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Bernard Jarrier-Cabernet
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Parisian-born Bernard Jarrier-Cabernet is the first to admit that his life has been shaped by twists of fate. "I've been influenced by the turns of life," he says. "While I've always had a deep interest in gastronomy, I never imagined I'd make my career in restaurants."
In fact, Jarrier-Cabernet's first passion in life was painting, but at his father's suggestion, he studied law at France's prestigious Paris Law School. After graduation, he practiced law in Paris for a few years before deciding to leave the field and pursue his dream of being a painter.
In the early 70s, he moved to New York to be closer to the American art scene and promptly met his future wife, Carole Peck, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Peck, one of the first 28 women admitted to the Culinary Institute of America, had recently graduated from this illustrious school and was just starting out as a cook. Over the next few years, while Peck worked in the finest kitchens across the United States, Bernard continued painting and showing his work in New York as well as in Palm Beach and Miami.
In 1981, the couple left New York to start their own restaurant, La Provence in Austin, Texas, where Bernard ran the businesslike side of the restaurant. The restaurant was very well received by critics and customers alike, as was the couple's subsequent venture in Miami, Fisher Island. In 1987, Peck and Jarrier-Cabernet returned to New York to open Cafe Greco, which promptly received a glowing two-star review from The New York Times.
After five years in Manhattan, Peck and Jarrier-Cabernet found themselves wanting to get closer to the land and local purveyors, and moved to Litchfield County, Connecticut, where they opened The Good News Café. This past year, the readers of Connecticut Magazine voted Good News Café as the best restaurant in Connecticut.
Currently, Bernard and Carole split their time between a charming 250-year-old cider mill in Woodbury, Connecticut where they house a substantial collection of American folk art, more than 40 antique stoves and an important and impressive library of cookbooks that they started collecting as soon as the met and Avignon, Provence where they continually sate their hunger for extraordinary cuisine.
As publisher of Ici La Press, Bernard will continue to indulge his passion for gastronomy and challenge his strong business sense by bringing the best of European culinary publishing to American bookshelves.
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