The people who worked for Georges Perrier simply call him ‘Chef’

Georges Perrier had the support of hundreds of chefs, cooks, servers, captains, and managers in his four decades at Le Bec-Fin and other restaurants.

To this day, many of them — leaders in the Philadelphia-area food scene — enjoy a solid friendship with the man they simply call “Chef.”

» READ MORE: How Le Bec-Fin and Georges Perrier set the table for fine dining in Philadelphia

Here are some memories.

Executive chef/partner at Le Bec-Fin; now, owner of Laurel, co-owner of The Landing Kitchen and Lark

Elmi, a native New Englander, started working at Brasserie Perrier in Center City Philadelphia. After moving to New York, he returned to Perrier by working at Mia at Caesars Atlantic City. Eventually, he started handling private events for Perrier. As he and Perrier built trust, he moved back to Brasserie Perrier, and when Pierre Calmels left to open Bibou, Elmi landed the chef’s job. The documentary King Georges dissects their relationship.

Elmi marvels at Perrier’s “family tree.”

“When you think about the people that have walked through the doors of his kitchen, whether chefs or [sommeliers] or managers, it’s pretty impressive,” he said. “When I first worked at Brasserie Perrier, I was working with Jon Adams [now owner of Rival Bros Coffee], Chris Miller [head roaster of La Calombe] and Joey Baldino [Zeppoli and Palizzi]. At Le Bec, there was Emily Riddell [Machine Shop Boulangerie], Cedric Barberet [Barberet], Lee Styer and Jesse Prawlucki [Fond and Dutch], Hilary Hamilton [Jasper’s Backyard] and my best buddy, Edmund Konrad [Messina]. I’m sure I’m missing a ton more.”

Overall: “Chef Perrier, for good or bad, makes you bring your own intensity to another level,” he said. “If you could survive working at Le Bec and keep focused among the chaos, then every other job would feel almost easy.”

Filmmaker, King Georges documentary

“I was home, eating with my dad in an Indian restaurant on Lancaster Avenue [in 2010], and he said, ‘Did you hear Le Bec is closing?’” she said. “I was, like, that seems historic. Somebody should really film that.” She got a meeting through an uncle. “In 30 seconds, I just explained [the idea for the project], and he said, “OK. Do you have a boyfriend?’”

Thus began three years of filming as the story shifted — he pulled the property off the market at least once before leaving Le Bec-Fin for good in 2012. After a renovation, the restaurant closed for good in 2013.

“I felt like it had landed so perfectly,” Frankel said. “The thing about documentaries is that I think the most interesting ones are the ones where you follow the subject for many years because you’re watching life unfold. I just felt like it was such a beautiful arc starting with Georges in the kitchen and then Georges and Nick together in the kitchen, and the passing of the baton and Nick landing on his feet so spectacularly and also finding peace on the stoop of next restaurant at the end of the film.”

Chef de cuisine. Now owns Blackfish in Conshohocken.

“I always knew I wanted to be a chef,” Roman said. “That was the one constant for me. I grew up in Fishtown and I heard about a place called Le Bec-Fin owned by Georges Perrier. When I was like 14, a lot of kids idolized basketball players. For me, it was this guy — I had never seen him or even met him. One day during an event at Drexel [University], I chased him down the hall. My parents said I had to go to college. I was like, ‘I want to be a chef.’ So I went to St. Joe’s Prep and I studied French for the sole purpose that I’d go to France and cook. Then I heard Georges was going to be one of the teachers, I told my parents, ‘I’ll go to Drexel.’ I introduced myself and he looked at me like I was crazy. I got the job.”

Executive chef, Le Bec-Fin; former chef-owner Bibou and Le Cheri; now, executive chef, Philadelphia Club.

“I learned so much about sauces from him,” Calmels said. “I was 31 years old, and he gave me some kind of freedom in the kitchen, but he was still the big dog. I was lucky. It was a great experience.”

Sbraga, winner of Top Chef’s seventh season, is now a consultant in Texas. He started working for Perrier at Le Mas Perrier in Wayne in 2004 after his then-wife, Jesmary, landed the pastry-chef’s job at Brasserie Perrier. In 2008, Perrier trained Sbraga for the Bocuse d’Or cooking competition.

“It must have been like 1996 when my dad and stepmom took me out to Le Bec-Fin for dinner for my birthday. I knew at a young age I wanted to be a chef, and at that time that was the place in the country. He was my first celebrity chef crush. They put money together for that experience, and it was just over the top. I don’t remember anything I ate but I remember Chef coming over afterward, and him signing a menu. I still have that menu hung in my dining room.”

In the 1990s, Paris was chef and co-owner of Circa restaurant, across from Le Bec-Fin.

“He was a great mentor to me, especially about being a businessman,” he said, recalling their nightly conversations at Le Bar Lyonnais beneath Le Bec-Fin.

Executive pastry chef, now executive pastry chef, Union League Liberty Hill

Bennett was executive pastry chef from 1987 through 2001, growing pastry from three staffers to a dozen. After helping to bake a cake for Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration, Bennett met the White House’s pastry chef, who helped train him for the World Cup Pastry Championships. That put him on Perrier’s radar. At their first interview, Bennett said, “he looked me up and down and said, ‘Can you start Monday?’”

“He was the greatest teacher,” Bennett said. “He would get the best out of you. You know, I never asked for a raise, yet [over the years] he more than quadrupled my salary. One thing, is he never asked anyone to do something he wouldn’t do himself.”

Chef tournant; now, executive chef, Jasper’s Backyard in Conshohocken. (She was featured prominently in the King Georges documentary.)

One of the few women at Le Bec-Fin in the later years, “I felt like I got pushed harder [for excellence] than a lot of guys in the kitchen, especially by chef Nick [Elmi],” she said.

The lack of women wasn’t deliberate, she said. “I don’t think it was an actual thing. There just weren’t many women, even with the stages [temporary workers] that would come in from all the culinary schools.. It was always boys.”

Business partner at Brasserie Perrier, a cafe version at Boyds men’s store, Table 31 (at the Comcast Center), and Mia (Caesars in Atlantic City). “Every morning at 7 on the nose, for 15 years, he’d call and we’d talk,” Scarduzio said.

“Georges and I have always had a father-son relationship,” said Scarduzio, who grew up in Overbrook and went to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. “Somebody asked me to go to Germantown Cricket Club to help the chef on a side job. [Perrier] ordered a Caprese omelet. I saw them make it like an American omelet, and I said, ‘Are you going to serve that to him?’ And the chef said, ‘Yes. What would you do?’ I said, ‘I’d make the omelet the French way — creamy and undercooked.’ And the guy said, ‘You’re going to serve that?’ I did. He came wobbling down the steps [to the kitchen] screaming, ‘Who made my omelet?’ And the other chef was smiling. I said, ‘I did, Chef.’ And he said, ‘That’s the best [gosh-darn] omelet I ever had in America.’”

Words of wisdom: “He was methodical at how he would prepare for the kitchen,” he said. “He would say, ‘If you’re not prepared to be inconvenienced, then you’re not prepared.”

As a teacher: “Some of the workers were petrified [to be around him], but the people who weren’t too scared to approach him, he would teach. He also had no problems walking into a kitchen and wanting to meet the chef. I remember one time we were in Paris together and the chef did the escargot wrong. He corrected him, but to teach him, not humiliate him. He cared.”

Coauthor of Le Bec-Fin Recipes (1997), author and consultant

“Doing the cookbook was a fantastic experience,” she said. “He was incredibly generous to me. I used to go to his place out in Bala Cynwyd at 7 a.m. and we would review the different recipes and answer all the questions that I had and drink espresso. The reason that it worked so well is he really respected me as a chef. Not too many years before that, he offered me a job at Le Bec. And I struggled very hard between going to work for him or taking the position at Apropos [then a high-profile restaurant]. I ended up not working for him. When [publicist] Clare Pelino was looking for someone to write his book, they called me. It was really based on my accomplishments as a chef and that we could talk the same language. It was the first book that I got to write. It was really my foot in the door and you know what a great door to be able to get into. He really wanted to have a book to show his mother while she was still alive.”

Captain and general manager, Le Bec-Fin and other Perrier restaurants for 20 years, now waiter at Caffe Aldo Lamberti, Cherry Hill

“Working for him was an education that I should have been paying dearly for,” he said. “He was a perfectionist and also a great teacher. His delivery was always business, not personal. I started there as a bus boy on Fridays and Saturdays. I also used to work for my cousins on the Main Line [the rest of the week]. My customers would come in to Le Bec-Fin and I knew them. I would stand at the front of the kitchen and tell the waiters, ‘Mr. Goldberg likes this,’ and ‘Mr. Goldstein likes to have this on the rocks.’”

One day, Perrier was reading the reservation book at 5:55 before service and he noticed that customers were requesting Abraham. “He’s like, ‘Who the [heck] is Abraham? Everybody requests Abraham.’ And I’m in the back, 120 pounds, and I raised my hand, ‘It’s me.’ He says, ‘How long have you been working for me?’ I said, ‘Two years.’ He says, ‘You’re a bus boy. You know all these customers?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Do you know the menu?’ I recited the menu in front of him. He said, ‘I’m going to make you a captain. Get him a jacket.”

Co-owner, Moore Bros. Wines, former sommelier and general manager

“One afternoon a very long time ago, as I was making my usual, last minute micro-adjustments to the table positions in the main dining room at Le Bec-Fin, I received an urgent call from the restaurant’s attorney. I was the “manager of record,” and it was absolutely essential that I come to his office immediately to sign a renewal application for the liquor license.

“In the meantime, I was expecting 65 guests for a dinner that I’d been told was our client’s most important corporate event of the year. On top of that, I’d been given complete responsibility for every detail, including the menu, the wines, and even the flowers and music. So I was glad our lawyer was only two blocks away; I was back at the restaurant a half-hour before guests would arrive. Or so I thought.

“The room was already packed. And I was in abject panic; about to sprint upstairs to change into my tux, when a lovely young woman who looked a lot like my sister from Hawaii rushed toward me smiling. That’s when I saw Sue and the kids. And my brother from Florida and sister from Ohio.

“You know the rest of the story. It’s about who Georges Perrier really is. Other than the guest list (and the starting time), he’d made sure I planned every detail of my own surprise 40th birthday party.”