Say Goodbye to Freedom Fries

by Harold Jacobs and photographs by Roy Gumpel, March 04, 2009

 

Jacques Qualin, with his wife and business partner Leslie Flam, recently opened a restaurant in Stone Ridge called The French Corner. Flam, who manages the restaurant, grew up in New York City. At the age of 28, she gave up a lucrative career in computer science and mathematics to become a Parisian-trained chef. Qualin comes from the Franche-Comté region of southeastern France, in an area known as the Jura Mountains, which lie midway between Burgundy and Switzerland. He has the distinction of being one of the most experienced, highly trained, and accomplished chefs working in the Hudson Valley region. Veteran and highly respected food critic Sheldon Landwehr, writing in Black Tie International, described chef Jacques Qualin as “categorically master of his art.”

Qualin apprenticed at the age of 16 at a cozy auberge in Bussurel. As Qualin's skills developed along with his formal training, Daniel Boulud brought him to New York City on a student visa in 1990 to work as a member of his kitchen staff at Sirio Maccioni’s Le Cirque. Upon his return to France, Qualin worked at such famous three-star Michelin restaurants in Paris as La Tour d’Argent and Taillevent. When working at Taillevent, he met and fell in love with Leslie, who was working nearby in a small Parisian restaurant.

In 1994 they returned to New York City, where Qualin worked at René Pujol, a Theater-District French restaurant. Qualin eventually moved on to cook for two years at Jean-George Vongerichten’s Jo Jo, followed by an additional two years as sous chef at Vongerichten’s flagship restaurant Jean Georges. In 2000, Qualin became the executive chef at Le Périgord, where his revisions of traditional French cooking received rave reviews from New York City’s top food critics. Flam meanwhile found work in some of New York’s top restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern, Café Boulud, and Daniel.

Why did two such individuals, at the top of their profession, working in one of the most status-driven cities in the world and one known for its culinary creativity, give it all up to open a restaurant in Stone Ridge? As they view it, the move allowed them to improve the quality of their lives by having more time to spend with each other and to realize their dream of owning their own restaurant. They wanted to provide high quality French food at moderate prices in a warm, unpretentious atmosphere. They were particularly drawn to the Hudson Valley region, with its dairy herds, fresh farm products, trout streams, rolling hills, and Catskill-size mountain ranges, because it resembled Qualin’s native Jura, a culinary region that inspires his cooking.