By Ariel Yong
Earlier this month, härth, the restaurant inside Hilton McLean Tysons Corner appointed new executive chef Luc A. Dendievel to continue the restaurant’s farm-to-table cuisine. The Belgium-born chef spent the last four years at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C., previously opened restaurants in New York City and Sacramento and worked with famed chefs Michel Richard and Antoine Westermann.
What will you change on härth’s menu?
We’re going to keep the concept farm-to-table, but I want to upgrade the menu and modernize it. I’m still working with fresh vegetables and whatever comes from the farm, but my cuisine is more about a very, very light sauce. I work a lot with vegetable juice, things like that.
What does “farm-to-table” mean to you?
As a chef, you always want to work with the season and whatever is available. This is how we should cook and not necessarily trying to get asparagus in the middle of July/August when the season is in March. Same with mushrooms. Same with seafood. We say ‘farm’, but it’s mostly what nature gives us and we work with that. It would be sad when it’s time for a season not to use [foods that are in season].
Will you continue härth’s bee program and garden?
A: Yes, we [are] going to keep going with [the bee program]. Actually we picked up some honey last week and now it’s on the menu. I will always have something on the menu with honey on it, [whether it’s] a sauce, dessert or with a fish, but it’s something I intend to have all the time.
Right now, tomatoes are coming so we have beautiful heirloom tomatoes on the menu. We have herbs. Is the garden big enough to provide the restaurant substantially? Exactly not. We need the farmers to help us, but whatever we have in the garden we use it in our kitchen.
How will cooking in Virginia be different than your experience cooking in New York and California?
It’s not the region that’s going to change the way I cook. I’m just going to work with what is available and what I can get from the market. That’s the beauty of our job. If someone comes to the door and says, ‘Hey, I have lettuce or strawberries or whatsoever’ and they grow locally, we will try to use them. But the style is not going to change. I’ve been around for a while. I try to keep things light. I work a lot with juices. The techniques stay the same. I was in D.C. 20 years ago and to me it was a very, very small town. Now D.C. has become very, very well-known as a foodie place. It was not like that 20 years ago. I think it’s growing big time. I think there’s great potential [and] great chefs here. The fact to be a little bit outside D.C., I feel it’s a plus for us. We want to be a place [that] becomes a destination. / härth, 7920 Jones Branch Drive, McLean
