François Haeringer, 91, chef made an art of French country cooking; L'Auberge Chez François was culinary destination
Hoodoo
By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 6, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/05/AR2010060503807.html
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2010/06/05/PH2010060503820.html
As chef David Becker looks on, Fran�ois Haeringer, oversees the cooking
at L'Auberge Chez Fran�ois in Great Falls. Mr. Haeringer opened his
first restaurant near the White House in 1954.
Fran�ois Haeringer, a chef who made an art of French country cooking and
whose Great Falls restaurant, L'Auberge Chez Fran�ois, was a beloved
culinary destination, died June 3 at Reston Hospital Center of
complications from a fall. He was 91 and worked in the kitchen of his
restaurant until Tuesday.
When Mr. Haeringer opened his first restaurant, Chez Fran�ois, near the
White House in 1954, he introduced Washington to a fresh approach to
French cuisine. He emphasized the rustic flavors of his native Alsatian
region of France, with fish, steaks, pat�s, stews and roasts.
"It was the French restaurant that made French food accessible,"
Washington restaurateur Mark Furstenberg said Saturday. "Chez Fran�ois
came to represent in this city that French food could be simple and
straightforward."
When Mr. Haeringer moved his restaurant to the Virginia suburbs in 1976,
he created an auberge, or country inn, in the manner he remembered from
his youth. He steadfastly rejected culinary fads, preferring to produce
the simple but hearty food he learned to cook during his long
apprenticeship in France. He kept a close eye on his restaurant, often
slicing the beef himself, adjusting the seasoning of sauces and moving
tables and chairs.
His unbending standards made L'Auberge Chez Fran�ois a popular and
critical success, with readers of Washingtonian magazine naming it one
of the region's best restaurants 25 years in a row.
Mr. Haeringer managed the restaurant like a small military operation,
requiring that each of his employees greet him personally every day.
"Directing a staff of 85, he mobilizes the salad crew and dispatches the
pastry chefs with the tyranny of Gen. George Patton orchestrating tank
columns toward battle with the Nazis," Edward J. Cody wrote in the
Washington Post Magazine in 1996. "He carves filets from tenderloins
with the peremptory single-mindedness of a star surgeon."
In a Washington Post video recorded last month, Mr. Haeringer extended
the military metaphor.
"They say in France, discipline makes the army," he said. "And I am the
general."
For years, Mr. Haeringer managed the restaurant with his three sons, and
his wife kept the books. He seldom drew attention to the famous names
who dined at his restaurant -- or to his own. Even as chefs increasingly
became recognizable celebrities, Mr. Haeringer preferred to stay in the
kitchen.
"He was proud of what he did," his son Jacques said. "He didn't want to
be a star."
His sons sometimes chafed at their father's Old World manner, but his
authority was absolute.
"We agreed to disagree on a lot of stuff, although he always had the
final word," Jacques Haeringer said. "Who am I going to argue with in
the kitchen now?"
Fran�ois Robert Haeringer was born Jan. 6, 1919, in Obernai, France, in
the Alsace near the German border. He began cooking at 16 in local
restaurants and later apprenticed at the Plaza Athenee hotel in Paris.
"Years ago, when I was a little boy, you had no television, you had
nothing," he told The Post in 1987. "So what do you think [the French]
did? They ate. They made love and ate. That's all."
While serving in the French army during World War II, Mr. Haeringer was
captured by German forces and sent to work as a prisoner-chef at the
Four Seasons hotel in Munich. His son said he was briefly sent to the
Dachau prison camp for trying to smuggle Frenchmen out of Germany.
After the war, some French loyalists who knew of Mr. Haeringer's work in
a German hotel considered him a collaborator, and he was narrowly
rescued from a firing squad by a cousin.
Mr. Haeringer came to Washington in 1947 to work at restaurants with an
uncle and a brother. He spent more than a year cooking at a hotel in the
fishing town of Ketchikan, Alaska, before returning to Washington in 1950.
He worked at the Three Musketeers restaurant on Connecticut Avenue NW
before buying it in 1954 and naming it Chez Fran�ois. Mr. Haeringer's
sons, Jacques of Great Falls and Paul of Potomac Falls, will continue to
run L'Auberge Chez Fran�ois in the style their father established. A
third son, Robert Haeringer of Arlington, left the restaurant last year.
Other survivors include Mr. Haeringer's wife of 62 years,
Marie-Antoinette Clare Haeringer of Great Falls; and four grandchildren.
When Mr. Haeringer sat down to a meal, he preferred simple fare, such as
a steak and french fries. For a snack, his son Jacques said, he liked --
of all things -- Spam and a Budweiser.
His formula for a successful restaurant was equally unpretentious.
"Listen, when people go to the restaurant, what do they want?" he said
in 1996. "A good time. A nice atmosphere. A good meal. It's simple."
This Story
*
From the archives: Chef Haeringer in his own words
*
From the archives: Francois Haeringer, old school
*
From the archives: Family night at Chez Haeringer
*
Fran�ois Haeringer, 91: Introduced Washington to a fresh approach
to French cuisine
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