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Husband-and-wife team David and Karen Waltuck ran Chanterelle, one of New York City’s most influential restaurants, for thirty years, first in SoHo, then in Tribeca. At a time when all-male wait staffs and strict adherence to French renditions were ubiquitous, the Waltucks pioneered something else: a fine-dining restaurant where customers could feel comfortable and eat locally sourced food. In 2009, when the economy plummeted, Chanterelle’s investors decided to back out rather than proceed with a scheduled renovation. The Waltucks sold off all of Chanterelle’s inventory, from the famous oak wardrobe to the chandeliers and forks. Now David consults at Robert, the restaurant in the New Museum of Art and Design, while Karen ponders their next move.

From a young age I was very interested in nouvelle cuisine. I’d read about it, thought about it, tried things. Gault and Millau, the early proponents of nouvelle cuisine, published a journal I liked, Gault et Millau, which listed the rules you had to follow. I also collected a fairly cheap series of cookbooks, very much thrown together and all in French, by Troisgrois, Chapel, Girard, Verger.

After Karen and I fell in love, we went to France and at least twice to Alain Chapel’s and Fernand Point’s restaurants. I’ve always had a romantic and romanticized idea about restaurants and cooking. Certainly about La Pyramide and the chefs who came out of there—Chapel, Bocuse, Girard, the Troisgros brothers. Essentially, you’d drive along this suburban, gritty Lyons road with lots of traffic. You’d come to a rather nondescript place and realize you had stepped into a beautiful garden. It’s cloistered, serene, and quiet.

I was cooking lunch at La Petite Ferme, so I was free in the evenings. Karen and I were living in this tiny Upper East Side apartment. Every few months we’d invite six people for a grand dinner. I’d make the food that ultimately became the food at Chanterelle—seafood sausage, crabs with sorrel, sweetbreads with orange. There weren’t many things I made at those dinners that I wouldn’t feel comfortable making now, in some version. Maybe I incorporate more Asian ingredients; otherwise I don’t think my style of cooking has changed much.

Waltuck’s enduring skill and originality have earned him international renown and numerous awards. He first began cooking while studying biological oceanography in Manhattan in the early 70s. After a brief stint at The Culinary Institute of America, Waltuck spent two years as lunch chef at La Petite Ferme in New York City, and then set out to open Chanterelle with his wife Karen in a then-remote section of SoHo.

The chef’s French-inspired menu changes monthly and features seasonal ingredients from local farmers (some of whom he’s known since the early days of Chanterelle), as well as the finest seafood, game, and, of course, wild mushrooms. His extensive travels over the years have influenced his cooking style; although he remains firmly based in the French classical technique, he incorporates diverse flavors from Europe, the Far East, and other parts of the world.

Waltuck’s first book, Staff Meals from Chanterelle, debuted in July 2000. A second book, Chanterelle: The Story and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic, was published in October 2008. Among its many accolades, Chanterelle is proud to be the recipient of two James Beard Awards, for “Outstanding Restaurant” in 2004 and “Best Chef New York City” in 2007.

David has been passionately interested in food, restaurants, and the craft of cooking all his life. After graduating from City College, having majored in biology, he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a chef. He enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America, at the same time working at various restaurants, both upstate and in Manhattan. Before completing the course at CIA, David was offered a sous-chef position in a small upper east side French restaurant, La Petite Ferme, and left school to work there.In 1979, after two years at La Petite Ferme, David, and his wife Karen, opened Chanterelle in Soho, which was then a fringe neighborhood.In 1989, again trailblazing, David and Karen relocated to a larger space in the Mercantile Exchange Building in Tribeca.During the course of its thirty year run, Chanterelle and David received many accolades, including two four-star reviews from the New York Times, four James Beard Foundation awards (Best Chef New York City, Outstanding Service, Outstanding Wine Service, and Best Restaurant USA), and consistent top ratings for food and service from the Zagat Guide.In addition to the extraordinary success of Chanterelle, David opened a bistro, Le Zinc, also in Tribeca, acted as consultant for the opening of Macao Trading Company, and wrote two successful books, “Staff Meals from Chanterelle”, and “Chanterelle - The Stories and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic”.Since Chanterelle’s closing in 2009, David has been Corporate Executive Chef for Ark Restaurants Inc., a publicly traded corporation, with annual revenues of about 140 million dollars, operating restaurants in New York, Boston, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas.In his capacity as Executive Chef, David has been involved in a number of restaurant openings, writing menus, creating and testing recipes, hiring and training kitchen staff, and supervising kitchen design, in addition to overseeing operations at existing Ark restaurants.

David Waltuck first began cooking while attending City College in the early 1970s. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Biological Oceanography, he briefly attended the Culinary Institute of America and spent two years as lunch chef at La Petite Ferme in New York City.