"Even though you can draw a pretty picture with the software," said Pamela Rodriguez, a veteran kitchen designer, "you have to ask, 'Can it be built?' And 'Should it be built?' " Ms. Rodriguez, 55, learned that the hard way when she used Chief Architect to draft plans for a kitchen remodel in her home in Santa Maria, Calif.
Mr. Donneaux is Belgian-born, a veteran of kitchens in Paris, New York and Connecticut.
His son, Joe, was 12 by then and a kitchen veteran, having started work at 6, scrubbing pots and pans at a Little Italy pastry shop.
A more typical cooking-school instructor would be a battle-scarred kitchen veteran, someone who has made thousands of entrees, knows all there is to know about cream sauces, and is ready to pass on his skills to a new generation of professionals.
But Ludovic Lefebvre is probably the buzziest chef in a city filled with buzzy chefs, the telegenic inventor of the pop-up restaurant and a veteran of the kitchens of Alain Passard and Marc Meneau; a chef capable of running grand kitchens who prefers to cook for 24 people at a time.
He moved on a year ago, replaced by Oscar DeJesus, a 31-year-old veteran of the kitchens at two of Central Jersey's best-regarded restaurants, the Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick and Nicholas in Middletown.
Occasionally, a gifted, energetic cook will make pho at home -- a major task, given the time needed to make the broth -- and one of the best bowls we ate was served to us at home by Nguyen Huu Hoang Trang, a veteran of restaurant kitchens.
Marc Murphy, a veteran of many kitchens and genres, and his wife, Pamela, opened Landmarc last spring, in a two-story space that used to be occupied by the Independent, and it has developed a reputation as a friendly neighborhood joint, well suited to a Tribeca now in its prosperous, baby-stroller phase.
O.C.-born Carlos Salgado, a veteran of highbrow kitchens in the Bay Area, practices what he calls "Chicano cuisine," which involves flower petals, sous-vide and tweezers but also the strong flavors and reliance on seasonal produce of fine Mexican cooking.
The piano is back, and dinner is served until midnight, but with Greg Gilbert, a veteran chef, in the kitchen, the new Emily Shaw's is likely to attract a crowd more interested in buffalo sirloin and baby beets than sing-alongs.
Mr. Yosses, 57, is a cheerful veteran of New York restaurant kitchens.
