On September 30, 2020, indoor dining reopened in New York, after a painfully long, due-to-Covid-19 closures; and – sigh-of-joy – my preferred restaurants are among them, including many of the fifteen that Jean-Georges operates in New York City.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten trained in the Michelin three-star world with Paul Bocuse, in Lyon, not so far from his Alsace home, and at the famed Oasis, on the French Riviera, before opening restaurants in the far east. The chef arrived in New York City in the mid-80s. His genius, fine dining education, and adaptation of eastern spices combined to create culinary success in Manhattan, even before he became an entrepreneurial restaurateur. Today, he is involved with 39 worldwide restaurants, from the Bahamas to Singapore. Although I frequent the New York venues most, I’ve savored meals at Jean-Georges at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, Prime in Las Vegas and Market, in Paris.

I first heard about J-G, when he became the Executive Chef at Lafayette, a gastronomic restaurant in the chic Drake Hotel, shortly after I started a five-year gig as Dining Editor of New York Nightlife. My four 1000-word features, monthly, focused on few gourmet restaurants, so I convinced my husband to celebrate our anniversary dinner at Lafayette, where I was hooked by the chef’s style. So was the New York Times, which awarded the not-yet-30-year old chef its top, four-star rating. In 1991, when he opened his first restaurant, JoJo, upstairs within an East 64^th Street townhouse, I recall being enchanted by those irresistibly romantic rooms as much as the culinary experience; JoJo made a three-star debut from the NY Times. When I was asked, “What’s your favorite restaurant?” my set reply was: JoJo, because J-G replaced heavy creams and butter sauces with light, but flavorful, vegetable juices, fruit essences, light broths, and herbal vinaigrettes.

These days, I recommend that my friends traveling through JFK airport, make time to eat at The Paris Café, a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, which also just reopened. It’s such an exciting place to be and conveniently located at the newly restored, mid-century modern, Eero Saarinen-designed structure, the TWA Hotel at JFK International Airport, New York, right at Terminal 5 (JetBlue). With the original flight board clicking away in the soaring lobby, 186,000 individual curved glass pieces in the lobby, iconic penny tiles and original furnishings from when it opened in 1962, the dramatic icon still symbolizes the adventure and beauty of travel, 1960-style.

I lunched upstairs from the lobby level at The Paris Café by Jean-Georges, Chef de Cuisine, Amy Lee Sur Trevino, headed the team when I was there, in January, 2020. (Amy currently reigns at Malibu Farm NYC, an organic, farm-to-table outpost on Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport.) Amy’s brigade worked various stations in the open kitchen; many among them learned to prepare a signature J-G specialty from his New York City restaurants. The menu features tuna tartare under a special guacamole, crispy salmon sushi and my favorite, a prosciutto-wrapped pork chop. (There are also an ample number of child-and-traveler friendly favorites on the all-day menus, burgers, tacos, pizza and pasta included.)

The Lisbon Lounge is associated with the restaurant and located adjacent to it. There are also three bars at the TWA Hotel that are not operated by Jean-Georges. In the spacious, red, lobby bar, the Sunken Lounge, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin provide the background music; in Connie, a transformed 1958 Lockheed Constellation parked on the tarmac between the lobby and the JetBlue terminal, The Connie Cocktail Bar staff dresses in mid-century uniforms and serves vintage-inspired cocktails on round, white, mini-pedestal tables. Guests at The Pool Bar, can watch planes take off and land on the observation deck adjacent to the swimming pool, for which hotel guests can make reservations to swim.

In Manhattan, my French friend and I reserve a table at Nougatine, where the well-priced ($38), prix-fixe lunch ranks as one of the best bargains in the city; I enjoy The Mercer Kitchen, in SoHo, though I often head to the more conveniently located ABC Kitchen on east 18^th Street. When I drive east to the Hamptons, my go-to lunch destination – and favorite bar – is Jean-Georges at The Topping Rose House.

I couldn’t wait to get to Jean-Georges at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, shortly after it opened, in 2017. At dinner there, the third caviar starter featured Osetra, my favorite. “One presentation was an egg shell set in a bed of salt and filled with a soft, shirred (lightly scrambled egg) topped with crème fraiche and caviar; another was set within a lemon, filled with lemon gelle and topped with caviar. The third was a tiny brioche tea-sandwich-sized portion, Toasted Egg Yolk with Herbs, filled with an egg yolk (prepared sous vide so it was about the soft texture of grilled cheese) and topped with osetra.” Ahi Tuna Tartare atop crushed avocado topped with radish circles, with a ginger dressing and a minimalist heirloom tomato dish (a variety of perfectly ripe yellow and red cherry, grape tomatoes atop a tomato, dressed simply with olive oil and balsamic vinegar) followed; so did a lobster dish and a Roasted Wagyu Beef Tenderloin served with spicy stewed peppers.

But, it was the dessert – a warm molten chocolate cake – that reminded me of the best I ever ate, in Paris at Michelin-two-starred Restaurant Michel Rostang. Through the open window between our table and the kitchen, Chef Rostang noticed my orgiastic expression when I tasted that warm, chocolaty-silk, center of the cake. After dinner, M. Rostang offered this once-in-my-lifetime invitation. “Please come back to the kitchen, tomorrow morning at 10am and the chef patissier will show you how he makes it. It’s so easy.”

When I arrived, the pastry chef handed me a white chef’s jacket and toque; he heated the bittersweet chocolate and butter, together, in a small copper pot atop a much larger one, filled with boiling water (no fancy double-boiler in this kitchen); he added beaten eggs, some sugar and flour. Voila, easier than pie, for sure. The trick, you ask? He half-baked the cake in a small, individual ramekin; a few minutes before it set, he added more chocolate batter. That’s why the cake is served with a warm, smooth as silk interior.

I describe the technique, as I remember it from that long-ago sublime Michel Rostang experience; using measurements from J-G’s cookbook and his technique differs. J-G bakes the mold for 6-7 minutes at 450*, and unmolds it, while the center is still soft, warm but uncooked.

I have practiced this DIY recipe twice during this eat-at-home self-isolation; it comes from the first of two of his cookbooks, Jean-Georges Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef, 1998 for which he won the Best Cookbook Award from the James Beard Foundation in 1999. (It and Simple to Spectacular, 2000 were both written by J-G and Mark Bittman, published by Broadway Books and designed by vertigodesignnyc.com, my daughter Alison Lew Bloomer’s company.)

When you plan your next trip, whether to New York City or elsewhere, look to see if there’s a Jean-Georges restaurant to add to your itinerary and enhance your stay.