"
Your newest restaurant, Little Bird, is outwardly more traditional than Le Pigeon, and yet Little Bird’s menu has these studied juxtapositions. It feels very unpretentious, which others have called “primal,” but then out come these precious, dainty desserts.
If there’s one thing I want printed in this interview, it’s that I take literally no credit for Little Bird. Little Bird is four people: Lauren Fortgang, Andrew Fortgang, Erik Van Kley and Su-Lin Pino. Any time you interview me, you’re going to get props on who I’m working with, and I know that every chef will say that, but I mean it, my sous chefs have been with me since Day 1. Our styles have developed together. Erik Van Kley, the chef de cuisine at Little Bird, is a more fundamentally sound cook than I am, and there is no one else in my business I have more respect for. The desserts at Little Bird belong 100 percent to Lauren Fortgang.
But say I’m in Portland for one night. Should I go to Little Bird or Le Pigeon?
Oh, Le Pigeon, for sure. My staff would tell you the same thing. It’s been there for five years; our process is so much more exact.
"http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/asked-answered-gabriel-rucker/
(i like the sound of this guy already)
