20 Questions with Hugo Hivernat of New York’s Fulgurances
In the Resy Questionnaire, we play a game of 20 questions with the industry folks behind some of our favorite restaurants. What’s your most memorable restaurant experience? Your favorite food movie? What restaurant would you want to time-travel for?
In this edition, we spoke to Hugo Hivernat, one of the three founders behind Fulgurances, the Greenpoint offshoot of their buzzy Parisian chef incubator that’s seen residencies from some of the world’s most exciting rising stars.
The Resy Questionnaire
1. Favorite thing you’ve ever cooked?
I have a few dishes I like to cook, though I’m not a chef. When I manage to do it successfully, I love to do a bœuf bourguignon. I always use Yves Camdeborde’s recipe with ginger, chocolate, and nutmeg in the sauce (this is the secret).
2. Kitchen tool or equipment you couldn’t live without?
I don’t think I could live without a coffee machine. My day can’t start before I have a good cup of coffee.
3. What pantry items would you bring on a desert island?
Black pepper, onion, olive oil, really good balsamic vinegar, and of course, butter.
4. What’s your favorite place to get a slice in New York?
For a slice, L’Industrie Pizza.
5. Favorite cookbook?
We actually have an editorial side of our business, and are putting together a book with Entorse Éditions about Lido 84 and the Camanini brothers that’s been very fun to work on. I know something is cooking about a book about Le Chateaubriand in Paris from Entorse Éditions — I can’t see to see the result.
6. Your drink of choice?
Coffee, wine, and a good gin and tonic (after a certain hour).
7. Favorite food movie?
I recently watched Frederick Wiseman’s documentary about the Troisgros family, which I really enjoyed. Otherwise, I like “Big Night.”
8. Your ideal dinner party guests, dead or alive?
Maybe Marco Pierre White. Or Danny Meyer.
9. What restaurant industry person do you admire the most?
Andrea Petrini. He’s a food journalist who created a collective called Gelinaz!. He’s supported Fulgurances since day one and we’ve worked together for 14 years now. He helps us to push against the limits and barriers in our industry.
10. The greatest restaurant experience of your life so far?
It’s impossible for me to name just one great experience, but a few from the past two years have been Lido 84, The Harbour House Inn in Elk, CA, and Noma in Kyoto. And I always love Sunday lunch at The Four Horsemen.
11. Your greatest professional achievement?
Creating a community of chefs through our restaurants and this resident chef program, and being able to see them progress and evolve — this is the greatest source of professional pride for me.
12. What single dish best describes your personality?
Un civet de lapin. [A rabbit stew with red wine.]
13. If you could go back in time, which restaurant would you dine at?
El Bulli in Spain, which I unfortunately was not able to visit before it closed in 2011.
14. Your favorite meal from childhood?
My mom’s apple rhubarb crumble.
15. What is your wish for the restaurant industry?
The industry has changed a lot over the past 10 years and even more since the Covid era. From my point of view, I think we are going in the right direction regarding the staff’s well-being. With the exodus of a lot of workers during Covid, chefs and restaurateurs had to rethink the hours, the payroll, etc. This is a major wish for me, to see the progress around working conditions continue. No one wants to go back to working 80 hours a week and being underpaid, which completely burns people out.
On the client side, I hope people will still support restaurants and food that have a real soul, and restaurants who are working hard to try to change the economic or agricultural/production model. Could be a pizza shop to a fine-dining option, I’m not putting any hierarchies here. I sometimes feel that people are more interested in vibes and trends rather than what a restaurant is about. It’s our goal to reach the new generation that’s coming up now with what we’re doing, and we hope it speaks to them.
16. What do you wish you did better? What do you do well?
I’m good at being all over the place, jumping from one thing to another, but I’d like to be less all over the place 🙂
17. If you could eat through a city for a day, where would you go?
Probably Tokyo.
18. The one thing you can’t resist splurging on when you go out?
If there is a good wine list, I always splurge on wine.
19. What do you value most in restaurants?
The trio of service, ambiance, and food. It’s really hard to get them together and when you achieve that, it’s amazing.
20. It’s your last meal on earth, what are you eating?
At Le Chateaubriand in Paris.
Fulgurances is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Each resident chef offers a $89 six-course tasting menu. See who’s cooking there now.
Noëmie Carrant is Resy’s senior writer. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.
