Leaning forward with his elbows propped on the dining table, chef de cuisine Vatche Benguian exudes good cheer and the sense he’s seen it all in the kitchen.
A veteran of several local high-profile kitchens — including La Colline, Gerard’s Place and the opening of Blue Duck Tavern, as well as working along with D.C.’s legendary Jean-Louis Palladin, who taught him about making his own vinegars and about using lemon oil — Benguian now takes on the job of cooking for the hugely popular Roof Terrace Restaurant. Think Sunday brunch, when about 300 people line up for the buffet line in its vast kitchen, and you understand the challenge.
An Armenian who fled Sudan with his family in the late 1960s, Benguian and his family spent time in Montreal before moving to Michigan, where he attended high school, hoping to become a football star. But as it happens with fate, a broken leg ended that dream, leaving the teen with his kitchen work to earn money. Coincidentally, Benguian became a great fan of TV cooking shows, specifically of Julia Child and Graham Kerr. He also helped both his mother and grandmother in the kitchen. “I was cooking at home with my mom and practicing on beef bourguignon,” he says. “She was a good cook, and my grandmother was also very talented.”
Fortunately, one of his high school counselors spotted the chef-in-the-making, and insisted Benguian attend the Culinary Institute of America, where he would meet an international array of chefs — and he did.
“Eugene Bernard became like a second father to me,” he says, describing the illustrious chef and instructor of the Escoffier Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America. “He was a Basque who was the chef of Quo Vadis [in New York City]. He would tell me about the celebrities who came in to eat. … When Bernard was starting out in the kitchen, apparently one of his sous chefs worked for Escoffier.”
It was good training for a chef, and eventually Benguian reaped the benefits, for as he reports, working in Bernard’s strict European-style Escoffier kitchen for one year was the equivalent of five to six years of restaurant work elsewhere. After graduation, Bernard helped his prize student find employment at La Cote Basque in Manhattan for a year, before introducing him to Robert Greault, the then-owner of D.C.’s Le Bagatelle and La Colline restaurant on Capitol Hill.
Looking back over his career, Benguian concedes his classic French training certainly shaped how he approaches his work.
“At one point, it was taboo to do anything other than classic French cooking,” he says. “Chef Alain Ducasse was my biggest influence, and I have all his books. He showed me I could do lighter cooking with different presentations and different ingredients that were forbidden in classic cooking.”
Now Beguian feels free to look outside of the classic kitchen for other culinary influences, and he has built up a repertoire that includes dishes influenced by Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Asian, Italian and North African flavors and ingredients.
But when pushed to name his very favorite cuisine, it’s classic French, hands down.
“French cooking will always be king,” he says, lamenting the dearth of French food in Washington. “For me, it is about the learning of classic cooking with hundreds and thousands of techniques on how to treat fish, vegetables and meat. Yes, it’s hard to learn, and you have to spend time in the kitchen and really learn. … What I am doing here [at the Roof Terrace Restaurant] is classic cooking in a modern way.”
If yyou go
Roof Terrace Restaurant & Bar (The Kennedy Center)
2700 F St. NW
202-416-8555
Hours: Open for pre-theater dining before most Concert Hall and Opera House evening performances with reservations from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. The Kitchen Buffet Brunch is available from 11a.m. to 1:45 p.m. by reservation.
Q&A with Chef Benguian
Do you cook at home?
Sometimes, and when I’m really in the mood, then I really cook. Mostly, I roast chicken with herbs stuffed in the cavity, drizzled with olive oil. Or pan-seared fish.
What is your comfort food?
I like grits cooked very slowly. Sometimes I like to flavor it with some bacon fat for the smokiness flavor. Or after it’s cooked I like to finish it off with some good quality butter and some kosher salt. I even like to top it off with some grated cheese.
How do you define your cooking style?
It has a strong classic background, but with a lighter modern approach with some fusion.
Which is your favorite restaurant?
I really don’t have a favorite, but if I had to choose, it would be between the Blue Duck Tavern, Beck’s (Brasserie Beck) and Central (Michel Richard Central).
Do you have a signature recipe?
Not really. I have many I like, such as the bouillabaisse, choucroute and couscous. The bouillabaisse that I make has more of an Asian influence with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and galangal in the broth. The soup becomes lighter in taste. These ingredients enhance the overall taste.
What’s in your fridge?
I have par-baked baguettes in the freezer from Whole Foods. I have eggs, artisanal cheeses and pickled vegetables to go well with cold cuts, gherkins and good mustards.
From the Chef’s Kitchen
Vatche Benguian’s Summer Strawberry Salad With Balsamic Granita
Serves 4 to 6
To use this recipe as a dessert, substitute the basil with mint leaves and replace the extra virgin olive oil with superfine confectioners’ sugar. Sift the sugar over the salad. The blueberries add texture and contrast.
Balsamic Granita:
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup filtered water
1 cup high-quality balsamic vinegar
Summer Salad:
3 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
5 medium basil leaves, torn into small pieces
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably cold press olive oil
To make the granita, add the sugar, lemon juice and water to a medium-sized saucepan and heat over low to medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 3 minutes; let cool.
Stir the balsamic vinegar into the cooled sugar syrup. Pour the mixture into a shallow, freezer-safe container. Freeze for 2 to 3 hours, forking through the mixture every hour to break up the ice crystals. It should resemble a slush texture.
To make the salad, arrange the strawberry quarters on a semi-deep platter and sprinkle with the torn basil leaves. Scrape shavings off the granita and scatter on the top of the strawberries. Next, arrange the blueberries over the basil and drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil. Serve immediately.
