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Nancy Oakes
Author Profile
Chef Nancy Oakes believes that her diners need to be comforted by her food as well as the surroundings and service. She feels that the room and food presentation should flatter guests in a way that make each one feel personally cared for. Clearly, her customers have felt cared for and they have spoken: she is indeed San Francisco’s most beloved Chef. Virtually every reader’s poll of San Francisco Bay Area publications names Nancy Oakes as the most popular chef, and Boulevard as the favorite restaurant in San Francisco. Her peers have spoken also, and in 2001 Chef Nancy Oakes garnered a tremendous and much-deserved James Beard Foundation Award, for “Best Chef in California.” Chef Nancy Oakes has reached and sustained a level of awareness and culinary excellence held by few chefs in America today.
Prior to opening Boulevard in 1993, Chef Oakes earned high praise at her restaurant, L’Avenue, a 50-seat San Francisco neighborhood bistro where she created and sustained a wonderful loyalty and intimacy with her diners. This relationship continues at the 145-seat Boulevard. Before L’Avenue, Oakes and a friend created a popular waterfront restaurant called Barnacle.
During her years of study at the San Francisco Art Institute, Oakes was also known in San Francisco for her down-to-earth yet elegant service and hospitality while working at such places as Alexis on Nob Hill. As a self-taught chef, Oakes enhanced her philosophy with the knowledge she gained from great teachers under whom she served informally. From Girard Boyer and Taillevent to Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon, Oakes learned to cherish all aspects of food from searching for the freshest ingredients to perfect service.
At Boulevard, Nancy Oakes is able to fulfill her dream of giving diners a truly sensuous experience. She and her crew continue to cook ‘a la minute’ for each diner, having created a menu such that in any evening, they are preparing a relatively small number of each item.
“When you order a chicken, we actually cook it to order for you over the open fire in our wood-burning oven. There are no shortcuts. Even our pastries and cookies are made in small batches so they have a home-baked quality. We all feel a reverence for the food we use... we choose diver scallops rather than dredged, and fruits and vegetables straight from the farm or the farmer’s market. In our kitchen, we all share San Francisco’s love and commitment to good food,” says Oakes.
Website: http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/main.html