This chef is marking 50 years of fine dining
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New restaurants are so loud and noisy nowadays, Vincent Guerithault says.
The James Beard Award-winning chef discusses this on a weekday afternoon in his restaurant, Vincent on Camelback, where — as if to support his statement — the soft sound of classical music plays in the background.
Guerithault has lived through the ebb and flow of dining trends, food fads and economic in Phoenix.
For more than 30 years his classic restaurant has been a mainstay, born from a bygone era of Phoenix dining. Throughout the city’s changes, it remains one of the constants in the chef’s life. It’s also been a constant in the life of his wife and business partner, Leevon Guerithault, as well as the lives of his employees and diners.
In a city criticized for not appreciating development its history, Vincent on Camelback seems to withstand the assertion.
Who is chef Vincent Guerithault?
Guerithault opened Vincent on Camelback more than three decades ago on the northwest corner of 40th Street and Camelback Road, where the restaurant still stands today.
The bright green shrubbery and leafy tree in the front partially obscure the terra cotta-colored building. It’s the kind of place that’s hosted guests from Liza Minnelli to Barry Goldwater.
When Guerithault first arrived in the Valley in 1979, the local restaurant scene was completely different, he remembers. For many people, fine dining just meant steakhouses, he says.
When he opened Vincent on Camelback, Guerithault had already built a solid foundation in the high-end dining circuit in France, working at places including the renowned Maxim’s restaurant in Paris.
Guerithault said school wasn’t his strong suit growing up, which prompted
him to go into cooking, something he already enjoyed. Around 15, he left home in northeastern France and traveled more than 500 miles south to start his apprenticeship at L’Oustau de Baumanière, a restaurant in Les Baux de Provence
Living that far from his family and working in kitchens with 20 to 25 chefs was an overwhelming experience, he remembers.
At first, Guerithault wasn’t even allowed to prepare food for diners. The chefs placed him in charge of putting together meals for dogs that accompanied their owners to the restaurant.
“I had a lot of experiences where I said, ‘What am I doing?’” Guerithault recalls. “But that’s the best way to learn. It is not fun in the beginning. The best way to learn is by the mistakes you make. (There is) always one person in the kitchen to let you know you’re wrong.”
French cooking meets Southwest style
Eventually Guerithault made his way over to the U.S. in 1976, where he bounced from Le Français in a Chicago suburb to Oaxaca, a restaurant in the Pinnacle Peak area of Scottsdale.
Oaxaca served mixed cuisines, Guerithault explained. Eventually the restaurant split into two restaurants with Oaxaca remaining on the upper level and the lower level becoming Vincent’s French Cuisine.
While he took care of “the French part,” he also observed what Mexican chefs were doing with their menu, he says. This inspired the menu at Vincent at Camelback, whether it be quesadillas with smoked salmon and creme fraiche or a tequila souffle.
In 1986, the chef opened Vincent on Camelback and introduced Phoenix to what has become his signature style, marrying his classic French training with Southwestern ingredients.
“When we first opened, a lobster could become a lobster chimichanga,” Guerithault says. “Duck could become duck tamale. I still use a lot of cream and butter and truffles and foie gras and olive oil. But a portion of the menu has some interesting dishes that have become successful.”
Step into Vincent’s, step into vintage Phoenix
A step in Guerithault’s restaurant is like taking a step into vintage Phoenix, a past preserved. Dishes that Guerithault has served since day one remain on the menu. The main dining room has mostly kept the same look over the years and, other than small adjustments in other rooms, the overall aesthetic has stayed the same, Leevon says.
Over the years Leevon and her husband have expanded their restaurant by opening an adjoining bistro for more casual fare, adding more rooms, starting a catering service and operating a seasonal farmers market.
“We want to keep it comfortable and not go too far,” she says. The owners aim to avoid moving too far toward an aesthetic that’s completely different from what diners are used to already. Warm, cozy, familiar — that’s what she wants.
Familiarity is a key part of his restaurant’s concept, Guerithault says. When he goes back to France, he visits the same restaurants he visited 15 years ago and sees some of the same people. It’s the same here, he describes.
He and his wife have seen guests who came in with their parents, and now those guests bring their children.
“People love coming to a place where they’re recognized,” Leevon says. “Many of our clients have become good friends, almost feel like family over the years. I think that’s important to people.”
‘He’s my master, my boss, my friend’
Guerithault says he has also employees who have stayed with him for decades. One of them, Javier Acosta, has spent more of his life with Guerithault than without him. Before following him to Vincent on Camelback, Acosta met Guerithault in 1982, when Acosta was about 16 and started working at Oaxaca as a dishwasher. Both of them still had dark brown hair then, Leevon jokes.
When Guerithault taught Acosta how to prep food, it’s possible he saw something like himself in Acosta — a teenager in his first job in the kitchen, with no formal culinary school education, learning through experience.
“He’s my master, my boss, my friend, everything,” Acosta says.
But Guerithault also learned from Acosta. Acosta showed him how to make enchiladas and tamales, and those influences can still be seen on Guerithault’s menu.
“I feel comfortable here,” Acosta says. “The restaurant feels like my house.”
His kids have played and grown up with Guerithault’s sons, so they feel like family. After school, Acosta taught them how to prep food on the line and to prepare food for parties. His wife, brother and children have all worked at some point for Vincent and Leevon.
Over the span of his career Acosta has met George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Muhammad Ali, Buzz Aldrin and John McCain either at the restaurant or catering events.
It was exciting for him as Mexican immigrant to get his photo taken with famous people in America, he says.
‘They all call him the godfather’
Barbara Fenzl is more than just a regular at Vincent on Camelback’s Bistro. She owned the legendary Phoenix cooking school Les Gourmettes, at which Guerithault used to teach.
Her friendship with Guerithault started in 1982 when she was in charge of bringing Julia Child to Phoenix as part of a benefit for Phoenix Art Museum. A group including her and Child went to Guerithault’s restaurant in Pinnacle Peak for a dinner that had her “very impressed,” she says.
She and Guerithault stayed in touch ever since and developed a friendship that took them from to Las Vegas to dine with Wolfgang Puck to the Grand Canyon, as well as to weddings and christenings.
In 1993, when Guerithault became the first Arizona chef to win a James Beard Award, Fenzl was there in New York to watch him receive his award.
“He’s very adaptable, extremely professional and mentored many, many chefs,” she says. “Mark Tarbell, Eddie Matney, they all call him the godfather.”
One of her most memorable experiences was when her daughter turned 16 and they went with a few of her daughter’s girlfriends to Vincent on Camelback. An unexpected guest happened to be at the table next to them: local rock star Alice Cooper. When he found out it was her daughter’s birthday, he joined them to sing “Happy Birthday.”
“You always knew people who were there,” Fenzl said about the restaurant. “It was the place to see and be seen, for special events.”
Celebration marks 50 years in the kitchen
While Guerithault is used to seeing familiar faces pop in the restaurant, he also delights in seeing new visitors. Recently Guerithault stepped out to meet two Dutch tourists, who were en route to the Grand Canyon on a road trip. Their guidebook recommended the restaurant and they wanted to meet the chef in person.
This month, Guerithault also will celebrate a special occasion.
To commemorate his 50-year career anniversary, Vincent on Camelback has prepared a nostalgic, six-course menu that recreates dishes from the various restaurants he’s worked at in France and Chicago. The menu is online and will be available at the restaurant on select days in October.
Looking at the dining scene in Phoenix today, Guerithault hopes that amid rising real estate costs, young couples and ambitious chefs still have the same opportunity as himself to open their own “little dream place.”
His own three sons grew up in the farmers market and kitchen, making crepes, paellas and pizzas, he says. They won’t take over the restaurant because “they managed to be great at college,” he adds with a chuckle.
“But (growing up in the kitchen) was the best lesson for them,” he thinks. “Regardless of what they do, they have to work hard to be successful.”