We are very pleased to welcome Patrick Quillec as the Executive Chef of French Garden Restaurant and Bistro.
Patrick Quillec was born and raised in a culinary family in Brittany, northwestern France where, as the child of a “master crêpiere and chef,” Patrick grew up watching his mother create traditional French cuisine. By age 14, as her apprentice, he worked at their restaurant fifteen hours each day. “I would go with the chef to the market and to the port to buy all of the goods, bringing back live scallops and the most beautiful langoustines you’ve ever seen,” he recalls. “I loved the fact that we did everything from scratch there. We killed the goose out back, we gathered the snails off the walls after the rain - everything was completely hands-on.” He was on his way to becoming a passionate and dedicated chef.
Collecting and preparing food in his rocky fishing community was a way of life for Patrick. Nevertheless, as a teenager in 1978, he left for America to join his sister, Marie-Therese, who had opened a 120 seat fine dining restaurant in Miami, “The French Connection,” with their brother Daniel and sister Nadine.
In the kitchen of the Quillec family’s upscale restaurant, Patrick learned the labors of preparation and the importance of classical technique under the masterful eye of two Parisian chefs - Patrick Truard (from “Chez Drouant”), and Master Pastry Chef Patrice Caillac (from “La Tour D’Argent”). After a couple of years, the family opened a 125 seat brasserie, “Café Europa,” and Patrick, who was 20 years old, was at the head of the stoves. “I worked from 9 a.m. to midnight seven days a week . . . We did about 150 covers for lunch and 300 for dinner, and while the amount of work was incredible, I loved it and became so comfortable in the kitchen that it was like my home.”
In 1981, after the death of his sister Marie-Therese, Patrick and his brother Daniel left Miami for Charlotte, North Carolina, to take over the small 55 seat restaurant, “Chez Jean,” from a retiring French chef. They changed the name to “Chez Daniel,” created their own menu and, almost overnight, a star was born. It was there that Patrick began exercising his culinary creativity. With his own garden out back, he grew vegetables and herbs, made charcuterie from scratch, baked his own bread, made his own cheeses, and even made the restaurant’s butter. His fresh and delicate creations were often compared in the press to the style of Fredy Girardet. Gourmet Magazine called to request his flourless chocolate mousse cake.
After seven successful years, Patrick decided to travel with his wife, Joanne, and children to live and work as a chef in Puerto Rico. Afterwards, they moved to Vermont, where he worked as an instructor at the New England Culinary Institute, then to Georgia to work as a corporate chef. In the 1990s they moved to Kansas City where Patrick devoted himself to bringing something unique to Kansas City’s culinary scene. In 1999 he opened Hannah Bistro Café, with his wife Joanne, a French-inspired American bistro with a touch of Asian influences, which was different from the classical fine dining and the homestyle brasserie fare he had done in the past. Diners and critics alike responded with praise and his flagship restaurant flourished.
In 2000, Patrick co-created “KC Concept, a Restaurant Group” in order to establish other restaurants across Kansas City.
In August of 2001, KC Concept opened the quaint progressive French restaurant “Café Provence,” a culinary standout that continues to enjoy much success. In May of 2002, the group opened “Café Paris,” a traditional boisterous brasserie that was an immediate hit with locals looking for an authentic escape. Then in 2006, the team opened “Cassis,” a European-inspired modern bistro in Leawood, Kansas. Fine diners have followed Patrick Quillec to each of his successful restaurants because of his tastefully creative fusion cuisine.
In late 2006, Patrick sold his shares of the KC Concept group and began searching throughout the country for a permanent home where he could realize his mature capacities. At the same time, Dan Smith and Joan Marler were looking for an Executive Chef with a stellar background, practical organizational abilities and the passion to utilize the fresh produce from French Garden Farm in fabulously creative ways. In June of 2010, these dreams were realized when Patrick Quillec joined the French Garden team as Executive Chef and moved his family to Sebastopol. |
