The Proust Questionnaire with Daniel Boulud

Interior of Le Gratin, Photography by Bill Milne

Veronica H. Speck: What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Daniel Boulud: To be totally disconnected— no phone, no wifi. Or to be connected and disconnected— connected with family, and disconnected from the world.

VHS: What is your greatest fear?

DB: We all have our fears. This is a hard one, when you have a busy life, you try not to have fears, worries yes, but not fears.

VHS: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

DB: Not being of the computer generation. I would love to be ‘techy’ enough to not depend on too many people.

Photography by Bill Milne

VHS: What is the trait you most deplore in others?

DB: Pretention.

VHS: Which living person do you most admire?

DB: My daughter Alix who just had twins.

VHS: What is your greatest extravagance?

DB: “I think it’s to live above the store” as they say or in my case above Restaurant Daniel. It’s extravagant, i didn’t need to live at Park and 65th, but it connects me to my family. But I don’t have a private plane or luxury cars… some nice watches though!

Interior of Le Gratin, Photography by Bill Milne

VHS: What is your current state of mind?

DB: To definitely continue to excel and strive for excellence with Restaurant Daniel, Not retire, but grow. Also to be a good New Yorker, it is important to be here, and support New York, especially through City Meals on Wheels or new business.

VHS: On what occasion do you lie?

DB: Maybe when I’m late.

VHS: What do you most dislike about your appearance?

DB: There is too much to list… my nose and the fact that my hair is not curly.

Photography by Bill Milne

VHS: What is the quality you most like in a man?

DB: Trust.

VHS: What is the quality you most like in a woman?

DB: Trust.

VHS: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

DB: Tout va bien.

VHS: What or who is the greatest love of your life?

DB: Well, my wife and kids, Kat, Julien, and Gigi.

VHS: When and where were you happiest?

DB: I will say, of course, back home with my family around the table, spending hours eating, drinking, talking, and laughing. And, of course, with my family here in the country, making eggs.

VHS: Which talent would you most like to have?

DB: I would have loved to be a singer and a musician, maybe one of my children will be. My favorite is Eric Clapton. Grab a guitar and have the ability to sing solo, there is nothing cozier than when you’re at a party or country around the fireplace and someone starts to sing. The ability to have a guitar and play or sit at a piano and play, it’s a gift I don’t have.

Interior of Le Gratin, Photography by Bill Milne

VHS: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

DB: My size and too much vanity, we struggle with our weaknesses. Punctuality. Discipline. Find more leisure time, less work, and more play.

VHS: *What do you consider your greatest achievement? *

DB: To still be relevant in the biggest city in the world and in my business. To be one of the best restaurateurs in the world- le grand table du monde.

VHS: *Where would you most like to live? *

DB: Paris, two hours by train from Lyon.

VHS: What is your most treasured possession?

DB: A lot of watches. My great-grandfather's ring, he gave it to me, but it doesn’t fit so I will pass it on to one of my children. My father wore it for quite a while, not valuable, but the connection. It’s a small gold ring with chevalier initials.

VHS: *What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? *

DB: The Covid-19 pandemic.

VHS: *What is your favorite occupation? *

DB: Still to read about food, in cookbooks, and to work around food. My most absolving occupation is to build new restaurants. Not my favorite, but time-consuming.

Photography by Bill Milne

VHS: What is your most marked characteristic?

DB: Charming! I like to charm. And to be the most hospitable, which comes from being in the restaurant business.

VHS: *What do you most value in your friends? *

DB: Loyalty.

VHS: *Who are your favorite writers? *

DB: Bill Buford. We wrote things together and he wrote Dirt about Lyon.

VHS: Who is your hero of fiction?

DB: Tin Tin because he was always traveling the world, and you traveled with him.

VHS: *Which historical figure do you most identify with? *

DB: Paul Bocuse, not that I want to be him, but because of where he came from and the impact he had.

VHS: *Who are your heroes in real life? *

DB: If we asked my son, who is 8 years old, he would say Elon Musk because he is the richest man in the world (laughs). I don’t know how he figured that out! I would say, rather, because he preempted change in the world.

Photography by Bill Milne

VHS: *What are your favorite names? *

DB: Julien because that is the name of my father and my son.

VHS: *What is it that you most dislike? *

DB: Bananas. And sea cucumbers.

VHS: What is your greatest regret?

DB: I was asked by François Pinault to open a restaurant in Paris and I didn’t do it. I also didn’t go to college, but I would have never been a chef if I went.

VHS: *How would you like to die? *

DB: Peacefully and surrounded.

VHS: What is your motto?

DB: Keep dreaming.