Roland G. Henin

by Susan Crowther

  • World Association of Chef’s Societies

  • American Academy of Chefs

  • Affiliations/Consultant:

  • The Greenbrier, West Virginia

  • Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, New Hampshire

  • The French Laundry, Yountville, California

  • Executive Chef, OSF International

  • Culinary Research and Development, Truitt Bros, Oregon

  • Oregon Certification Chairman

  • National Culinary Arts Committee

  • Gold Medal, World Cup Winner, Luxembourg

  • Director, Art Institute of Seattle

  • Delaware North Companies

  • Ahwahnee Resort Hotel, Yosemite

  • Culinary & Hospitality Council

  • Bracebridge Christmas pageant

  • Chef’s Summit, CIA Greystone Campus

  • Food Editor, DN Cookbook, Pathways to Plate

  • Food Editor, DN Cookbook, Home Plate

  • Super Bowl, NFL

  • All-Stars Games, NBA

  • Democratic National Convention

  • Graduation Speaker, CIA, Greystone Campus

  • Bocuse d’Or Coach, Lyon, France

  • World Association of Chefs

  • Global Master Chef

  • Fisherman

  In 2014, Roland Henin transitioned to working one week per month. Some of his commitments included overseeing the transition of his retirement, continuing the training of chefs Kevin and Percy for the CMC exam, and completing his mentorship of company chefs who were preparing for their next professional certification goal.

  Although he enjoyed the idea of freedom in working one week a month … Roland Henin is not a “one week a month” kind of guy. Work continued at a “slightly modified full throttle” pace, and his jar remained full. Back in 2014, in a late night conversation during a CMC training session, Henin reflected:

  I bought a beautiful boat—25-foot aluminum wonderful Deep V ocean fishing boat. After three years, I have been on this boat for four hours….

  I also have this Airstream. My Airstream is the same length of the big boat … I never took it on the road. I took it out of the dealership in Seattle and drove straight thru to Chinook and put it in the campground for a couple of weeks … sleep in there a few nights … never connected the water, only the electricity ….with all of the electronics, radio, stereo, TV, and what have you … Here again, never “played” and the refrigerator never used … or the bathroom or the shower, as there was a great setup in the camp … and then I took it to my storage where all my boats were, and it has been there ever since … I realize that it is about three or maybe four years old, but it has never been used …

  What’s wrong with this picture???

  During the four years of creating this book, Roland Henin continued working his “slightly modified full throttle” schedule until January 2017, when he finally, officially retired from Delaware North Corporation. Chef Henin is now dedicated to spending more time with his first love.

  I love to fish, simply because it is total relaxation. There is no telephone, fax, or internet … or politics! Our jobs have a lot of distractions, and you try to cope with them and do your recipes. You cope with the long hours. When you are fishing, it’s just you and the fish, no deadlines, no schedules. Catching fish is the bonus, not the reason. Fishing is just a healthy outlet for me, balancing the hectic life of a chef.

  My aspirations are and have always been to become a good cook, not really famous or rich … and if, in the process, I can help my colleagues, especially the young ones, then so much the better. I am happy simply going fishing, growing a small garden, and best utilizing the products of these activities and sharing them with friends.

  Someday, when I move to the coast, I hope to raise a few chickens, a few rabbits and maybe a goat or two to do the “mowing” (more time to fish) … Now that I am “officially” retired, I bought some cork sheets and am going to make a big board and take everybody’s picture with all their “catches!” Hundreds of pictures … on the “Wall of Shame” …

  I consider myself to be lucky, as I am fairly healthy and “almost” wealthy, as when I came into this country, I had a CAP (Certificate of Aptitudes Professional) and $60 in my pocket. And today, I have so much more!!

  Roland Henin has a fish camp on the lower Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon. He is always inviting friends onto his boat. Think you got what it takes? Email him and book your spot. Chef would love your company … just make sure your lures shine like army belt buckles.

  As we were winding up this project, Chef sent me a “memory package” of photos, speeches, and articles, including the CIA graduation speech. Also included was a cardboard box containing a mountain of his name tags and press passes from previous events. In an uncharacteristic presentation, the tags arrived all tangled up in a mass, as if (shudder) Roland Henin had just thrown them into the box, haphazardly! I slowly and methodically extracted one lanyard from the bunch—the 2009 Bocuse d’Or Coach pass—and I wore it around my neck, all day. Hey, a girl can dream.

  Chef also sent a 2003 article, “The Accidental Master Chef,” from Nation’s Restaurant News. In the article, the then-middle-aged Roland Henin discussed his retirement:

  “At some point in the future, I will have to step back. It will be interesting to see all the young bucks positioning for my job.” He pauses, allowing himself a slight smile, before adding, “They will be better than me.”

  Afterword

  Certified Master Chef Raimund Hofmeister

  I like to bring up Roland Henin with my students. “I know this crazy French chef. He’s a good friend of mine. If you haven’t heard of him yet, you will sometime in the future. He is a culinary powerhouse and one I respect the most, anywhere in this country. The way Roland Henin chooses to live his craft … This is what you need to do.” I get silence in my classroom.

  It’s not just respect. I mean, I love the guy. It’s something you can only explain through the life experience you have with that person He has devoted his life to helping others to achieve better results. How many people do you find nowadays who are still that committed? Not many.

  We don’t like to talk about this in our business, but there is sensitivity in certain kinds of people. You go deep, fine-tuning into every fiber of your body and connecting with the food. You connect with the environment. If you want to become an exceptional chef, all the fibers in your body have to connect with it … everything you touch … everything you do … the way you look at food … the way you select it … the way you display it, and the way you serve it. You have to nurse it and babysit every step of preparation. You have to be in love with it. Roland Henin can do that. I have seen it.

  Roland and I are different, but not that different. Our essence is the same. How you express your passion, of course we’re all different in that, but the essence of what we want to do and how we commit is the same. Growing up in kitchens in Germany and France, the chain of command was clearly identified. You worked hard to be recognized. You outshined your competition. It was more hands-on than anything else. In an apprenticeship, the ultimate person is the Chef. Whatever he says is law, and you do it.

  Our essence … is the same. We grew up in an apprenticeship program. An apprenticeship is different than a degree program. You have to do everything from scratch, the old-fashioned way. We didn’t have convenience food. You grew up on the farm and saw animals. You were involved in the cultural part of growing food. We didn’t have vacations. No. The school district came by, and they said, “Always pick your ‘apprenticeship vacations’ from the summer to the fall, because we need all your kids to go to the field and pick the potatoes, or pick the asparagus, or pick the grapes or this and that.” At the age of twelve, we knew more about life and the way food is grown and what food is all about than a lot of chefs in this country ever will know! You see? That is the difference. You were connected to Mother Nature in a diffe
rent way. In cooking, that is an important connection.

  Nowadays, we live in a degree society, and in Europe, a similar thing is happening. It’s a worldwide trend. The future chef’s generation will have to learn to deal with that. Roland is trying to relate the old values to the younger generation because he knows how important they are. He stresses the importance that hard work still gets you ahead in this business. It is not so much what you know when you start out in the career, but where your skill set is, at that point. That is more important than knowing things they tell you from school that you don’t know how to apply yet. It takes a 1-2-3 step to build a career, and he is desperately trying to relate this to the younger generation. He is absolutely right, and the few who listen to what he has to say are pretty lucky.

  Roland Henin is a dinosaur. He is on the list of extinction. The younger generation of chefs is not aware of what they are missing out by not being around him. He should be much more challenged to be in the limelight. He wants his retirement life, but he’s got so much to give. Our doing this story on him is such a gift to whoever comes after, to remember that people like him do exist.

  Epilogue

  Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

  Amessage, from Roland Henin:

  America got where it is today because people invested in their future generations. When I joined the 1967 Montreal Expo and Master Chef Ferdinand Metz started to develop a US Culinary Olympic Team, the American chef didn’t exist. So America started to develop culinary schools. We put in effort, money, and energy to the next wave of young cooks … developing that spirit of the American chef.

  The funny thing is, it wasn’t “America” developing American chefs. It wasn’t just me or Master Chef Metz. It was all those guys, the old giants who left their homes, made a better life for themselves, and then gave back to their new home. Ferdinand Metz and, before him, all the chefs in restaurants, clubs, and instructors … they developed the young American kids who were interested in cooking. Thanks to those guys, we have chefs today, American-born and American-raised. They hired the American kids, groomed them, and developed them for the future. The next generation should eclipse you—they are like your kids. These giants provided the opportunity for these kids to eclipse.

  Nowadays, you don’t have many European chefs in the United States. You don’t need to, because there are American chefs like Rich Rosendale and David Burke. They were not developed overnight. Even Thomas Keller, who is at the top, the one who has the most integrity with the fundamentals, still gets people like me and others to come back and do workshop. Some cooks are still “sleeping” and he wants to get them on track. We love it. We work it, tutoring these young US chefs. When I ask those guys, what kind of cooking is this? Is it fusion? Or is it confusion? They don’t know. They shoot from the hip. American cooks were not born into food—not raised on farms, with families who make their own food, not homesteading or foraging. America was the Sahara for cooking. When I came here, you couldn’t get fresh tarragon, thyme…. When I was a kid growing up in Europe, cooking in America was hot dog and hamburger! Regardless of where the chefs came from—Asia, Europe, etc.—all those mentors, they all play their part.

  In the old days, recipes were sacred. Now in America, it is the opposite. These culinary giants were interested in sharing—knowledge, recipe, technique, so those young American kids could prosper. We need to say thank you to all these giants! As far as I know, nobody has thanked them for their work! They didn’t do it for their own benefit; they did it for the future, the American chefs. Look at them, now.

  This book is not about me. I am just an instrument at the right time, right place … this is a celebration of all these chefs. Let it be a tribute, a dedication to all those giants for giving their life and sharing their knowledge and secrets, so that America could be what it is now—a force in the industry, Farm-to-Table, artisan … and now … winners of the 2017 Bocuse d’Or World Competition! Team USA 2017 brings home the Bocuse d’Or Gold, for the first time ever!

  Kindly join me in a THANK-YOU for that whole group of giants, from around the 1950s–1980s. This list is incomplete, and we are surely forgetting some names, but the spirit remains: America owes its culinary identity, its pride and passion, to all these men and women who gave everything to our country. America stands on the shoulders of giants. We are forever in their debt.

  Adam Balogh

  Alain Chapel

  Alain Sailhac

  Alain Senderens

  Albert Kumin

  Aldo Graziotin

  Alfred Portale

  Alice Waters

  Andre Bertin

  André Soltner

  Anne Willan

  Anton Flory

  Arnaldo Bagna

  Arno Schmidt

  Arnym Solomon

  Bernard Rosenstein

  Bruno Ellmer

  Charles Camerano

  Christian Delouvrier

  Claude Guermont

  Claudio Papini

  Clement Grangier

  Dieter Faulkner

  Ella Brennan

  Elliott Sharron

  Eric Saucy

  Erik Kristensen

  Erwin Ceppok

  Eugene Bernard

  Eugenie Brazier

  Eugene Szollosi

  Ferdinand Metz

  Fred Welt

  Franz Lemoine

  Frederic (Fritz) Sonnenschmidt

  Frédy Girardet

  Gaston Lenôtre

  Geh-Yah Yin

  Georges Perrier

  Gérard Pangaud

  Gilbert Le Coze

  Gunther Heiland

  Hans Schadler

  Hanz Paetzold

  Hartmut Handke

  Hartmut Kuntze

  Heinz Dubow

  Heinz Holtmann

  Helmut Loibl

  Henri Soule

  Hermann G. Rusch

  Hugo Bua

  Ingo Lange

  Italo Norman Peduzzi

  Ivan Salgovic

  Jacques F. De Chanteloup

  Jacques Pépin

  Jacques Pic

  James Beard

  Jamie Oliver

  Jean Banchet

  Jean Henri Salomon

  Jean Joho

  Jean Marc Loustaunau

  Jean Nicolas

  Jean Paul Combettes

  Jean-Jacques Rachou

  Jean-Louis Palladin

  Joachim Splichal

  Joël Robuchon

  Johannes Van Der Horst

  John Dodig

  John Kinsella

  Joseph Amendola

  Joseph Aranda

  Joseph Sheess

  Joyce Goldstein

  Julia Child

  Kurt Schnyder

  Leon Dhaenens

  Leopold Damm

  Leopold K Schaeli

  Louis Szathmary

  Luc Brondel

  Lucien Birkler

  Lyde Buchtenkirch

  Marcella Hazan

  Martin Frei

  Maurice Bonfils

  Maurice Helou

  Michael Bully

  Michael Cardena

  Michel Richard

  Milos Cihelka

  Nick Matheos

  Noble Masi

  Patrick Healy

  Paul Prosperi

  Paul Prudhomme

  Peter Chang

  Peter Van Erp

  Piero Selvaggio

  Pierre Franey

  Pierre Latuberne

  Pierre Pollin

  René Verdon

  Rudolf Lang

  Rudolph Speckamp

  Seppi Renggli

  Stanley Slomski

  Tsing Pai

  Uwe Hestnar

  Victor Gielisse

  Walter Schreyer

  Walter Staib

  William Kohl

  William Marino

  Zoltan Szollosi

  G. Henin