Waving to passersby strolling through the Lake Anne Plaza in Reston, executive chef/owner Eduardo Faubert of the legendary Jasmine Café seems to know just about everybody. He should — for the past quarter century, he has cooked for a steady stream of Restonians and their visitors and earned for himself and his restaurant a loyal following.
“It’s wonderful to be part of the neighborhood,” he says, “a fixture.”
He also should earn a sort of medal for weathering numerous crises: economic ups and downs, the arrival of Reston Town Center with its restaurants, personal upheavals and the stupendous restaurant growth in his part of Northern Virginia. Such odds might have squashed a lesser man and a lesser chef, but Faubert has prevailed. Better yet, he’s still on his game behind the stove.
Perhaps the best clue to his restaurant’s longevity may be Faubert’s attitude.
“It’s so much fun to eat,” he says. “I love seeing people enjoy food. It’s the coming together of people at the dinner table, the real melting pot.”
It helps, of course, that Faubert had both a mother and a grandmother who cooked “to die for.” And of his mother, Faubert admits he doesn’t dare cook in her house.
With his Haitian background, Faubert injects much of the Caribbean flavors, noting that the Caribbean food has influenced how he flavors and spices his food and his generous incorporation of pork fat, root vegetables, yautia, malanga, cassava, rice and beans.
“Think about Louisiana, Creole, Haiti and New Orleans,” he says. “I go for big flavors, loud, exciting, vibrant, colorful. And I like to mix fruits and savories.”
Starting his career in hotel food-and-beverage management at Cornell, Faubert found that he gravitated to the kitchen, and ended up working in the kitchen all the time, eschewing staff management for the hands-on, near-the-guest challenges of cooking. Later in his career, when he decided to open his own restaurant, Faubert chose Reston because the town is adjacent to one of the world’s top cities yet it has a village feel and is home to “wonderful people.”
Faubert also had the good fortune to buy into a prime real estate location: a storefront on the edge of Reston’s Lake Anne, one of the most picturesque and desirable spots in town. Away from the hustle and crush of crowds, Jasmine Café charms with its neighborly attitude.
Besides, as Faubert puts it, “The food is good without being pretentious. It’s steady, reliable, so by and large, customers can count on us. The restaurant is not stuffy, but just relaxed elegance.”
And, as his fans know, his menu turns up such goodies as Faubert’s warm artichoke dip with pita chips, the hot chocolate pudding cake that is melty and gooey, and his spinach salad with mushrooms and a warm honey-bacon dressing. If the setting weren’t enough of a lure, the food would be.
Q&A with Chef Faubert
Do you cook at home?
Oh, definitely. We cook … chicken with prune sauce or red pepper with eggplant or zucchini and stuff them with ground turkey, making it very spicy. Sausages with basil and feta served with endive salad with apples, toasted walnuts and an apple-sherry vinaigrette.
What is your comfort food?
Popcorn. I love popcorn. When I go to movies, I crunch too much.
What is your cooking philosophy?
I want the food to be not overly complex and to give a simple message. Not too many layers of flavor, just one or two that complement each other, such as rosemary and lemon for ham.
Which is the recipe you are proudest of?
One of the most comfortable ones I’ve done is pasta with a pesto cream sauce. It’s so yummy, and it goes with just about anything such as vegetables, salmon. It’s a real pot-licker!
What’s in your fridge?
I just made some jams with figs and with clementines. Besides that, we have fruits, salads, pesto, tapenade, cheeses and fixings for making sausages and pesto.
From the Chef’s Kitchen
Apple-Rutabaga Soup
In the chef’s words: “This tastes like liquid autumn.”
Makes 2 quarts. Can be made in advance and frozen.
4 oz. (1 stick) butter
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 cup peeled, cored and roughly chopped Granny Smith apple
1 cup peeled and roughly chopped rutabaga
1 cup peeled, seeded and roughly chopped butternut squash
1 cup peeled and roughly chopped carrots
1 cup peeled and roughly chopped sweet potato
1 quart chicken stock or low-sodium broth
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt to taste
Lemon slices and chives for garnish (optional)
Melt the butter in a large pot set over medium-high heat. Add the chopped vegetables and cook until the onion is translucent, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and cook 20 to 25 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Purée the mixture, using a blender, food processor or stick blender. Strain through a fine sieve into the pot used to cook the vegetables. Add the cream, maple syrup, cayenne and salt. Bring just to a simmer and serve.
If you go
Jasmine Café
1633-A Washington Plaza, Reston
703-471-9114
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. daily
