One Less Classic French Restaurant in America...

"I don't think any of us plan on being in the kitchen at age 65, so there are really important years when you are in your thirties and forties when you have to make your move or it might pass you by" -- Chef Daniel Boulud, Restaurant Report Interview, September, 2000

I was thinking about this quote from Daniel Boulud when I read the news that Fritz Blank was officially retiring, and Deux Cheminées, is soon to close. Fritz is 65 and he is heading to Thailand to "escape the pressures of the kitchen." Maybe Chef Boulud was right, but one thing is for sure, Chef Fritz Blank didn't waste time, even in his thirties and forties.

The man was actually a clinical microbiologist with a passion for food, and his training included lessons from his grandmother on the art of cooking. His friends urged him to open a restaurant and he did. He said that he would give it one year and see what happens. That was 1979, and Deux Cheminées (along with its chef) became a Philadelphia institution. The restaurant has amassed a slew of awards, and was once named one of the "30 Best Restaurants in America" by readers of Conde Nast Traveler Magazine.

Blank built a reputation for upscale French cuisine served in his elegant and intimate 19th-century townhouse where guests dined in one of five dining rooms. He has also garnered an international reputation as a collector of culinary books, many of which are on display in one dining room known as the chef's library. His collection consists of some 17,000 titles, 10,000 of which will be donated to the library at the University of Pennsylvania. The heavyset chef with the earring and tattoos (from his Army days) will be greatly missed. And if you believe that gastronomy is an important part of a culture's history, his books will live on and become part of the legacy of Chef Fritz Blank. The gorgeous double-twin townhouse at 1221 Locust Street will quietly take its place in this city's restaurant history.

www.deuxchem.com

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