Maison Passerelle Is Unlike Any French Restaurant in New York

This project is the culmination of Gourdet’s deep cultural knowledge and years of industry experience, and each of the venues will be operated by Kent Hospitality Group, the same group behind Crown Shy, SAGA, Overstory, and Time and Tide. He’s returning to New York a well-versed, and critically acclaimed chef and restaurant owner. Having transformed his pandemic pop-up, Kann, into an award-winning restaurant that brings forth the foods of his Haitian heritage and local flavors from the Pacific Northwest. Soon after, he debuted Kann’s subterranean bar, Sousòl. Not to mention — Gourdet’s coming back with accolades, too. He’s one of the few to take home a James Beard Award in back-to-back-to-back years: In 2022 for his first cookbook, Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health; in 2023 for Kann, which was named Best New Restaurant; and in 2024 for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific. Now as Printemps’ U.S. culinary director, Gourdet is blazing the trail of a new era of luxury retailer dining.

His multifaceted food program at Printemps is wide ranging. It includes the all-day neighborhood cafe, Café Jalu; a raw bar called Salon Vert, which accepts reservations; the Champagne Bar, which offers an oasis of non-alcoholic drinks, fresh-pressed juices, and traditional bubbles; and the Red Room Bar, a 25-seat cocktail bar, which also takes reservations. All of this is anchored by the 85-seat fine-dining restaurant, Maison Passerelle, which officially opens on April 17. The other concepts are set to open on Friday, March 21. Salon Vert, Red Room Bar, and Maison Passerelle are currently accepting reservations.

As is his totem, Gourdet’s food is refracted through his personal appreciation for world history. At Maison Passerelle, Gourdet offers his interpretation of French cuisine without excluding the culinary contributions of formerly French colonized lands — North and West Africa, Vietnam, the island countries in the West Indies (like Gourdet’s ancestral homeland of Haiti), and others. While it’d be much easier for some to shy away from such harrowing realities, Gourdet sees a chance to be vulnerable as he guides us in mindfully connecting the dots with flavors, ingredients, and techniques that have long been overlooked in fine dining. For him, that may show up in his version of efo riro, the luscious West African spinach stew, which Gourdet makes with cured duck confit; or hitting a smoked beet and frisee salad with a Vietnamese-inspired vinaigrette made of lemongrass, fish sauce, and bird chile.

I last spoke with Gourdet four years ago as he was running a successful pop-up iteration of Kann, while also building out the space that it now calls home. I caught up with him as he prepares to open all five of his dining concepts at Printemps.

Note: This interview has been edited for accuracy, clarity, and length.

Resy: Tell us about Maison Passerelle.

Gregory Gourdet: Maison Passerelle is our fine-dining restaurant and the concept that is shown through my lens the most even though there’s a French theme throughout the entire building, being that it is Printemps. At Maison Passerelle, we wanted to explore the places that France has been throughout history, through the former colonies — there are about 30 places that France has colonized over time. We’re pulling inspiration from those places and sharing those stories, those flavors, and those cooking methods. So, North Africa, West Africa, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Haiti, Louisiana, there’s parts of Canada, St. Lucia, Tahiti — there’s lots of amazing places to pull inspiration from. And a lot of them are already part of my repertoire through the work that I’ve done either at Kann, or at Sousòl, or my prior travels throughout Asia; plus, I previously worked in the pan-Asian space for 15 years. Maison Passerelle will be open for dinner only at first, and we plan to open it for breakfast and lunch in the fall.

You’re known for mixing in a bit of history with your food. How does that process work itself out for you?

Culture and history are so important to me in terms of food and food history, so it is really important that we’re able to tell our own story. You know, New York doesn’t need another French restaurant; there’s a million. And I always think any platform is an opportunity to share stories that are not told as often as they could be. So, within this, we’re bringing in all these wonderful flavors, some classical French dishes, and having some fun with it as well.

We came up with a Creole cassoulet that features black-eyed peas and our Haitian-style epis handmade sausage with chicken confit and Creole spices. Ingredients move across the world as do influences. So, it’s kind of cool to be able to show them in a very delicious setting. We’re having some fun like, duck confit on top of the West African spinach stew, but the duck confit is also cured and has those spices — ginger, smoked paprika, dehydrated habanero, and black pepper. We’re really taking those favors and pushing them.

Dairy-free, gluten-free and other inclusive offerings are staples in your work. How do you strike a balance with items like French pastries?

I think a lot of the cultures that we’re pulling from don’t necessarily use a lot of gluten or use a lot of dairy. At the same time, I don’t think we should mess with classic French pastries, at all. Café Jalu is probably the most French of all the concepts. We will be doing our own viennoiserie — making croissants, pain au chocolat, laminated doughs and offering some really traditional French items. But we’ll infuse other cultures, too. So we’ll use Haitian chocolate in the pain au chocolat and our danishes will have guava and coconut. And we partner with Devoción, a Colombian coffee purveyor in New York. They’re really incredible coffee people and will be doing the coffee program for us.

We’ll also offer alternative treats in the bakery that are gluten- and dairy-free options because there’s a theme of inclusion throughout the whole space and in all our offerings, in terms of alternative diets, people with allergies, and people with dietary symptoms being welcome here and wanting them to have enough to eat.

This is my style of cooking, and I’ve been doing it for quite some time. I think it’s important to offer things that are delicious and nutritious above all, and as someone who lives in the alternative diet space, and coming from Portland, where there are a lot of dietary distinctions, I’m very comfortable cooking for various groups of people. And with this project and Printemps being a destination, it is important that we appeal to a broader audience in this way.

Does opening Maison Passerelle feel different than opening Kaan?

Oh, yeah! 100%! Kann was insane because I was literally raising money like into our first payroll. You know, I was raising all that money on my own. I was doing everything from picking the grout, to writing the HR manual, I was washing dishes by myself for the first week. I had to build all of those systems from scratch.

I feel very grateful to be with such incredible partners in New York and have access to more resources than I had before — not that Kann is under-resourced — but it is nice to be able to have budgets that truly allow you to get the things that aid in being successful. I have a really strong team around me which allows me to be able to focus on the things that I do best which is culinary, creativity, and leading the team. And with me being in New York, it’s a good opportunity for the team at Kann to lead and it’s good for their growth. It is good for my growth, too.

As you shift from one coast to another, how will those flavors shift?

That’s a great question. I am excited to bring a little bit of Oregon to New York in terms of some incredible pork that we’re proud to source and that’s the most humane pork in the country — we partner with Olympia Provisions. And I’ve requested some marionberries to go on the menu. But at the same time, I have been spending some time at the farms here and obviously I frequent the farmers markets quite a bit in New York. I’m very, very excited to lean into New York and East Coast produce and farms and all of that good stuff.

Given that the dining concepts are a part of this luxury retailer, do you see a big connection between personal style, or fashion, and how you cook?

[I think] fashion is one of those things that you do to feel good about yourself and to express yourself creatively.

My maternal grandfather was a tailor in Haiti and he used to make clothes for us when we were younger. We used to go to Haiti and pick fabrics. I actually started designing a few things that my family made when I was very young. I also grew up in the ’80s, so that bold sense of fashion is something that really stuck with me. I was very much a raver during the ’90s, so that sense of style and expression was very bold as well, like the big pants and the platform shoes — they are very much in again which is awesome. So, I’ve lived through a couple of decades that were full fashion decades and still inspire me today along with the fashion in Haiti, which is also very bold.

Do you find that same type of artistic self expression when you’re working with food?

I think for me, I really try to look at food from a cultural perspective, a historical perspective, or a seasonal perspective.

Please tell us more about the interior design elements within the concepts.

Laura Gonzalez is our architecture and designer. She’s a Parisian designer who has worked all around the world and has an insane maximalist style. The way that she’s able to compose texture and custom tile work and the color — it’s really beautiful and stunning.

It also fits me very well, because you know I’m also a maximalist in many ways. But her design flows seamlessly throughout the spaces that we’re offering, yet, all of the spaces and rooms are quite different. At Maison Passerelle, it’s kind of a mix of an old and a new French restaurant. The ceramic plates that we use are handmade by Maison Pichon Uzès and for dessert service, we use Christofle silver trays. The food serves beautifully in that space.

Various works of art are displayed throughout which includes a massive and really beautiful stained glass installation by Pierre Marie that’s central to the space. The piece is near the open kitchen which is another focal point where diners can see some of our process. There’s also art which Laura and I worked on and was inspired by the storied sunsets of Haiti and other areas that we’re pulling from. All of the art flows throughout the entire building and has been placed in a very beautiful and seamless way.

Tell us about your new team.

I’m extremely excited about the team in New York. First, I’ve been able to partner with Kent Hospitality Group and they are an incredible team. We brought on some really tremendous folks: Energetic people who have worked really hard at their careers thus far and have an incredible pedigree — Michelin stars all across the board — the whole team has a Michelin  background. But at the same time, they’re very hungry folks who are excited for this next chapter of their career.

There’s a couple more moving to New York to round out the team which is a diverse team. It’s really exciting for me. I spend a lot of time with them, sitting through their tastings and I’m really inspired and really blown away by their technique, and really inspired by their understanding of the culture and the concept.

I’m excited to work alongside these folks and tell them, “It’s not about me, it’s about all of us together, working as a team.” I’m extremely collaborative. I want them to have food on the menu and make sure that it’s not me just kind of dictating what is going to happen. No, we’re going to talk about it collaboratively. We’re going to execute collaboratively. And at the end of the day, I want them to be leaders who get the most from this project as they can. I want this project to support their careers, which is what I want for all of my team, even at Kann. I really want it to be a place where they grow their career and take it to the next step. That happens with my leadership, but also with me getting out of the way sometimes and letting them lead.

Maison Passerelle will be open daily from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. beginning on April 17. Café Jalu, Champagne Bar, Red Room Bar, and Salon Vert open on March 21 and will be open daily. Reservations for Maison Passerelle, Red Room Bar, and Salon Vert are now open.

Angela Burke is a Chicago-based food writer. Her work has been published in Eater, Food & Wine, and other outlets; and recognized by the James Beard Foundation. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.