Washington City Paper: Contents for May. 12

Eating Gerard
Gerard Pangaud--culinary genius, business mediocrity, kitchen tyrant--is a one-man French cliche. And that's one reason his American students love him.

Cover Story

Gerard Pangaud--culinary genius, business mediocrity, kitchen tyrant--is a one-man French cliche. And that's one reason his American students love him.

Photographs by Pilar Vergara

Everyone calls Gerard Pangaud "Chef." Not "Gerard." Not "Mr. Pangaud." Not even "Monsieur Pangaud." Just "Chef." Like "Maestro." Or "Professor." Or "Swami."

Right now, Chef's pose looks a little like a swami's. He's in a small restaurant kitchen, holding up his hands for a class full of lesser gastronomes to see. Not that you'd know it from the enchanted looks on the assembled faces, but the hands themselves--the small but strong hands of a stocky man, their color dulled by a light dusting of flour--are not, in this particular instance, of utmost importance. It's what he does with them: There's no space between his fingers.

And as he plops a slab of dough onto a metal counter, D.C.'s only two-Michelin-star chef explains, "When working a dough, it's best to keep tight your fingers." Keeping tight their own fingers around pencils, class members jot this wisdom down. When a famous chef talks, foodies listen.

Twenty-one people have wiggled into the kitchen for this week's class: Pangaud; his two young staffers; his volunteer assistant, Jim Anderes; and 17 students, all of them amateur cooks. This makes roughly a dozen more people than the kitchen can comfortably accommodate. ... Continued

Issue of May. 12 - 18, 2000

News and Features

Eating Gerard
Gerard Pangaud--culinary genius, business mediocrity, kitchen tyrant--is a one-man French cliche. And that's one reason his American students love him.
Cover Story By Brett Anderson
April
The City By Michael Schaffer
The Man Who Tore Things Down
Oliver T. Carr will be remembered as a demolisher, not a developer.
The City By Mark Jenkins with Charles Paul Freund
Silent Right
D.C.'s Child and Family Services Agency says contractors must gag troubled families--or risk losing funding.
The City By Garance Franke-Ruta
Admission Possible?
D.C.'s college tuition grant program hasn't sent District kids to the four corners yet, but it's getting there.
The City By Garance Franke-Ruta
Relaxed Fit
Hypnotist Wayson Lee tries to put the Martin Luther King Memorial Library to sleep.
The City By Elissa Silverman
Old Flame Still Burning
The Mail By Ann Fenwick
Call to Witness
The Mail By Keith Jarrell
A More Perfect Union
The Mail By Emilie Junge
Even Flow
The Mail By Larry Bohlen
Reality Bites
The Mail By Steve Gibson
Crash Dummy
The Mail By Louise Krafft

Columns

In the End, the Wheels Came Off
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Take My Redskins, Please!
City Desk By Stephanie Mencimer
Run-On Sentencing
City Desk By Annys Shin
A Lot of Grief
City Desk By Patrick Tracey
Getting a Piece of the "Action"
Loose Lips By Erik Wemple

Eats

Curries Favor
Young & Hungry By Brett Anderson

Movies

Club Feet
Film Review By Arion Berger
Welsh Rarebeat
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
In the Company of Salesmen
Film Review By Joel E. Siegel

Music

Styles of Miles
Music Review By Reuben Jackson
Horse Play
Music Review By P. Mitchell Prothero
Looks Both Ways
Music Review By Shannon Zimmerman

Theater

Dozen't Cut It
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Time Out of Mind
Art Review By Louis Jacobson
Jewish Jazz Junkie
Georgetown Professor Jose Bowen rewrites the religious experience.
Arts By Elissa Silverman
The Company She Kept Mad
Books By Bradford McKee
What Planet Is He From?
Artifacts By Dave Nuttycombe
The Silent Treatment
Artifacts By Jessica Dawson
Blinded With Unscience
Artifacts By Louis Jacobson