Roland Passot

Passot was born in 1955 in Villefranche-sur-Saône, in France's Rhône-Alpes.{{cite web|publisher=Challenge Dairy |title=In the Spotlight: Roland Passot, La Folie |url=http://www.challengedairy.com/spotlight/index.php?cid=15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015194943/http://www.challengedairy.com/spotlight/index.php?cid=15 |archivedate=2006-10-15 }} He is a classically trained French chef, having attended cooking school in Lyon while beginning as an assistant, at age fourteen, in the city's Léon de Lyon restaurant under Chef Paul Lacombe, and then Pierre Orsi Restaurant.{{cite news|publisher=Food and Beverage World |date=Spring 2002 |url=http://www.fbworld.com/Mag_spring_2002/roland%20passot/balance/balance.html |title=Chef Roland Passot |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921172209/http://www.fbworld.com/Mag_spring_2002/roland%20passot/balance/balance.html |archivedate=2008-09-21 }} After Passot rose to the rank of assistant sous-chef at Léon de Lyon, Jean Banchet (who Passot considers his most important influence) recruited him in 1979 to work at Le Francais in Wheeling, Illinois (near Chicago, Illinois | Chicago), then sent him in 1981 to open the French Room at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas{{cite news|url=https://abc7news.com/archive/6067107/|publisher=ABC 7 News|title=Infuse your meal with tea|date=2008-04-08}} (He was fired from the French Room after getting into a shouting match with its maitre d').{{cite news|title=Huge contrast between Coi, La Folie kitchens|author=Sophie Brickman|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=September 19, 2010|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/19/FDH31F5QKN.DTL#ixzz0zzaXN3Yx}} In between, he opened Le Castel in San Francisco.{{cite news|url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/monthly/1995_Mar_29.CHC.html|publisher=Palo Alto Online|author=Julie Ratner |title=Haute cuisine for a higher cause|date=1995-03-29}}

Passot opened La Folie on Polk Street in 1988, with his wife Jamie and brother Georges. A small brasserie in the Polk Gulch section of the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, it opened at a cost of $45,000 with no outside investors.{{cite news|url=http://www.thefoodpaper.com/interviews/rolandpassot.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211144655/http://www.thefoodpaper.com/interviews/rolandpassot.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2006-12-11|publisher=The Food Paper|title=Roland Passot:Pots, Peppers and a Passion for Fashion|author=Susan Dyer Reynolds}} His wife conceived the name, which means "craziness" or "folly" in French, referring to the difficulty of opening a new establishment in San Francisco's competitive restaurant scene. The restaurant remained a family business, with his wife serving as general manager and his brother as sommelier.{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_20_32/ai_50062512/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1|title=La Folie|publisher=Nation's Restaurant News|date=1998-05-18|author=Alan Liddle}} La Folie steadily gained in reputation until, by 2000, it was one of only several restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, to earn a "four star" review from the San Francisco Chronicle.{{cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|author=Michael Bauer|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/11/26/PK114228.DTL|title=The Creme De la Creme:Four-star restaurants in the Bay Area are more casual but still first-rate|date=2000-11-26}} Avoiding "fusion" influences, the establishment was a contemporary French restaurant, with classic French use of stocks and sauces, but lighter than traditional French and with attention to local ingredients. After 32 years in business, La Folie closed in 2020. “It’s bittersweet for me to let it go, but it’s time,” said Passot of the closing. “I’m turning 65 this year. It’s time to let the next generation do their thing.”{{cite news| url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/San-Francisco-French-restaurant-La-Folie-to-close-15008172.php |title=San Francisco French restaurant La Folie to close after 32 years |author=Janelle Bitker |date=February 4, 2020 |publisher=San Francisco Chronicle}}

Passot joined forces to open Left Bank in 1994, with partner Ed Levine in Larkspur, California.{{Cite news|publisher=Palo Alto Online|url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/restaurants/1998_Sep_4.EAT04.html|title=Restaurant Review: rant in Menlo Park|author=Laura Reiley|date=1998-09-04}} The second Left Bank opened in Menlo Park, California in 1998, and then San Jose in 2003. The restaurants serve French home-style cooking Passot calls "Cuisine Grand-mere". In 2009, the Left Bank restaurant group opened LB Steak, a modern American Steakhouse, in San Jose's Santana Row.{{cite news| url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2009/06/09/a-la-carte-10-june-2009/| title=A La Carte, 9 June 2009| date=June 9, 2009| author=Susan Steade |work=San Jose Mercury News}}

In style, Passot favors contemporary French cuisine, avoiding fusion, molecular gastronomy, and new devices or techniques such as sous vide. Passot has a reputation for hiring and mentoring young academy-trained chefs. A number of successful restaurant chefs credit Passot as a mentor, or as inspiration, including Richard Reddington, the Michelin starred Chef of REDD in Yountville, CA. Jeffrey Russell, Executive Chef at The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City,{{cite news|url=http://www.visitsaltlake.com/media/view_release.php?id=20 |title=Utah's Great Chef Migration |date=2007-01-06 |publisher=Visit Salt Lake |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009032121/http://visitsaltlake.com/media/view_release.php?id=20 |archivedate=2007-10-09 }} Trey Foshee of George's at the Cove in La Jolla, California,{{cite web|publisher=Challenge Dairy |url=http://www.challengedairy.com/spotlight/index.php?cid=35 |title=In the Spotlight: Trey Foshee, Executive Chef/Partner at George's at the Cove, La Jolla, California |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015194949/http://www.challengedairy.com/spotlight/index.php?cid=35 |archivedate=2006-10-15 }} and Michael Kramer, formerly of McCrady's Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina and (as of 2008) of Voice Restaurant in Houston, Texas{{cite news|url=http://www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx?articleid=10050|publisher=Hotel Interactive|title=Houston's Hotel ICON Debut's VOICE Restaurant|date=2008-03-04}}

In 1991 Passot was inducted into the Maitres Cuisiniers de France.{{cite web|url=http://www.mcf-usa.com/chefs/roland-passot.html |title=Roland Passot |publisher=Maitres Cuisiniers de France |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820004636/http://mcf-usa.com/chefs/roland-passot.html |archivedate=2008-08-20 }} His restaurant won the Zagat Survey awards for "Best Food" and "Best Nouvelle French restaurant" in 1998, and "Best French restaurant" in San Francisco, in 2002. He also earned a James Beard Award as "best rising star chef" of 1980, and other "best" designations and awards from USA Today, Food & Wine Magazine, Gourmet magazine, Gault Millau, and SF Weekly.{{cite news|title=Roland Passot Chef Profile|publisher=Cooks Eat Share|url=http://www.cookeatshare.com/chefs/roland-passot-168}} In 2001 the French Government awarded him the "Chevalier dans l’Ordre du Mèrite Agricole".

A local caviar producer, Tsar Nicoulai, has named a product after him.{{cite news|date=2007-11-04|title=Now Flavoring:Roe v. Wasabi|author=Melissa Feldman|work=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/style/tmagazine/04tcaviar.html?pagewanted=print}}

Passot met his wife, Jamie, when she was working at the Four Seasons Resort in Irving, Texas.{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n17_v28/ai_15354379|title=Passot, Levine join forces to open Left Bank venture|publisher=Nation's Restaurant News|author=Alan Liddle|date=1994-04-25}} They have two kids, Charlotte and Jean Paul. Known for being gregarious and social, Passot is a frequent participant in cooking shows and demonstrations, charity events, and television appearances. After gaining weight from the stress of managing his restaurants, he lost 60 pounds by eliminating alcohol, sugar, and starches from his diet.{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/01/02/FD144026.DTL|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Balancing act:Chefs and restaurateurs share secrets for battling the bulge|author=Kim Severson|date=2002-01-02}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.lafolie.com/ lafolie.com] - official La Folie site
• [http://www.leftbank.com leftbank.com] - official Left Bank site
• [http://www.tanglewood.com tanglewood.com] - official Tanglewood site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Passot, Roland}}

Category:1955 births

Category:French chefs

Category:French male chefs

Category:Living people

Category:People from Villefranche-sur-Saône

Category:Cuisine of the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Knights of the Order of Agricultural Merit

Category:Chefs from San Francisco