Le Jardinier at MFAH mixes French cuisine with local flavors
Chef Alain Verzeroli’s decadeslong career and 20 years working with acclaimed French chef Joël Robuchon means he’s made his mark on restaurant concepts across the world. But Le Jardinier is the one that’s the closest reflection of himself.
Soon, Houstonians will be able to eat at Verzeroli’s newest creation. Le Jardinier is a relaxed fine-dining experience serving fresh, local and seasonally minded cuisine that has a backbone in French cooking technique.
The restaurant opens May 18 in the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
Through a wall of windows, Le Jardinier looks out over the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, with the bronze statue of a fallen nude woman — “La Rivière” by Aristide Maillol — at the center of the patio, surrounded by plants and trees.
Verzeroli, 54, wanted Le Jardinier (which means “the gardener” in French) to be a continuation of the nature beyond it. Round mohair velvet chairs and banquettes of sage green blend
seamlessly with the treetrunk-patterned veneer walls carved from African limba wood. A wool-andsilk tapestry by Houston artist Trenton Doyle Hancock, commissioned for the restaurant, depicts intertwining trees in shades of green, blue, red, pink, yellow and purple.
This aesthetic carries in the details, too. Verzeroli says nature is never straight, angular or even. The tableware is freeform — plates with wavy edges and bowls with irregular rims, each water glass following its ribbed pattern in a unique way.
The large mirror above the marble bar has jagged panels angled in different directions, taking turns reflecting a slice of colorful tapestry, the garden outside, the wooden walls, the ceiling’s light fixture.
The concept for Le Jardinier came to Verzeroli quickly and naturally, he said, like it had been hidden deep inside him all along.
The Michelin-starred chef was born in Vietnam and grew up in Paris, where he later cooked at L’Arpège under chef Alain Passard. The bulk of his career was spent in Tokyo, where he helmed a Robuchon restaurant for 18 years, eventually moving to New York in 2018 to open another restaurant for the chef there.
When his mentor Robuchon died that same year, Verzeroli said, he had to reinvent himself.
He pitched Le Jardinier to the Bastion Collection (the Robuchon concepts’ parent company, which also owns La Table in Houston) as a more approachable version of fine dining, serving fresher, lighter food that’s closer to how he eats every day. He was also inspired by his time in Japan, where he says people are in symbiosis with nature and celebrate the seasonality of food.
“It makes sense to celebrate what nature gives us at this precise moment,” Verzeroli said. “I really wanted to give the nature something to say in the cooking process.”
With Verzeroli as culinary director, Le Jardinier opened in New York and Miami in 2019. Shortly after, MFAH board members dined at the New York location and loved it. The museum team was already working on the Kinder Building extension, which opened in November 2020, and were looking for concepts for the art gallery’s restaurant spaces. Cafe Leonelli, Bastion’s casual Italian spot, opened there in April.
Verzeroli tapped Andrew Ayala, 33, to open the Houston outpost, where he’ll serve as chef de cuisine. It’s an easy transition: He held the same position at Le Jardinier New York for two years. A Bay Area native, Ayala worked at Michelinstarred restaurants including San Francisco’s Campton Place and New York’s Daniel and Per Se before joining the Bastion Collection.
“It was an eye-opening experience,” said Ayala about starting to work with Verzeroli in 2017. “Normally, there’s a huge rush in the kitchen; I was taught by chef to see food in a different way, in a different perspective.”
Though there are several Jardinier restaurants, Verzeroli stresses that it’s not a copy-paste chain: The décor in each is completely different, and the menus are tailored to the host city, following its seasons and using vegetables, meats and fish from local purveyors.
“We spent months and months doing a lot of research, trying to use as many sources from Texas as possible,” Ayala said. “We like to establish a very good relationship with our purveyors. We talk to them pretty much every day; they’re telling us what’s coming in, and that’s how we base our menu.”
Le Jardinier is working with farmers including Atkinson Farms and Zero Point Organics for produce, Strube Ranch and Scharbauer Ranch for meats and Lone Star Seafood for fish.
Among the opening menu’s small plates (ranging from $18 to $34), a burrata dish is artfully plated with heirloom tomatoes, marinated plums, bee pollen, basil seeds and a balsamic reduction. Verzeroli calls it a fun and vibrant take on a Caprese salad.
The cured snapper is served with blue poppy seeds, Persian cucumber and mango, and gets an upgrade with kaluga caviar and buttermilk when ordered with the tasting menu ($125). A white asparagus dish with green strawberries, puffed buckwheat and orange reduction is also only available as part of the tasting menu.
Large plates (from $30 to $48) include Ayala’s version of shrimp and grits, with Gulf Coast shrimp and grits from Homestead Gristmill in Waco. It comes with a bisque made from lobster, which adds creaminess and umami, Verzeroli said. A bavette au jus with broccolini and charred eggplant mousse will satisfy steak cravings.
Pastry chef Salvatore Martone crafts desserts with contrasting flavors, such as the yuzu mousse with raspberry compote and pistachio sablé, or the blueberry sherbet and compote with lemongrass foam and vegetal meringue.
The wine list, created by Bastion beverage director Juan Carlos Santana, will focus on small producers who farm sustainably, mostly French and American, with other selections from across the world. House cocktails will revisit the classics, and a rotating drinks list will follow the kitchen with the seasons.
The full menu will be available at the bar counter, the small cocktail tables and the main dining room, which boasts five banquettes facing the view and 10 freestanding tables, some lining the floor-toceiling windows that look out onto the sculpture garden.