David Kesler of the Cellar, Part Two

Courtesy of the Cellar

​Executive Chef David Kesler of Fullerton's The Cellar Restaurant is on the line this week. Here's a random fact for the readership: people who excel at both cuisine and pastry are rare in the extreme. Every culinary arts student studies pastry, but it's like being both an outstanding brain surgeon and a top-level heart surgeon at once: rare, and not to be missed. That's a hint.

Meanwhile, if you missed the first part of the interview, click back to read it.

OC Weekly: What's your favorite music to cook by?

David Kesler: 70s and electronic.

OCW: What's the best food city in America?

DK: New York City.

OCW: What's your favorite restaurant in America?

DK: Chanterelle in New York.

OCW: What would you like to see more of in Orange County or Long Beach from a culinary standpoint?

DK: Fine pastry shops.

OCW: What would you like to see less of in Orange County or Long Beach from a culinary standpoint?

DK: Frozen yogurt shops.

OCW: What are your favorite cookbooks?

DK: Larousse Gastronomique, Le Bec-Fin Recipes

OCW: What show would you pitch to the Food Network?

DK: Ice carving idol...competition for the best ice carver on the globe.

OCW: What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

DK: Dirt sauce. I was at the National Chef Congress in New York and a chef from Argentina showed us how to make a pretty tasty sauce with red clay from Argentina.

OCW: You're making an omelet. What's in it?

DK: Salt, Emmentaler

OCW: You're at the market. What do you buy two of?

DK: Artichokes.

OCW: What was the weirdest customer request you've ever ordered?

DK: Escargots and mushrooms appetizer, no escargots.

OCW: What's your favorite restaurant other than your own?

DK: La Tour d'Argent, Paris; Joe's Restaurant, Venice.

OCW: What's the hardest lesson you've learned?

DK: Thinking there's enough time and being way ahead of the game.

OCW: What would be your last meal on Earth?

DK: Grilled artichokes and steamed lobster.

OCW: Who's your hero, culinary or otherwise?

DK: Chef Jacques Pépin.

OCW: What cuisine that you are unfamiliar with would you want to learn more about and why?

DK: Anything from the African continent from Egypt to Morocco to Ethiopia to Botswana, because that is the area of the world that I really know absolutely nothing about culinarily.