Who

One of the most respected chefs in town, Waltuck helms the kitchen at the long-running French restaurant Chanterelle, which he co-owns with his wife, Karen.

Backstory

In 1979, a 24-year-old Waltuck—who'd grown up in the Bronx, studied marine biology at City College, and had little cooking experience besides a brief stint at the CIA—opened Chanterelle on an uninvitingly industrial strip of SoHo with his wife Karen. Despite the restaurant's grim location, tiny size (the first incarnation only had ten tables), and Waltuck's relative inexperience, his simple but elegant French cooking quickly drew acclaim; by 1985, Bryan Miller of the Times had awarded it four stars, cinching its reputation as one of the city's legitimately elite dining destinations.

In 1989, the Waltucks relocated the restaurant to its current location in Tribeca, preserving the atmospheric idiosyncrasies that had distinguished the original restaurant—unadorned walls, a conspicuous absence of music, and widely-spaced-apart tables. While the restaurant's Times star-tally was later knocked down to three–and while the Waltucks' sophomore venture, a Tribeca bistro called Le Zinc, shuttered at age 4 in 2005—Chanterelle still packs in crowds of Tribeca denizens, foodies, and special-occasion diners, and Waltuck remains one of the city's best-regarded chefs. To wit: in 2007 he took home the James Beard award for best chef in New York City.

For the record

While the walls in Chantarelle's dining room are almost devoid of art, that's not the case with the menus. The Waltucks have a tradition of having well-known artists design Chanterelle's menu covers every six months. Matthew Barney, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, Cindy Sherman, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, and Richard Prince have all taken part over the years.

In print

In 2000, Waltuck published a cookbook called Staff Meals from Chanterelle, a collection of recipes the chefs prepare for the restaurant's 4:30 p.m. family meal.

Personal

Waltuck's wife, Karen, works the front of the house at Chanterelle. The couple lives on Waverly Place with their two children, Sara and Jake.

No joke

Waltuck has a famous aversion to celery. He refuses to cook with it in almost all cases.

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