 seconds.
He started cooking healthfully when he was a swimmer at the University of Texas at Austin. A physical exam in 2005 revealed his blood pressure had soared.
“My diet was better than most college students, but I was eating a lot of cold-cuts for lunch, lots of pasta and biscuits that probably had too much salt,” Weber-Gale said.
His culinary training took a serious turn when he met Boulud on the set of the “Today” show in Beijing.
Time in France
Boulud arranged an apprenticeship for Weber-Gale at La Maison Troisgros in Roanne, France, for five weeks in 2010.
Last summer, the swimmer spent about four weeks looking over the shoulder of chef Rene Redzepi, founder of Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, which won last year’s S. Pellegrino World Best Restaurant in the World award.
The meal finished with lime millefeuille prepared by Bellanger, a former pastry chef at Le Bernardin and co-owner of Mad Mac, a wholesale baking company.
His cooking done, Weber-Gale donned one of his Olympic gold medals over his white apron and dug in.
(Amanda Gordon is a writer and photographer for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. Any opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net or on Twitter at @amandagordon.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
USA Swimming Foundation Dinner
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Daniel DiStefano, David Bouley, Daniel Humm, Daniel Boulud, Garrett Weber-Gale and Florian Bellanger in David Bouley's test kitchen.
Daniel DiStefano, David Bouley, Daniel Humm, Daniel Boulud, Garrett Weber-Gale and Florian Bellanger in David Bouley's test kitchen. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
USA Swimming Foundation Dinner
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Garrett Weber-Gale gets a lesson in preparing venison from chef Tom Colicchio of Craft.
Garrett Weber-Gale gets a lesson in preparing venison from chef Tom Colicchio of Craft. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
USA Swimming Foundation Dinner
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Chefs and Olympic swimmer Garrett Weber-Gale prepared butternut squash soup for serving. Weber-Gale, who made the soup, added a swirl of pumpkin oil; someone else added a dollop of almond foam, and another sprinkled on toasted almonds.
Chefs and Olympic swimmer Garrett Weber-Gale prepared butternut squash soup for serving. Weber-Gale, who made the soup, added a swirl of pumpkin oil; someone else added a dollop of almond foam, and another sprinkled on toasted almonds. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
USA Swimming Foundation Dinner
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Robert Bohr, sommelier, explaining one of his choices to Weber-Gale.
Robert Bohr, sommelier, explaining one of his choices to Weber-Gale. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
USA Swimming Foundation Dinner
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Daniel Humm's loup de mer.
Daniel Humm's loup de mer. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
USA Swimming Foundation Dinner
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Lime millefeuille by pastry chef Florian Bellanger.
Lime millefeuille by pastry chef Florian Bellanger. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
USA Swimming Foundation Dinner
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Amanda Hesser, co-founder of the website Food52, and Weber-Gale.
Amanda Hesser, co-founder of the website Food52, and Weber-Gale. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Rate this Page
Bloomberg moderates all comments. Comments that are abusive or off-topic will not be posted to the site. Excessively long comments may be moderated as well. Bloomberg cannot facilitate requests to remove comments or explain individual moderation decisions.