Watch CBS News

Foodie Chap: Vitrine Restaurant Inside The St. Regis Hotel

KCBS radio Foodie Chap and CBS 5 television Eye On The Bay host Liam Mayclem introduces us to the culinary stars behind the food and wine loved by so many in the Bay Area.

By Liam Mayclem, the KCBS Foodie Chap

Romuald Feger most recently served as Executive Chef at The St. Regis Resort Bora Bora, where he worked under the tutelage of renowned Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten to open the hotel's signature restaurant, Lagoon, in 2006, when he was chef de cuisine. Feger began his career as an apprentice of Chef Michel Husser, owner of the Michelin two-starred Hôtel-Restaurant Le Cerf in Marlenheim, in the Alsace region of France.

"Cooking to me is a love affair–sometimes harsh sometimes sweet–but always fulfilling."
- Chef Romuald Feger, Executive Chef

Feger has a vast knowledge of Western cuisines – most notably French, Italian and Spanish – but is also well-versed in a great variety of ethnic culinary styles such as Japanese, Thai and Indian. Other assignments of Feger's have included positions at Hôtel du Palais de la Méditerranée in Nice, France; Le Château du Domaine St. Martin in Vence, France, and Restaurant Le Cirque in New York. Feger holds an Advanced Culinary Diploma and Food and Beverage Diploma from the Apprentice Hotel School of Strasbourg in Alsace, France.

Chef Feger oversees Vitrine restaurant (breakfast & lunch) as well as the entire hotel. Vitrine features inspired breakfast and lunch offerings prepared using seasonal, local ingredients, and set in an elegant and light-filled dining room decorated in a sophisticated palette of sage green and white.

I met with Chef Feger in the Vitrine kitchen for our Foodie Chap chat.

5 TASTY QUESTIONS: CHEF ROMUALD by LIAM MAYCLEM on YouTube

5 Tasty Questions with Chef Romuald Feger

1. Define your cuisine.
My cuisine is about feeling and we try to do something that is local; something that talks to everyone.

2. What dish reminds you of home?
Sauerkraut.

3. If not working as a chef, what career path might you have followed?
I almost ended up being a hall scout for the French President, but I probably would enjoy being a farmer.

4. What do you enjoy most outside the kitchen?
Horseback riding.

5. At your last supper, you can have a couple of guests, dead or alive, who would be there and what would you eat?
My two best friends, Joey and Bullie and probably my grandmother who will cook for us. We would probably eat something she used to cook really well; the bake-off.

Liam: Tasty answers Chef! We'll see you at Virtrine at The St. Regis, thank you!

Whole Roasted Peach

(Pictured above)
Angel Food Cake With Key Lime And Lemon Verbena Ice Cream

For the caramel:
• 400 grams sugar
• zest of 1 orange cut in thin julienne and blanched twice
• zest of 1 lemon cut in thin julienne and blanched twice
• juice of 3 orange
• juice of 2 lemon
• 5 lemon verbena leave

In a small sauce pan combine the sugar with 2 tsp of water, cook until caramel reaches a light brown color. Remove from heat and add orange and lemon zest julienne. The caramel being really hot, the zest will cooked and get to the stage where they look like candied; at this stage add the orange and lemon juice.
Bring to a boil and set aside.

In boiling water blanch for 10 seconds ripe yellow peaches. Immediately remove peaches from boiling water into ice bath to stop cooking. Remove skin, place in small roasting pan add 2 tbsp of caramel per peach and bake in oven at medium high heat for 20 minute or until the peaches are soft. While the peaches are cooking baste them with the caramel.

For the angel food cake:
• 1 cup AP flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 10 egg whites
• 1 vanilla bean
• 4 oz of butter

Melt butter and set aside, whip whites, whip whites, vanilla bean and sugar until stiff, Sift dry 3 times. Remove 1 cup meringue and mix in butter. Gently fold in dry to meringue and fold in butter mix. Bake at 350 F for 15 to 20 minutes. When cold cut out disc of 2.5" diameter.

For the almond orange tuile:
• 200 grams sliced Almonds (no skin)
• 400 powdered Sugar
• 20 grams flour
• 4 oranges zested
• 2 oranges juice
• 200 melted butter

Combine all, refrigerate.
Spread out the almond butter mix on slipat (nonstick cooking sheet), bake at 300 F until little brown color. Let cool down a couple of minutes and while still warm cut out triangle or any desired shape.

For the vanilla crème fraiche:
• 10 grams of sugar
• ½ vanilla bean, cut in half and scraped
• 100 gram of crème fraiche

Combine all three ingredient, whip until soft pick.

For the lemon verbena ice cream:
• 500 grams whole milk
• 250 grams cream
• 150 gram sugar
• 8 egg yolk.
• ½ bunch of lemon verbena

Bring milk and cream to a boil, pour over lemon verbena leaves let infused covered for half an hour. Bring back to a boil. Whisk egg yolk and sugar until foamy, add boiling cream and milk and cook until thick. Let sit overnight to mature, next day spin in ice cream machine.

ENJOY!

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.