Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004 | 8:22 a.m.
In one way or another, Andre Rochat has been fighting for perfection his entire life.
He's quick to note he has made several enemies over the course of his career and his dedication to having everything measure up to his specifications can be overpowering.
But that drive has also led Rochat to become one of the key figures in the growth of Las Vegas' food scene over the last three decades. He owns and operates three local restaurants - Andre's French Restaurant at its original downtown Las Vegas location, at the Monte Carlo on the Strip and Alize at the top of the Palms - with more planned.
The culmination of Rochat's achievements is actually far larger than his three restaurants. He also started a successful bakery in the '70s and helped others to get their start as well. He also launched an eatery in the '90s, Frogeez, which closed in less than a year.
Most 59-year-olds would be ready to face a long, comfortable retirement, but Rochat never stops planning his next business venture and still maintains a grueling schedule.
"I sometimes work 18 hours a day," he said.
To retire, Rochat makes clear, would be to give up the fight.
Making a killing
Rochat's path was made clear at an early age while growing up in the village of La Rochette in Savoy, France. His father, Marius, operated a successful butcher shop and charcuterie, and Andre helped with everything - including slaughtering the animals.
At age 6 Rochat slaughtered his first animal, a rabbit.
When Rochat turned 7 his parents enrolled him in a private Catholic school, run by priests, in Grenoble.
"I hated school," Rochat said. "Particularly Latin. I didn't want to become a priest."
Andre lived at the school until he was 14, but got to come home for Christmas and summer, during which time he would help out full time at the shop.
Rochat's mother, Rose, remains the dominant influence in his life. She created dishes that, to this day, he has been unable to duplicate.
"She made a civet (wild hare) that was out of this world," Rochat said. "She also had a chicken liver souffle that was wonderful. We had a huge garden, and everything was so flavorful."
While Rochat brought his cooking talents stateside, almost none of his favorite dishes made the journey.
"At home we eat a lot of innards, and that's not something popular here," he said. "We ate tongues, calf heads, hearts - things that I miss today. In this country, you eat only filet mignon and steak."
When I was your age ...
While Andre never went hungry, his upbringing was not affluent.
"I remember the first TV in the village," he said. "I remember when my mother bought our first record player. It was a luxury."
Upon graduating from private school at 14, Rochat announced to his parents his intention to become a chef.
So began a yearslong rite of passage, one that molded and hardened Rochat. "My family drove me to Lyon and took me to Lyon de Lyon, a two-star Michelin restaurant," Rochat said. "They introduced me to the owners and brought me to my room at the top of an old building. There was one light bulb and the walls were covered with newspaper, no water or heat.
"My mom brought me a bed and blanket, and they brought me back to the restaurant and made me scrub the floor. That was my first day."
Rochat reported to work at 8:30 a.m. every day and he and the other trainees were not even allowed a cup of coffee. Lunch consisted of chicken necks and gizzard leftovers and his break from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. was spent at cooking school.
"I didn't get paid for six months," he said. "Then I got $3 a month. I was pretty poor."
Two years passed and Rochat wanted to quit. But his father wouldn't let him.
"He put me right back in my place," Rochat said.
After three years Rochat completed his apprenticeship and took an exam to receive his certificate.
"That was a great program," Rochat said. "That's the way it was back then. You couldn't even be a waiter until you got a certificate."
One of Rochat's co-workers opened his own restaurant upon receiving his certificate, and Rochat helped him set it up and spent the next two years working there as a chef -- without his parents' knowledge.
"I bought a '39 Renault and drove back and forth between Lyon and La Rochette, and my parents didn't know what I was doing," he said. "It was exciting to start our own place."
Answering the call
At age 19 Rochat was called to military service. For the better part of a year he served as a cook on an old World War II torpedo retriever ship, which had been taken over by the French Navy. His most vivid memory was when his ship ran out of food before arriving in Puerto Rico.
"I remember getting up in the morning and retrieving all the flying fish that landed on the deck," he said. "That was dinner."
Puerto Rico would prove to be the turning point in his life.
"I met a woman who owned a Boston restaurant," he said. "She asked me if I knew someone who could work for her. I said I'd do it."
Rochat wasn't sure if he'd ever hear from her again.
His financial situation had not improved upon his discharge at 20 -- he made $8 a month, and spent $3 on cigarettes -- so he went back to work in Paris as a cook at the Club of Industry and Commerce.
"I had a room in the Hotel de Pass, where the hookers worked," he said. "There was one bathroom on the floor ... I was still pretty poor. Often I had to walk 10 to 12 miles to work because I couldn't afford the subway."
A short time later he found a job as a chef in Les Reflets, a restaurant on the river Marne. His military experience cooking for large groups came in handy, as he prepared food for 200 to 300 people every weekend by himself -- on nothing but a charcoal stove on a dirt floor.
It was during this stint that he got a call from Immigration Naturalization Services. The restaurateur in Boston had taken care of his papers, and he had the OK to come to America.
"I arrived at the airport on Sept. 2, 1965, with one suitcase, a knife wrapped in newspaper and some new knives my father bought for me," he said.
A career blur
Rochat's ethic of hard work served him well in Boston. In addition to working at Club Henrie IV and making $150 a week, he took a job at a pastry shop. A typical day for him was 4 a.m. to 11 p.m.
"The one day I slept in, my neighbors called the police because they thought I was dead," he said with a smile.
Rochat's next job would convince him that restaurants were where he was meant to be.
"I got a job with a wealthy family as a private cook," he said. "The children talked to me like I was the lowest thing on earth. That lasted two days."
Determined to make his mark, Rochat re-entered the restaurant industry with a fierce determination. His next job, as sous chef at a Charter House Hotel in Boston, set the tone for the rest of his career -- his zeal for absolute perfection, coupled with his stubbornness to accept anything less.
"I was a tyrant in the kitchen," he said. "I had my tires slashed and my windshield broken. The company transferred me to Alexandria, Va., as executive chef of Charter House."
He didn't stay in one place too long. Soon after the transfer, he took a job as sous chef at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C., then as an executive sous chef for United Airlines. By this time he was 25.
"The airline job was a lot of fun, but ultimately the job was too slow for me," he said. He took a second job at a restaurant in New York to keep him interested and got to know one of the cooks, who was from Carson City.
That friend got Rochat a job at a major hotel in Carson City in 1969, but it didn't last long.
"I worked there a few months, but got in a fight with the manager over food I refused to serve. It was the only time I've ever been fired."
After working in a Lake Tahoe hotel for a year as sous chef of the gourmet room, Rochat made the move to Las Vegas -- for a woman.
"I moved here in 1971 to be with her," he said.
That relationship, it would turn out, wasn't meant to be. Neither was his first Vegas job at the Tropicana, which he quit shortly after arriving.
But Rochat soon found his groove, getting a job as sous chef at the Sands Hotel for two years. "The chef, Maurice Coe, was French, and we really got along."
Really cooking
In 1973 Rochat wanted to strike out on his own. Realizing a distinct absence of quality bakeries in the desert, he borrowed $25,000 from his father and opened his own bakery, Savoy Bakery, in Tiffany Square (where Mediterranean Cafe is today at the intersection of Maryland Parkway and Flamingo Road).
"It was the first sidewalk cafe in Vegas," he said. "It was an instant success."
Rochat's product became so popular -- regular visitors included James Caan, Joel Gray and Liberace -- he decided to go wholesale.
That experience almost killed him, in more ways than one.
"I was working 18 to 20 hours a day," he said. "I would come in Friday at 1 a.m. and finish Sunday at 5 p.m. without sleeping, creating 1,200 buns every night by hand by myself."
His efforts were causing problems for a bagel shop down the street and Rochat soon got a visit from a member of the Teamsters.
"He told me to either quit wholesale, join the Teamsters or else," he remembers. "I stopped immediately. He did me a favor."
Realizing his true dream was to open his own restaurant, a tired Rochat sold his bakery in 1977 and went back to work at the Sands. While working there, Rochat, along with partner Andre Cheyssel, purchased two houses downtown and slowly transformed them into the original Andre's French Restaurant and its parking lot. The restaurant officially opened in June 1980.
Rochat's original restaurant has undergone a few changes since 1980, but it still remains true to his vision: "A country style, cozy, romantic, warm, similar to the rustic flavor of a monastery."
The restaurant's dominant color is red, with wooden columns and ornate table settings accentuated by artwork on the walls. The cuisine is a combination of traditional and new French, with a California twist.
"We did everything," Rochat said. "I chopped the beams in the ceiling by hand."
The restaurant's debut was slightly bittersweet, as Rochat discovered his partner had cancer a week before opening. He died a year later.
Good fortune
Rochat met Mary Jane Jarvis in 1985, and they became inseparable. He opened the Monte Carlo operation in 1997 and the Palms location in 2001, and Jarvis heads up administration for all three, including public relations, advertising and a newsletter.
While Rochat looks forward to opening more restaurants, he misses the hands-on work of his early days. With three restaurants to run, he cannot do all the cooking, and is slowly learning to delegate.
"I'm teaching myself to let someone else do the work," he said. "I have some great people working for me, but I miss my kitchen."
But Rochat's touch will be evident no matter which restaurant you choose.
"We're in a people business," he said. "There is no secret to success. It's quality and service.
"As long as I've been in the business, I've never asked how much money we're making. I ask, 'Is everyone happy?'," he continued. "I don't give up easy. When I get something in my head, that's it.
"There's no better feeling than when you're in a restaurant and the place is packed."
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